Friday, August 10, 2018

With a championship pedigree, Southern tailback Devon Benn gets his chance at a star turn

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- In Devon Benn’s first two years at John Curtis, the football program won state championships.

Over the next two years, Benn rushed for almost 2,400 yards and 26 touchdowns.

He had become used to winning, and used to playing a starring role.

But as he arrived at Southern University in 2016, Benn knew nothing would come easy for him. More than anything else, Benn’s freshman season was a waiting period.



“I came into Southern with a mindset of, ‘I’m ready to play now,’ which I developed at Curtis,” he said Monday as the Jaguars began their second week of preseason camp.

That year, however, Benn practiced during the week and mostly stood on the sideline during games, learning from a player he called “big bro” — Lenard Tillery, who became the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s all-time leading rusher.

Watching Tillery motivated Benn to be a better player.

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