Senior Spotlight

BIG BENNY: Mental, physical strength allow breakthrough by Benson

on

BOZEMAN, Montana — Most of the Bobcat faithful have hardly heard Chase Benson speak. 

The silent giant from the Capital City has always let his pads, his play and those close enough to observe his dominant ways on a daily basis tell his story for him. 

The underestimated, little-hyped but consistently dominant anchor of the Montana State defense has carved out a legend among the MSU faithful that will echo in the lore of the program for some time. 

Among the most iconic moments of Montana State’s recent surge to a perch atop the Treasure State came as much from Benson’s annihilation of the interior offensive line of the rival Grizzlies’ as the Adam Eastwood fumble forced by Tucker Yates and Benson’s fellow Treasure State cohorts. 

Anyone who understands the essential nature of a disruptive interior defensive lineman — particularly as the anchor of an odd-man front like the one employed by former head coach Jeff Choate — knows how much impact it can have in a game. So when Benson earned third-team All-Big Sky Conference honors following his junior year in 2019, those close by could only mutter about the perceived slight and anticipate what Benson might do for a finale. 

Montana State defensive tackle Chase Benson (41) in 2021/by Brooks Nuanez

“During that 2019 season, Chase was the best interior defensive lineman in the conference, not close, and that is not to take anything away from anyone else,” said Choate , now the co-defensive coordinator at Texas, said in November. “The way he was playing at the end of my last season, he was the best.”

That season playing as a true nose, the 6-foot-4, 295-pounder not only ate up double teams, he also decimated the interior of opposing offensive lines. He finished with 56 tackles, an unreal number for a nose, along with three sacks and four tackles for loss.

“I think he’s an outstanding, dominant player and a throwback as a person,” Choate said. “And even though he’s dealt with more adversity than anyone will ever know, it’s not just a feel good story. It’s a feel good story about a great football player who has been as essential as any dude at Montana State in recent years.”

Troy Andersen, the recently anointed Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year, has said on the record multiple times that Chase Benson is the best player in the league. Montana State gave up 15 touchdowns in 11 games this season, an eye-opening number in a conference steeped in offensive prestige. Benson has fought through an ailing back that cost him a start to still total 38 tackles, eight tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks on the way to first-team all-conference honors.

To listen to Andersen, Benson is where it starts for Montana State. 

“Oh my goodness, he takes on double teams, two 300-plus pounders leaning on him, pushing on him, doesn’t move,” Andersen said. “He’s just so strong and physical and he allows our entire defense to operate.

“He is the unsung hero of our defense.”

Andersen has played so many positions and filled so many roles at Montana State during his unique career, it’s hard to imagine he’s ever gotten bored. But the Dillon product had a piece of advice for his roommate and current Bobcat senior receiver Coy Steel during the latest iteration of fall camp at MSU. 

“I was telling Coy during fall camp, if he ever got bored during fall camp, just watch what Chase does to some of the best offensive linemen there are in the Big Sky,” Andersen said. “It’s absurd. 

“My favorite thing ever at practice is just to watch Chase Benson.”

Montana State defensive tackle Chase Benson in 2019/by Brooks Nuanez

When Benson first arrived on the Montana State campus as a raw-boned, unpolished, under developed and disadvantaged freshman, his aggressiveness, competitiveness and motor showed almost right away. 

On Montana State’s recent Senior Day, Benson walked with a collection of his friends with Scott Evans, one of his high school coaches, in attendance. The current head coach at Helena High has is also one of Choate’s closest friends. 

Evans helped Benson first earn exposure at the University of Washington individual camp when Choate was still the defensive line coach for the Huskies.

That connection helped Benson land at MSU when Choate became the head coach for the Bobcats and signed the man-child defensive tackle in his first recruiting class. 

Evans remembers Choate consistently talking about Benson “just kicking the s*** out of our starting offensive line” and expressing “he ruins them every day. He made them hate him (laughs). I loved hearing that.”

Benson first flashed as a redshirt freshman in 2017 with his first career sack at Washington State. He burst onto the scene by playing a leading role in the “Miracle in Missoula.” And he solidified his place as one of the Big Sky’s best during his junior year in the fall of 2019 during MSU’s memorable run to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs. 

“I think Chase Benson is one of the toughest, most physically formidable players in this league,” said Weber State head coach Jay Hill, who has recruited some of the top defensive linemen in the league in the last handful of years.

Success breeds exposure. Yet the question remains: why has Benson both avoided and been absent from the spotlight? Andersen is such a star, almost every Montanan knows exactly who you are referring to if you just say “Troy” even though he himself is a humble, small-town Treasure State product happy to let his on-field success tell his story. 

It’s not a secret as much as it is a testament. Chase Benson has wanted to make his own way and not have his personal history growing up in Helena define the story of an athlete who endured significant struggles. 

Montana State defensive tackle Chase Benson (41) in 2021/by Jason Bacaj – Skyline Sports

“If you want to put a shining light on what athletics can do for a kid, Chase is the perfect example of that,” Evans said. “It’s never been given to him and he’s taken it and run with it. He has taken the guiding principles and excelled and went beyond expectations. 

“You build for these days and to get where he is at now with a diploma, Academic All-Conference, everything you can possibly imagine and people used to say he didn’t have a chance. 

“But he had a chance and he took that chance and he changed his life. He is so humble about where he came from and it was so cool for him to push that to the outside. I love that he has put that inside himself and used that as a driving force to get better and become who he is.”

In a time when almost every Division I college athlete has a vibrant Twitter page that serves a personal virtual scrap book of their accomplishments, a time when most college kids communicate with most they know via TikToc, Benson declined all interview requests until the second-to-last week of his senior season. 

That was one of maybe three interviews, totaling maybe 20 total minutes, he has given his entire Bobcat career. He earned first-team All-Big Sky honors this fall yet Benson garners none of the spotlight. That’s part of his legend, particularly among his contemporaries. 

“Dude never says a word but he’s a freak in the weight room, one of the strongest guys on the team,” former Montana State defensive end Tyrone Fa’anono said his senior year when Benson was a sophomore in 2018. “Everybody knows: you don’t mess with Chase.”

Lewis Kidd, himself like Benson a part of the first recruiting class to sign under Choate in February of 2016, was a defensive tackle with Benson that first fall in Bozeman. The following season, Kidd transitioned to offensive line and has been an All-Big Sky performer since. From 2017 through 2019, the Minneapolis product played guard, frequently battling with Benson in practice. 

In Kidd and Benson’s younger years, Alex Wilcox was the Montana State strength coach. Kidd, who lives with Benson now, said his defensive tackle comrade’s nickname became “Coach Wilcox’s son” because, according to the recently anointed first-team all-conference offensive tackle, Benson “lived in that weight room doing random stuff, stuff that nobody was doing.”

Montana State defensive tackle Chase Benson (41) in 2021/by Brooks Nuanez

“There isn’t anyone on the team stronger than he is,” Kidd said. “I really respect how much he’s grinded. He loves the weight room, lives in the weight room. 

“There’s still no way I would be able to lift what he does, be able to work out like he does even with his not so great back,” The 6-foot-6, 330-pound Kidd continued. “He’s just that strong. I can’t even imagine what it would be like without the injuries.”

Zach Wright is as tough as they come, an undersized defensive tackle from New Braunfels, Texas who pounded iron in the weight room with the best of them. The 2018 MSU senior was several grades ahead of Benson. 

Wright remembered thinking, “Who is this kid? He is catching me in the weight room and he’s still a freshman?” 

Choate said “Benson was always a man in terms of strength but he did not have the level of expertise to play his position.” 

After a few years in the MSU program, learning from detail-oriented defensive line mentors Choate and Byron Hout, Benson started to take form. Benson diligently dedicated himself to the art of playing in the mess. 

“All of a sudden, he starts coming and then, boom, unstoppable,” Wright said in an interview during his senior year. “I’ve seen him get out of situations where most guys would get pancaked. Chase just channels some inner strength out of nowhere, throws a guy, gets out and wrestles with the other, gets out and makes the play. 

“I’m blown away by the kid. He’s got the greatest work ethic of anyone I’ve ever met.”

The lore of Benson’s prodigious strength has been building since he was a child. The conversation about his silent work ethic has been part of his story at Montana State since he first walked on campus. 

Montana State defensive tackle Chase Benson (41) in 2021/by Brooks Nuanez

Where did that obsession with pounding heavy weight come from? And in an era of college football where social media graphics, shiny helmets and abundant jersey combinations have overshadowed the purest parts of the game, how did the young man from Helena separate himself from all that noise? 

Many around Helena know some of the lonely details of Benson’s childhood. You won’t find those details here. Benson never wanted that to be part of his story. 

Evans remembers Benson’s athletic gifts before he was even in middle school. Evans calls him “Big Benny” because of the size and power that comes to him so naturally. 

But one of his mentors also describes Benson as “a wandering minstrel”, a kid “who had the whole nine yards thrown at him, everything you could imagine as a little kid.

“He grew up tough, there’s no doubt about it,” Evans said. “He had to make his own way since the very beginning.”

Because of Benson’s gentle way of being, a nature that belies his epic strength and aggressiveness on the football field, people in the Helena community wanted to help him. His grandmother was one of the first to step up. Evans and his wife helped out as did Sandy Herzog and the Herzog family along with former Helena High head coach Tony Arnston as well as many others from around Helena.

“Off the field, he was green, too,” said Hout, MSU’s former defensive line coach who held the same role at Idaho State during the 2020 season.   “We had to show him how to open up a bank account and manage his life.”

Benson came to Montana State as one of the first recruits from his class to move to campus. Choate remembers Hout and former MSU director of football operations Brittney Johnson helping Benson get emancipated from his estranged parents to get financial aid and accept the scholarship extended to him by Bobcat football. 

“Young men like Chase fight the way they do because they know no one is going to do it for them,” Choate said. “Chase understood he had an opportunity and he latched on to it.”

Montana State defensive tackle Chase Benson (50) in 2019/by Jason Bacaj – Skyline Sports

Benson says he first fell in love with lifting weights when he was in middle school. The late Jammer Halverson, a former Helena High standout a few years Benson’s senior who played at Montana Western, is the man Benson credits for mentoring him in the weight room and igniting his passion for strength training. 

“Most importantly, in a world where altruism is sparse, Jammer shined as a team player,” Halverson’s obituary read following his death by suicide in September. “He was a person who brought a lightness of being to even the darkest of places and a smile to all in the most uncertain circumstances.”

The influence of finding peace underneath the squat rack or on the bench stuck with with Benson in high school through his six years playing college football. The discipline of lifting offered a steady, rhythmic and often quiet place where he felt challenged, a place where he could lose himself. 

“Ever since I started, I don’t actually think about anything, I just black out and go for the best,” Benson said. “I’ve definitely had some great role models that lead me on the right path when I started lifting. And the challenge of always getting better when you put the work in, that was rewarding.”

Those incremental rewards also started to help Benson reap benefits on the football field. It helped him start to carve out an identity on the gridiron. And it also provided structure for his life. 

“It’s simple: at Helena High, I learned to stop being a dumbass,” Benson said with a chuckle. “It really set me up for success coming to Montana State. And Coach Evans was a big part of that.”

Evans played his college ball at Montana Western shortly after Choate’s college career in Dillon ended because of a freak auto acciddnt. By the time Evans brought Benson to Seattle to participate in the UW camp, Choate and the Helena High coach had been friends for nearly three decades.

The connection helped Benson navigate the transition from Helena to Bozeman because he “knew nothing about colleges and all that.”

Montana State head coach Brent Vigen with defensive tackle Chase Benson (41) in 2021/by Garrett Becker – MSU Creative Services

“But that’s the thing about Benny – he has had real good people around him and part of that is he never asked for anything, ever, and he never ever mistreated anyone,” Evans said.

Still, Benson’s transition to college was a tough one. When he broke into the lineup as a sophomore, interview requests started to come in from around the Treasure State. Benson felt uncomfortable standing in the spotlight. 

Choate remembers Benson his first few years on campus compared to what he’s become now. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of the gig for a man who has coached football at Boise State, Utah State, Florida, Washington, Washington State, Montana State and now, Texas. 

“He went from a kid who didn’t make eye contact, not very confident, struggled academically to being a straight A student who is exactly what every single person would want their son to grow up to be. Hard working, committed, honest, dedicated. It’s a tremendous story. And for me, why I do this.”

Former Montana State defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak, who spent nearly 20 years as a coach in the Big Sky Conference, has mentored dozens of all-league talents and a variety of athletes from various backgrounds. He consistently referenced Benson as “what defenses are built around.”

All season on the Big Sky Breakdown podcast, Gregorak has praised Benson’s physical prowess and impressive performance. 

But more than what Benson has shown in his football abilities, it’s what he’s grown into as a person that makes Gregorak glow. 

“That right there is the best part of college football is seeing guys like Chase Benson because certain decisions, certain choices, he takes a different left turn at different parts in his life, he is not getting to do what he’s doing, he’s not getting a college degree. It is the best part about college athletics.”

Chase Benson has never wanted to be the story. He only wants to be a part of it. He’s navigated the trials of his journey with a quiet diligence, transforming future for his family. 

Montana State safety Jeffrey Manning (5) celebrates with defensive lineman Chase Benson (41) and Amandre Williams (3) in 2021/by Brooks Nuanez

He is the first to acknowledge the environment provided by Montana State’s football program has given him a road map. While the silent giant doesn’t say much, he opens up when the subject is his teammates. It’s why he wears Montana State’s legacy No. 41 and it’s why he’s a team captain. As Hout said, “Chase doesn’t talk much but when he does, you listen because it’s either going to be hilarious or important or both.”

And that’s the point. In a world where money and fame and glitz and glamour dominate college football, Benson is what it should be all about. 

“My favorite part has been the team, being a part of it and it’s become like a family for me,” Benson said. “I’ve learned that if you never give up, that mentality is so big and you have to keep on grinding. 

“All these guys have the same goals in mind I have. It’s been awesome to be able to work alongside my classmates for this long.

“This has been an awesome experience. It’s changed my life.”

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

Recommended for you