For Phil Bennett, becoming Arizona State football defensive coordinator is the culmination of a 25-year job interview.
Bennett has known Todd Graham for close to a quarter century, back to when Graham was a first-time head coach at high schools in Oklahoma and Texas.
Bennett, nine years older than Graham, was a teacher then for Graham and Keith Patterson, whom he is replacing as ASU defensive coordinator with Patterson staying to coach linebackers. Graham and Patterson were coaching at Allen High School in Texas in 1995-96 when Bennett was defensive coordinator at Texas A&M.
"We brought Phil in and went and visited with him," Patterson said.