<p>Marian outside linebacker Bailey Bennett wants to see what he can accomplish in a full season of college football.</p>
<p>Coming off a high school career in which he started for Center Grove in consecutive Class 6A state championship games, Bennett seemed a likely candidate to be redshirted as a college freshman.</p>
<p>However, in Week 2, the Knights lost linebacker Sherrod Graham for the rest of the season to an injury. The following week, in a 40-21 victory at Olivet Nazarene, the Knights were down a linebacker. That made it easy for coaches to put Bennett on the field.</p>
<p>The freshman came off the bench to supply three tackles in a 31-24 loss to top-ranked and eventual NAIA national titlist Saint Francis.</p>
<p>“Bailey was extremely talented right away, and we were right on the fence whether to redshirt him or not,” said Marian coach Mark Henninger, a 1992 Roncalli graduate. “But he kept making plays, and, really, there was no way to keep him off the field.</p>
<p>“If you look at him, he’s probably the smallest inside linebacker we have. But he just has a nose for the football. He’s a linebacker. Things make sense for him. You tell Bailey something to do, and he just does it.”</p>
<p>Bennett ended his first season of college football with 31 tackles, including a season high of nine in a 39-36 loss at Concordia. Marian, the NAIA national champion in 2012 and again under Henninger in 2015, won five of its final six games for a 7-3 record.</p>
<p>The momentum carried over to this season’s opener, as Bennett recorded seven tackles in the Knights’ 52-7 romp over St. Xavier (Illinois).</p>
<p>Recognizable because of the long hair that flows from the back of his helmet, Bennett, who has avoided a barber’s chair the past two and a half years, said it hasn’t slowed him down.</p>
<p>Despite occasional teasing — Knights coaches have referred to him as Fabio at various times, but Bailey laughs it off — the sophomore doesn’t plan to change his look anytime soon.</p>
<p>“I do like the way it looks when I’m playing,” Bennett said. “When I was young, I always hated getting my hair cut because I felt they always cut it too short.”</p>
<p>Bennett said he probably doesn’t even have the longest hair on the team. That distinction, he said, goes to freshman linebacker Seth Sontich, who played at Fishers.</p>
<p>Henninger doesn’t have a rules policy about hair length. It might hit the coach close to home if he did.</p>
<p>“My son, Jack, has hair every bit as long as Bailey, so I can’t be hypocritical,” Henninger said. “Besides, it just adds to (Bennett’s) character.”</p>
<p>Bennett would have preferred to play in all 10 Marian games last season, but he values the experience that he gained.</p>
<p>“I do wish I would’ve started a little earlier, but my whole freshman year was such a learning experience coming into this year,” he said. “Just the way coach (Brock) Caraboa runs the defense and just how he has different assignments I had to learn.</p>
<p>“I really like it here and love my teammates. It’s a really good fit.”</p>
