The Coastal Carolina football team received some potentially impactful news Friday in learning that sophomore wide receiver DeMario Bennett will be eligible for the upcoming season, including the Chanticleers' first game Saturday night against Furman.
Bennett, who transferred from South Carolina in the offseason and went through spring practice with the Chants, was touted as a key addition to an offense that lost its top two receivers from last year. It was then revealed in June that he was expected to be academically ineligible for the 2011 season based on his spring grades.
But CCU football coach David Bennett said that the player had received an unspecified waiver through the Big South Conference that received final approval Friday.
"The official word is he's been declared eligible through a waiver through the Big South Conference office," David Bennett said.
He did not clarify the nature of the waiver.
"When waivers are done, there has to be certain circumstances," Bennett said. "... I guess there are waivers done all the time every year from every team, and you just never know when one's going to go through and when one's not. So I guess the No. 1 thing you do is you hope and pray that a young man is given a chance."
DeMario Bennett played sparingly in eight games last season for the Gamecocks as a redshirt-freshman, catching one pass for four yards. But upon beginning spring practice at Coastal, he quickly established himself as one of the team's fastest players and the kind of deep threat the Chants have been lacking in recent seasons.
Bennett resumed practicing with the Chants on the first day of fall classes the beginning of last week, and David Bennett said he would likely see some action in the season opener Saturday night against Furman, although it's not clear how big of a role he will have.
"I don't know," the coach said. "I don't know. As talented as he is, we have to throw him out there a little bit and see what we can do."
Bennett was rated a two-star prospect by Rivals.com coming out of Coffee County High School in Georgia where he had 44 catches for almost 600 yards and seven touchdowns as a senior.
"He's a very talented young man. He's blessed with a lot of talent," David Bennett said. "I think he's excited to be able to be around his teammates and have a chance to perform and get his degree and better his life. They were telling me yesterday that this was probably going through, and I said, "Wow.'"
| Ryan Young, ryoung@thesunnews.com
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