The reigning SIAC Champion Benedict College Tigers are ready to play the new season with a chip on their shoulder, according to Benedict College football head coach Chennis Berry. Berry, last year's NCAA Division II Region 2 Coach of the Year, believes that the Tigers are still hunters despite now being the new standard-bearers of the SIAC.

“We are still the hunters. We don't have a ‘being hunted' mentality,” Berry told WIS10 sports reporter Julia Westerman at Benedict training camp, “I tell them all the time, ‘hunters vs. hunted.' We're still the hunters. We're Benedict College Tigers and tigers hunt.”

Berry isn't allowing his Benedict College football team to get complacent in their quest to repeat as SIAC Champions. Berry took over the Benedict College Tigers in February 2020 after serving as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Southern University. His team went 5-5 in his first season in 2021 but featured an upset win over defending SIAC Championship Miles College 24-21 and a close loss to a Savannah State Tigers football team that finished the season 8-2.

His second season at the helm of the Tigers was historic. Berry led his team to a historic 13-1 season, finishing the regular season undefeated. Benedict started the season beating contending Fort Valley State University and Albany State University squads and won against perennial conference superpower Tuskegee 58-21 in the 2022 SIAC Championship. The Tigers headed into the playoffs ranked #1 in NCAA Division II Super Region 2 but lost to Wingate University 23-6 in the second round.

Berry's hunters' analogy is valid. The Tigers were ranked #1 in the preseason poll voted on by SIAC coaches announced at SIAC Media Day and have six All-SIAC players returning, including preseason Defensive Player of the Year Loobert Denelus. Benedict looks to replace the production of starting QB Eric Phoenix, who entered the transfer portal at the end of the season and committed to the Ohio Valley Conference’s Murray State. However, Berry and the Tigers remain optimistic about their chances to repeat.

“Eric's only one of eleven. We have a really good football team,” Berry said at SIAC media day to HBCU+ media personality Scottay, “Although we lost Eric, we really played two Quarterbacks all year. Eric Phoenix was one, and John Lamply was the other. We have to put the right quarterback in that position because there's so much talent around them, he doesn't have to do anything out of the ordinary.”

The Tigers start their season against the CIAA's Shaw University Bears on Saturday, September 2nd, at 6 PM. The game will be broadcast on HBCU Go.