Steve Marik • InsideNebraska
Staff Writer
@Steve_Marik
Caleb Benning admits it was his own fault.
The Omaha (Neb.) Westside athlete knew he needed to take three explosive steps before getting upfield on the slant route he was running from the slot against Bellevue West on Sept. 9 last fall. Those three hard steps are taken to help avoid the second-level defenders hunting for contact in the middle of the field.
But on this particular play Benning made a mistake, and it came at a painful price. The Thunderbird defense delivered a blow to Benning’s right shoulder as he made the catch.
“At first I didn’t even feel my collarbone, my head hurt. So I was just like, ‘Gimme a sec,’” Benning told Inside Nebraska.
Once he got to the sideline Benning tried to lift his arm, but the motion was met with a sharp pain. Shawn Campbell, Westside’s trainer, slid his hand underneath Benning’s shoulder pad and felt the problem immediately.
Broken collarbone. Benning missed the next nine games of his junior season.
These days, if kids want to play Division I football, junior year film is crucial. For the most part, junior year film is what college coaches use to determine who they want to fill their high school recruiting classes with. So if a prospect doesn’t have much film for coaches to evaluate, the recruit could be left on the outside looking in.
“I was just thinking, why did that have to happen to me? I broke a bone in my back my sophomore year, I had already missed time and I was starting to play really well,” said Benning, who recorded 68 tackles and four interceptions as a sophomore to go along with a 19.9 yard average on 17 punt returns.
So Benning had a decision to make: surgery or no surgery.
If he chose surgery, there would have been a plate inserted and a second operation to have it removed, which could have meant extra recovery time. If he chose to not go under the knife and let the injury naturally heal, there was a possibility — not a certainty — he’d be available for the final game of the season if Westside were to make it that far: the Class A state championship on Nov. 21.
Prayers were answered. The Bennings chose to let the injury heal itself, and Caleb was medically cleared to play the Friday before the Monday state title game against Gretna.
“It was a blessing and a favor from God,” Benning said of being cleared.
After not playing in a game for 73 days, Benning suited up for the rematch of the 2021 Class A state championship. All Benning did was intercept the state’s best quarterback, Zane Flores, twice from his safety position while being a thorn in the side of Gretna’s defense all night with a school-record 14 catches for 103 yards.
"All the time he was off, he stayed dialed into what we were doing, whether it was helping his teammates analyze film and break down the next opponent, helping at practice with individual and team work," Westside head coach Paul Limongi said. "He stayed mentally focused throughout his time out."
The game was a thriller, one that Westside won 43-41 thanks in large part to Husker kicker commit
Tristan Alvano and his five field goals, including a walk-off 45-yarder.
Benning wore a gel pad on his collarbone during the game, as well as a second set of cushion underneath his shoulder pads.
“It was a little uncomfortable, but it got the job done,” Benning said.
Benning wasn’t close to 100 percent for that game, so he tried to take care of his body to last all four quarters. He’d try going down early to avoid contact. He played in pass coverage on the outside more than in the box, where he’d see more contact in run support.
But while he physically wasn't at his best, it was a different story on the mental side. Benning excels in the film room — it’s where he sharpens his football IQ, which helps separate him from others who might be bigger, stronger or faster. While burying himself in the film, he watched Gretna’s primary pass concepts over and over again before the game. He credits the film review as a key reason why he was able to snatch two interceptions and nearly a third after not playing in a game for 10 weeks.
“They have a really good offense. But they have about four or five concepts they run,” Benning said.
As an example, Gretna hurt Westside’s defense on switch routes early.
“Credit to Gretna, they know what they’re doing. They set you up really well,” Benning said of defending the switch routes, where two receivers cross each other to create assignment confusion and natural rubs for the defense to maneuver around.
Westside's pass defense usually switches off responsibilities at eight yards, Benning said. Gretna’s wideouts were making it very difficult, though, breaking at around eight-and-a-half to nine yards downfield. After giving up early completions, Benning and the rest of his teammates in the backfield got the iPad out on the sideline, saw what Gretna was doing and adjusted.
“Once we figured that out, I talked to Teddy (Rezac, the other safety) and we were just going to switch that off. Once we switched it off, I got a pick.”
Benning was offered by Duke shortly after the state title game. His performance was brought up by the coach who called him.
“The whole phone call he was like, ‘Holy cow, dude, that was your first game back? I made all our coaches watch that,’” Benning remembered the coach saying. “I appreciated that, because in my mind, I think that definitely it says something. I don’t think it said as much as I’d like it to, but to me, stuff like that is why I’m willing to bet on myself. Others may not see it, but I know what I’m doing. I know what it takes, what it feels like and what I’m capable of.”
And that, right there, helps tell the story of how Caleb Benning operates. He’s one of the top uncommitted recruits in the state and one of the best two-way players. But yet, he seems like the forgotten in-state recruit who some doubt for a variety of reasons.
Some point at his size — he was recently measured at 5-foot-11 and 3/4 at 190 pounds. He doesn’t own the track times other recruits at his position do. He doesn’t even run track — he’s a basketball guy when he’s not a football guy and hasn’t solely focused on football yet in his high school career.
But sometimes, good players just make plays when they count. Benning has shown he can do that.
“The main thing is betting on myself. I think I’ve had success throughout my whole life — AAU basketball, club basketball, club football. I’ve always been a winner and I know what it takes to win,” Benning said. “All this extra stuff with recruiting, to be honest, I don’t really like recruiting that much because it’s a lot of wasted fake time and fake interest.”
Football wasn’t Benning’s first love. That’d be basketball. It wasn’t until his sophomore year when football became the sport he wanted to play in college. That’s when the interest started coming from college coaches.
Benning believes it was his natural traits that allowed him to gain recruiting steam as a sophomore.
“My instincts, football knowledge,” Benning said of why he thought college coaches were interested in him as a sophomore. “Leadership as a sophomore, I had guys like Jack Wimmer, Dom Rezac, Tommy Connelly — really great leaders. But I also had earned a well-respected voice. So just them seeing that, and then obviously the plays.”
The first offer came from
Nebraska. Then Minnesota about a month later. Then Cockeye. Before all the offers, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be that guy — someone who played football at the Division I level.
“I wouldn’t say I doubted myself, but sometimes not focusing on football most of my life, I questioned if I really had a future in football,” Benning said. “Once I got that first offer, it sparked something. Made me work harder and realize, ‘This is very attainable, and I can maybe go even further.’ So that just pushed me even more.”
There aren't many who understand Caleb better than his father, Damon Benning, a former Husker running back turned sports talk host and Nebraska football analyst for the Huskers Radio Network. Most everyone in the Husker fan base knows Caleb's dad.
What role does Damon play in Caleb’s recruitment?
“I would say he’s like bumpers in bowling. He’s not going to steer me down, but if he says something, I might bounce off him and get back on track,” Caleb said. “He really doesn’t care what I do, as long as it’s at the best interest of me, that’s really all he cares about.”
Damon remembers taking 8- or 9-year-old Caleb down to Lincoln to watch practice and be around the program. Caleb is well aware of the program, its history and what it provides.
“I don’t think he developed the same reverence because he was so familiar with it,” Damon said of Caleb's relationship with the Huskers. “Those are some of the things that I always go back and play over in my head. ‘Should I have done this, should I have done that?’”
Damon has always tried guarding Caleb against the pressure of the Benning name in Nebraska. Damon’s father, the late Don Benning, who he calls the best friend he ever had, is a legend in the state. Don is a member of the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame and impacted thousands of lives in the Omaha area, both as a coach and an educator.
Yeah, Damon felt pressure to make a name for himself. But at the end of the day, dad wants one thing for his son: follow his own path.
“I was so interested in letting him (Caleb) be his own man that, maybe I should’ve talked more about this, showed him more highlights of this, but we never did that. Not even when he was a kid,” Damon said. “I always wanted him to be known for something other than just sports.”
Damon remembers a story from when Caleb was still questioning if he was actually good enough to play at the next level. Caleb was invited to an exclusive camp at Notre Dame following his sophomore season. He ultimately didn’t go and chose to play in an AAU basketball tournament instead.
“He said this outloud: ‘Would I really go to Notre Dame, or would they just be wasting their time with me?’ I kind of looked at him and it dawned on me right then and there — he’s pretty naive to this whole deal (recruiting),” Damon said. “He’s not a big social media guy, just kind of minds his own business. In my head I’m thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, there’s only going to be 150 kids at this deal, Notre Dame is telling you it’s their premier invite camp, they do it every year. And you’re not sure if you’re wasting their time?’”
So as Caleb goes through June, a key month in recruiting, Damon has seen how far Caleb has grown. Son knows exactly what he’s looking for.
“He’s more about value and relationships more than, 'Let’s barter and trade what you can do for me.' Now, will that pay off in the long run? I have no idea,” Damon said. “But that’s kind of how he thinks. He’s very relational. It’s hard to get in there because he’s extremely mature and he’s seen a lot.”
The Husker offer that changed everything
Benning remembers the moment the hometown Huskers offered — it was on Thanksgiving. He was in the living room at his mom’s house watching an NFL game. Damon called him outside and told him to get in his car.
“My whole family was in the car, so I knew something was up,” Caleb said with a laugh.
Caleb was handed a phone, and former head coach Scott Frost was on the other line. The call ended with Frost telling Benning he had an offer.
“The joy in my chest, being around my family, that was a great, great feeling. It was probably one of the best days of my life,” Caleb said.
Husker fans have been patiently awaiting what Benning will do, wondering where he’ll end up. Some think he should have his answer now, but Benning has never really been one to follow the orders of someone he doesn’t know or is involved with. He wants to make a decision after his senior season,
he told Inside Nebraska.
Some in the Husker fanbase wonder if there will even be a safety spot available in the Huskers' recruiting class in late November. Benning, who recently visited Nebraska and its defensive backs coach,
Evan Cooper,
for a one-on-one unofficial visit, isn’t sweating it. He has his own timeline.
“The main schools that were recruiting me before, they’re still recruiting me, like Nebraska obviously,” Benning said. “Cockeye has been on me really hard. K-State, Kansas. I don’t really expect new offers because I don’t have that much film. But the guys who were here before, they’re staying.”
Benning says he doesn’t need to take multiple visits to one school to find out what he needs to know. He identifies what matters to him the first time when checking out a program.
“For instance, Cockeye, I went up there one time and there was an immediate connection,” Benning said. “I don’t need to go visit four places four times and then I’ll really know. I can pick up on first interests. The wasted-time part in recruiting is the complete opposite of what I’m about. I know what I’m about, I know what it takes to be successful and I’m willing to bet on myself. I’ll find a home somewhere. So really, just not letting other people influence me, that’s kind of how I’ve been my whole life.”
Benning truly values relationships. If he doesn’t feel a connection, he’s not going to do something just to do it. Other high school recruits may want to commit to say they’re committed, but aren’t really all-in. They may be all-in on building their social media presence, but that’s about it.
Benning is obviously on social media — he’s a teenager after all — but doesn’t do it like other recruits. He picks and chooses what he wants to show the world, offers included. You can see Benning's
public offers here, but there were others from Power Five programs he never saw himself playing at, so he didn’t tweet them.
Being out of the spotlight and not blasting everyone’s social media feeds is how Benning rolls. He keeps things close to the vest.
“With posting everything on social media with recruiting, there’s fake offers, you never know what you can trust,” Benning said. “I’ve never been about that, like guys making it look like they have interest when this coach doesn’t even know who they are. I honestly can’t stand that. So I’m going to do the complete opposite, I’m not going to do a whole lot of that extra stuff.”
This recruiting process has been stressful for Benning, who, on top of having limited junior year film, is unable to compete at camps this month due to surgery to correct his collarbone. So while his peers are traveling the country attending camps and hunting for offers from coaches, Benning is staying put, betting on himself.
Relationships and film rooms
Benning has visited Cockeye three times, so the relationships with the Hawkeye staff are strong. Phil Parker, Cockeye’s excellent defensive coordinator, is a big part of it. Every time Benning has been in Parker’s office, he notices the walls are filled with pictures of Parker’s former players.
“And there are a lot of good players up there,” Benning said.
Benning has a passion for being prepared on the field. That means watching film and understanding the “why” behind offenses and defenses. So when Benning got to chop it up and basically go to football school with Parker, those are moments in recruiting he values — much more than retweets, likes and his follower count.
“He has a great personality, he’s fun,” Benning said of Parker. “But he’s a good coach and is very smart. He makes film fun, makes it a game with quizzes. Like, I filled out a sheet.”
Westside’s defense is different from Cockeye’s. The Warriors don’t run much zone. It’s a lot of cover-two or man-free coverage. Cockeye is excellent at disguising what it wants to do in the back end.
“They have all their zones covered, but they pass off guys very well,” Benning said.
During one of his visits, Benning was learning Parker’s defense on the fly in the film room with the DC next to him. At times, Parker would quiz Benning, who said he failed a couple times.
But like many things in life, Benning kept at it and started to pick up what Parker’s defense is about.
“Once I started to get it, then I go to picturing myself doing that and breaking and seeing things,” Benning said. “It makes sense why they’re such a good defense, because they have everything covered, plus they play tricks on the quarterback. So if you can do that, guys like Cooper DeJean, you’re going to get a lot of turnovers and make a lot of plays.”
Cockeye wants Benning. But so does Wisconsin.
The Badgers’ old staff under Paul Chryst and Jim Leonhard were on him, and the communication hasn’t stopped since Luke #2ndChoice was hired as head coach. Benning has enjoyed his discussions with #2ndChoice’s DC, Jim Tressel, who is coming over with #2ndChoice from Cincinnati.
Benning could easily tell Tressel is a competitive and fiery coach. Benning hasn’t spent as much time with Tressel as he has with Parker, but from his interactions, Benning came away knowing Tressel is a good teacher.
“He was teaching me the core values to the defense, and it’s very important stuff, but it’s stuff that gets overlooked, like being able to shed blocks,” said Benning, who himself understands the importance of the little things. “That probably wouldn’t be a big focus, one of your four values, at a lot of schools. But it’s very important. You have to get rid of the block to go make a play.”
What was special about Tressel was he flipped on Benning’s own highlights of shedding blocks. Tressel came prepared himself, which stood out.
“I had limited (junior) tape, so I thought that was really, really cool,” Benning said.
Benning was first offered by Leonhard, who left following the Badgers’ 2022 season. Knowing one of college football’s best defensive minds — someone who turned down the Green Bay Packers’ DC gig — further strengthens Benning’s confidence in himself.
“Just the instincts and aggression I play with,” Benning said of what Leonhard told him after being offered. “He saw that he could use me in a lot of different places, bring me on blitzes, coverage corner. Him talking about my future and where I fit specifically is stuff that, I don’t need to get up there to know if I want to go there. That stuff matters to me. It was easy to see he was invested in me.”
And then there’s Big Red, of course. Benning came out of his unofficial visit to Nebraska last Friday on the same page with Cooper.
Most of Benning’s visit was spent in the film room with Cooper, who
Matt Rhule considers one of the best at identifying talent through tape. The unofficial was set up a couple weeks in advance, well before several members of the Husker staff traveled to Texas for a camp.
Benning was impressed by Cooper. And considering the football IQ and how he handles himself in the film room, Cooper probably liked what he saw from Benning.
"I would definitely put it up there with hanging out with coach Parker watching film, because the stuff he (Cooper) taught is actually stuff that, as soon as I'm healthy, I'm going to work on because I saw the difference it can make when it's good and bad, and the stuff I need to work on," Benning said.
Rhule wasn’t at the unofficial with Benning, but the recruit has gotten to visit with him during spring ball. Benning remembers what it was like to first meet Rhule, which came at the big junior day event in the spring.
“Meeting him, he’s such a fascinating person I’d say,” Benning said of Rhule. “The way he thinks and processes, he’s always a step ahead of you. He says something, and then like five minutes later it hits you, like, ‘Oh, yeah.’ It really clicks. He’s really enjoyable to be around because he’s doing things the right way.”
There’s a strong relationship with Rhule’s DC,
Tony White, too. White is a key part to Benning's recruitment at Nebraska, and the coach has been on the offensive. The defensive play-caller has made his intentions well known.
“He’s a fun guy, I think he’s a very good recruiter,” Benning said of White. “I think he’s very good at his job. He lets it be known that he wants me there, he wants me to be a Husker. He thinks I can cover, fit in the box, tackle. I fit right in with his system, and I think that’s why we’ve connected very well so far.”
But it’s not just Rhule, White and Cooper. Benning has said he’s enjoyed being around
CJ Cavazos, the director of football relations, and other personnel outside of the coaching staff.
“They have really good guys in the program," Benning said. "The behind the scenes guys in recruiting, when you’re there every day, that stuff matters. I take note of that.”
As the craziness of June ramps up around him, Caleb Benning isn't going to rush anything. He's betting on himself.
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