7 years later, former Coastal coach’s ‘Cats and Dogs’ rant still has legs
David Bennett had no idea that a one-minute rant would still be popular almost seven years later.
His now-famous “Cats and Dogs” commentary when he was head football coach at Coastal Carolina continues to resonate.
Bennett went into the rant during a weekly news conference in September 2011. He challenged his players to be tough like dogs, saying: “We don’t need a bunch of cats in here, ‘Meow!’ looking in the mirror, ‘Do I look good?’ ... Be a dog. We need more dogs.”
People still ask him about it. Some even ask for an encore.
“I spoke this week to police leaders in Moncks Corner, and they said, ‘Can you do the cats and dogs thing?’ ” Bennett told The State this week. “I got a call from a company in Des Moines, Iowa, and they want me to be keynote speaker. Their motto is that they want their workers to be tougher and be more like dogs. So it has been pretty neat.”
Bennett’s speech ranks as one of the top coach rants of all time, along with Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy’s “I’m a man! I’m 40!” speech and the late Dennis Green’s “The Bears are who we thought they were!” The speech has been viewed more 2 million times on YouTube, was featured on national TV shows. New York Times ran a feature story on him and Bennett even did an interview with an Australian radio station.
While Bennett is known nationally as the “Cats and Dogs” coach, he was much more to Coastal Carolina. He and his staff built the program from scratch when it hit the field in 2003.
Bennett remembers having to use one of his own footballs to bring for the introductory news conference. At Coastal, Bennett was 62-39, won four Big South titles, made two trips to the playoffs and coached eight future NFL players.
Coastal fired Bennett, a few months after his famous speech, after nine seasons.
“Where one door closed, another opened,” Bennett said. “You always hang on to the good memories like bringing the students pizza when they were camping out before James Madison (who was No. 1 in FCS at time), beating Furman and Liberty.
“We met people in that community that will be our friends forever. We were able to build so many relationships and were honored Coastal gave us the opportunity.”
Since Bennett’s dismissal, Coastal moved up to the College Football Bowl Subdivision and is in the Sun Belt Conference. The Chanticleers open their season Saturday at South Carolina in the second meeting between the schools.
Bennett wanted Coastal to play USC during his time as coach, but things never worked out. The Chanticleers played games against Clemson, Penn State, West Virginia, Georgia and Kent State.
“We worked on that. As you know, Coastal broke off from the South Carolina system in 1993, and we sent olive branches to get that going,” Bennett said. “It is great to see it get going.”
Bennett won’t be at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday, but many of his former players will be. Ridge View coach Perry Parks, who was on Bennett’s first team at Coastal, is having a get-together Friday at his house with several former players, including former Panthers running back Mike Tolbert. The group plans to tailgate and go to Saturday’s game.
Parks asked Bennett to join them but the former CCU coach is opting to spend Saturday with his wife, Melanie. These days, the two spend Saturdays together going to a different college football game, involving a former player or coach that Bennett has come in contact with over the years.
Bennett said he has no desire to get back into coaching. He is in his second year his as athletic director for Lexington 1 school district and loves the impact he is able to have with district’s 27,000 athletes and more than 450 coaches.
Bennett has started a coaching academy within the district that pairs all the coaches under the age of 30 with mentors. He also is involved making sure his coaches are compensated and improving things such facilities for girls sports.
“We have increased our territory, and you get to make more of a difference than just coaching,” Bennett said. “You want to try and leave a legacy and build relationships. Wins fade away, but relationships don’t.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2018 at 2:37 PM.