Football Spotlight on Thomas Bennett

Spotlight on Thomas Bennett

#33 Thomas Bennett • 6-3 • 182 • Senior • Punter

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Senior punter Thomas Bennett is a two-year letterwinner at Tulsa after starting his collegiate career as a walk-on at Baylor. He has appeared in all 31 games since arriving at TU and has a 43.9 career punting average. Last season, his 46.6 punting average was the second-best single-season mark in school history, behind Glenn Dobbs' then NCAA-leading 48.3 average in 1942. This season, Bennett has averaged 42.9 yards on 40 punts with 10 inside the 20-yard line and 9 going for 50+ yards. he Carlsbad, Calif., native has placed 38 career punts inside the 20-yard line. He is majoring in marketing.

My favorite part of football ...
Game day. The energy that everyone has, you can tell it's just a different attitude toward the game itself. Everyone gets serious on gameday because they know they have to perform.
 
My pregame ritual is to ...
I normally just stick to the team schedule. We have our team meal, then I'll go back to the room and pack all of my stuff up. I just listen to music like a lot of other people do.
 
In high school ...
I did track—the high jump and triple jump—and that was actually my favorite sport. Football just happened to be what I went with after high school. I loved doing track. You have a different kind of relationship with coaches in track and they just give you little tips and let the athlete do their thing.
 
On my journey from California to Tulsa ...
Originally when I finished playing football my senior year of high school, I didn't even have a particular place to go for college. I just kind of applied to a lot of schools. I happened to apply to Baylor, but didn't have any intention of going there. It was just an idea and I liked the school so I applied. Weeks later, Coach Beau Trahan (then at Baylor) contacted me and asked if I had applied. He offered me a spot as a walk-on and gave me an opportunity. I ended up in Texas, then Coach Beau came up to Tulsa and I decided that I was done being a walk-on and wasn't going to play football anymore. Coach Beau knew I was done and he contacted me and said that if I wanted to transfer to TU, they might have a scholarship for me. That's how I ended up here and I've loved it here. It's been a great experience for me and I'm very glad that I moved here.
 
My favorite NFL team is ...
Carolina Panthers. I was a Panthers fan a long time ago and it literally only had to do with playing against my brother in video games. I used to pick the absolute worst team and back in the day, I used to play as the Panthers. Since then, I have just kept up with the team and when they got Cam Newton, I amped up my fanhood. People always ask me why and think I'm a bandwagon fan, but really I just happened to be a low-key fan back in the day.
 
My favorite NFL players are ...
Jason Myers (Seattle Seahawks) is a kicker and Lachlan Edwards (New York Jets) is probably my favorite punter. Lachlan is one of the guys that my dad has coached. He's from Australia, is just a great guy and is someone that I look up to a lot.
 
The show I'm currently binging ...
I just finished "Euphoria" on HBO. That's a good show. The most recent full series that I watched is "Breaking Bad." I had never finished it previously, so I went back and watched the whole thing from the start.
 
My favorite class at TU ...
My favorite class at TU was probably intro to marketing with Dr. Wood because he's my favorite professor. The way he teaches his class is second-to-none at TU for me. He keeps you so engaged, is really funny and he teaches the material really well.
 
My hobbies outside of football are ...
Fishing would be my No. 1 hobby. Fishing, video games and golf. I went fishing this morning with Tiller Bucktrot. We didn't catch anything. My best score on the golf course would be a 78 this summer at Canyons at Blackjack Ridge in Sand Springs. It's probably my favorite golf course out here.
 
Growing up as the son of an All-Pro Punter and what that meant …
I knew he was at the highest level that he could be at. Growing up, he had a different work schedule than most dads. My dad was always gone at 5 a.m. and he'd be back at 1 p.m. He always said that there was no better job than being a punter. I seriously believe that now. I can't think of anyone else that had a better work schedule than that. Everyone else on the team was there until 6 p.m., but the specialists got to go home at 1 p.m. I didn't really know he was as good as he was, but I just loved going to the games and meeting his teammates.
 
The most memorable teammate of my dad's that I had a chance to meet …
The most memorable would definitely be Randy Moss. He used to skip meetings to play Playstation with me in the locker room. He would just take the fine and we'd play "Lord of the Rings" on the original Playstation. He's a great guy. He caught a touchdown once and gave the ball to my brother in the end zone because we were sitting down there. He's one of the most memorable for sure. LaDainian Tomlinson was great too.
 
On having my dad around at practices ...
I get to share the experience (of being a collegiate athlete) with him, essentially. Not a lot of people get to have that. I know Cannon gets to have that with Coach Monty. I'm sure he has the same feelings as me about it. It's cool just having my dad there and him being able to experience that with me."
 
Visiting my dad's home country of Australia …
The last time I was down there was my freshman year of high school. My brother can't really get over there because he's in a wheelchair, so we don't go too often. I want to go back. I want to move there one day, actually. It's a whole different way of living over there.
 
My Twitter handle ...
@360skilltom

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