Chamberlain moves forward with new QB and mentality

Posted Aug 10, 2011 by Eddie Daniels

Updated Aug 10, 2011 at 09:25 PM

If things go as Chamberlain coach Joe Severino hopes, this season will be the start of the Joshua Bennett era.

Bennett, who is entering his sophomore season at Chamberlain, has been given the reigns to an offense that was once projected to be guided by junior quarterback Mitchell Norden.

That scenario drastically changed two weeks ago when Norden transferred to Tampa Catholic. As alarming as the situation may appear from the outside, Severino has a more calming approach to the state of affairs.

“I’ve got all the confidence in Bennett,” Severino said Wednesday. “We’re confident in what he can do. We’re confident in Bennett’s ability to lead us to a championship.

“It’s just a shame we didn’t get him all the reps we could (this summer).”

During the summer’s 7-on-7 circuit, Norden took the majority of the snaps, but Bennett was able to get valuable time in with the offense.

Meanwhile, the team as a whole, Severino has had no issue with the meshing personalities. He said this is a tight-knit bunch and he’s eager to see how they perform during the regular season.

“It’s a lot better because you have less discipline problems you have to mess with,” Severino said. “Trying to get everybody on the same page, like when (teams are) bickering among themselves and all that. (This team has) gotten away from the ‘I’ mentality and stays with the ‘We’ kind of thing. That makes it a lot easier.”

Despite last season’s 2-8 finish, Severino is adamant had a couple of plays gone the way of the Chiefs in 2010, they likely would have been a playoff team.

“We play hard no matter what,” Severino said. “We were only out of two games last year (Armwood and Plant). We could have won a couple more last year. We should have.”

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