Scott Bennett is in his first football season as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach as he also oversees the 16-sport athletic program.

                Bennett came to Southern Miss after serving as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Wyoming since 1998. He oversaw the strength and conditioning program for all varsity sports, coordinated in-season and offseason program for football and supervised a staff of four full-time employees and student assistants at three strength facilities. He also was directly responsible for the design of the Rochelle Athletic Center Weight Room as well as the floor plan and equipment needs.

                Prior to Wyoming, Bennett was the Head Strength Coach at Marshall from 1996-98, and served as the assistant strength coach at Virginia Tech from 1993-96.

While at Marshall, he was directly responsible for all facets of in-season and offseason strength and conditioning and created the programming for the football, baseball, volleyball and track programs.

                At Tech, he was responsible for the offseason and in-season strength and conditioning programs for 13 varsity sport programs, including testing and evaluation, proper training protocol, nutrition and lifting technique. He also assisted with the implementation of all training for the football program.

                Prior to Virginia Tech, he was the graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach at Clemson from 1990 until 1993. He assisted the strength and conditioning coach with the implementation of the fall, winter and spring strength and conditioning programs. He also taught Olympic lifting to all athletes and designed and implemented offseason and in-season baseball strength and conditioning programs. He was the recruiting representative for the strength staff and made yearly presentations on strength training at coaches clinics.

                While at Clemson, he also was a weightlifting instructor for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Area of instruction that were included in his emphasis was sport specific training, nutrition, flexibility, as well as aerobic and anaerobic conditioning.

                He earned his bachelor's degree in health and physical education with a double major in sports medicine and sport management from Ole Miss, and his master's degree in guidance and counseling from Clemson.

While at Ole Miss, he was a student and graduate assistant strength coach and was a weightlifting instructor for the department of health, physical fitness and recreation.

He has spoken at several clinics for strength training and conditioning, has written several columns for publications, worked with 12 teams which qualified for the NCAA Tournaments and bowl games and coached 26 football players who played in the NFL. He was named the Strength Coach of the Year in the College Division by the American Football Quarterly in 1996 and was nominated for the NSCA Strength Coach of the Year in 2002.

He is a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association since 1989, a member of the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association since 2001 and holds certifications as a certified strength and conditioning specialist (1991), a strength and conditioning coach certified (2001), a NSCA Coach Practitioner Distinction (2004) and a Master Strength and Conditioning Coach (2006).

He is married to the former Jennifer Anderson and the couple has two children, Tucker and Charles.