CHERRY HILL, NJ - Temple senior linebacker Troy Bennett will be honored as the Division I-A College Player of the Year by the Brooks-Irvine Memorial Football Club of South Jersey at its annual banquet Monday evening at the Hilton Inn on Route 70. The award will be the second of the postseason for Bennett, who was also cited as Defensive Back of the Year by the Touchdown Club of South Jersey on Wednesday, December 8.
Recent winners of the Brooks-Irvine Division I-A Player of the Year Award include Tennessee's Rashad Baker (2003), West Virginia's Avon Cobourne (2002), Miami's Bryant McKinnie (2001) and Penn State's Kareem McKenzie (2000). Past winners of the award include NFL stars Irving Fryar, Franco Harris, Art Still, Mike Rozier and Ron Dayne.
A Street & Smith's Preseason Honorable Mention All-American in 2004, Bennett concluded his Temple career by playing in 46 consecutive games and making 23 straight starts. He ranked sixth in the Big East with 95 total tackles (8.6 avg.) and had 105 total stops (9.5 avg.) according to unofficial coaching film estimates. Bennett posted double-digit tackles in three games and seven or more in eight contests this season.
Bennett received Temple's Most Valuable Defensive Player Award as selected by a vote of his teammates. He was unable to participate as a true freshman under NCAA guidelines in 2000 but through his hard work in the classroom that earned him multiple citations on the Athletic Director's Honor Roll as a criminal justice major, he earned the year back in 2004.
Bennett made 259 (125 solo) career tackles, including seventeen stops for losses. He made a career-best 16 tackles at then nationally-ranked Maryland this season.
