Mississippi Today

Former Greenville St. Joe standout running backs are killing it at Washington, Florida State

Published

12 months ago

November 10, 2023

Former Greenville St. Joe standout running backs are killing it at Washington, Florida State

Trey Benson (left) and Dillon Johnson played in the same backfield for Greenville St. Joseph before becoming stars on two of the best teams in college football, on either side of the continent. Credit: Greenville St. Joseph

College football running backs Trey Benson of Florida State and Dillon Johnson of Washington have much in common, including that they are the leading rushers for undefeated teams very much in the national championship race.

Benson has run for 641 yards and eight touchdowns. Johnson has run for 686 yards and 10 touchdowns. Both average over six yards per carry. Both are big, strong backs with plenty of speed. Both have transferred once during their college careers.

But you haven’t read anything yet. Four years ago, both ran in the same Mississippi high school backfield. That’s right: Benson and Johnson, both redshirt juniors and two of the best college running backs in the land, shared the football for Greenville St. Joseph High School back in 2019. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Greenville St. Joe finished 13-0 and won the MAIS 3A state championship that season.

“We were blessed, that’s for sure,” says St. Joseph coach John Baker said this week. “Both are great football players. Both are great students and people. Education comes first at this school and both were A students. Both were great with the little kids who follow our program. What they are doing right now is no surprise at all for those who saw them here.”

Consider this: The Greenville St. Joe Class of 2020 included 27 seniors. Two of those might be star players in the College Football Playoff.

“That’s what we’re hoping and praying for here in Greenville,” Baker said. “Wouldn’t it be something if two kids from such a small school who have been friends since peewee ball ended up playing against each other in the national championship?”

It would be. And it could happen.

Both play difficult games Saturday. Florida State, 9-0 and ranked No. 4 in the CFP rankings, plays Miami Saturday. Washington, ranked No. 5 in the CFP rankings, plays Utah Saturday. Both games start at 2:30 p.m. Mississippi time, which means there’s going to be a lot of channel flipping in Greenville.

Johnson, who began his college career at Mississippi State, has played his best football lately. Last week, against Southern Cal, he ran 256 yards, nearly a first down per carry and scored four touchdowns in a 52-42 Huskies victory.

Benson, who began his college career at Oregon, last week ran for 97 yards and a touchdown against Pitt. Earlier this season, he ran for 200 yards and two touchdowns against Virginia Tech. Back in September, he carried the ball just nine times against Southern Miss but scored three touchdowns.

Benson was the more lightly recruited of the two. In fact, he wasn’t recruited at all until after he attended a Nike football camp in New Orleans the summer before his senior season of high school.

Said Baker, “Trey went down there and ran several sub-4.4 40s at 215 pounds. The next week, coaches from all over the country were lined up to talk to him.”

Johnson’s recruitment was heavier and much earlier. Then-Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead recruited him much harder than all the others, Baker said, and Johnson chose State where Moorhead promised him he would have plenty chances to run the ball.

When Mike Leach took over, the running game took a backseat at State. Johnson played three seasons for the Bulldogs but never reached the 500-yard mark rushing despite averaging more than five yards per carry. He made the decision to leave last December, before Leach died.

“Dillon said the NIL and the location didn’t matter to him,” Baker said. “He just wanted to run the football.”

Both Johnson and Benson are expected to declare for the NFL Draft after the current season. Indeed, NFL scouts already have been at Greenville St. Joseph doing background checks, Baker said. How’s that for due diligence?

Those scouts got nothing but glowing reports from coaches and faculty at the Catholic school where Johnson and Benson played in the same backfield their senior season.

“We moved Dillon to quarterback that season and ran a lot of read option,” Baker said. “They didn’t know who they were gonna have to tackle.”

Often, the opponents didn’t tackle either one of them. They combined for 54 touchdowns on a team that scored 48 points per game.

Said Baker: “I could coach for a hundred years and not have two like that at the same time.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Podcast: Mississippi’s top election official discusses Tuesday’s election

Published

3 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Geoff Pender, Bobby Harrison and Taylor Vance – 2024-11-04 06:30:00

Secretary of State Michael Watson talks with Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender, Bobby Harrison and Taylor Vance ahead of Tuesday’s election. He urges voters to remember sacrifices many have made to protect Americans’ voting rights and get to the polls, and he weighs in on whether a recent court ruling on absentee vote counting will impact this year’s elections.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Insurance chief willing to sue feds if Gov. Reeves doesn’t support state health exchange

Published

5 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Taylor Vance – 2024-11-04 04:00:00

State Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney is willing to sue the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services if it does not allow Mississippi to create a state-based health insurance exchange because of Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ potential opposition.

Federal officials, who must approve of a state implementing its own health insurance exchange, want a letter of approval from a state’s governor before they allow a state to implement the program, according to Chaney.

“I don’t know what the governor’s going to do,” Chaney told Mississippi Today. “I think he’ll probably wait until after the election to make a decision. But I’m willing to sue CMS if that’s what it takes.”

The five-term commissioner, a Republican, said his requests to Reeves, also a Republican, to discuss the policy have gone unanswered. The governor’s office did not respond to a request to comment on this story.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a law authorizing Chaney’s agency to create a Mississippi-based exchange to replace the federal exchange that currently is used by Mississippians to obtain health insurance. The bill became law without the governor’s signature.

States that operate their own exchanges can typically attract more companies to write health insurance policies and offer people policies at lower costs, and it would likely save the state millions of dollars in payments to the federal government.

Chaney also said he’s been consulting with former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who also supported some version of a state-based exchange while in office, about implementing a state-based program.

Currently, 21 states plus the District of Columbia have state-based exchanges, though three still operate from the federal platform. Should he follow through and sue the federal government, Chaney said he would use outside counsel and several other states told him they would join the lawsuit.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1868

Published

1 day ago

November 3, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-03 07:00:00

Nov. 3, 1868

A campaign flier from the 1868 presidential election promoting the candidacy of Ulysses S. Grant for president and Schuyler Colfax for vice president. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In the first presidential race in the wake of the Civil War, newly enfranchised Black men in the South cast their first ballots. Their 700,000 votes helped elect Republican Ulysses S. Grant, whose campaign theme was, “Let us have peace.”

In popular vote, he narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent, who demanded a restoration of states’ rights, which included the right to bar Black Americans from voting. Grant won by only 306,000 votes.

In his inaugural address, he talked of unity. “The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many questions will come,” he said. “It is desirable that they should be approached calmly, without prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remembering that the greatest good to the greatest number is the object to be attained.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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