Ty Benefield: All Over the Benefield
Benefield's practice habits have translated to an all-conference season
Chris Kutz
Ty Benefield is all over the place, in a good way.
Of the 6,400 square yards on a football field, he seems to cover all of it. Watch him at a Boise State practice, and he's omnipresent, finishing plays where he starts in the secondary but ends up in the backfield. Lock in on him during a game, and that relentless practice effort translates directly to a standout performance.
There's a reason the junior safety leads the Broncos with 92 tackles while anchoring a secondary that ranks 11th nationally in pass defense. With 7.5 tackles for loss and two interceptions, Benefield is one of only four players in Division I FBS with 90+ tackles, 7+ TFLs, and 2+ interceptions this season. His 92 stops are the most by a Boise State safety since current NFLer JL Skinner recorded 92 in 2021. A Bronco has not totaled 100 or more tackles in a season since linebacker DJ Schramm in 2022.
But the journey to becoming an elite defender who craves contact began with a youth football quarterback who hated getting hit.
Benefield's football DNA runs through the Canadian Football League. His father, Daved, played 13 seasons in the CFL after starting at Glendale Community College and Cal State Northridge. The elder Benefield was a 28-year-old rookie when he got his shot in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1990s, but he quickly returned to the CFL. The Benefields settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, where Ty and his sister were raised by their mom and dad.
Benefield’s nickname of “Buck” was passed down to him from his father. The original “Buck,” the nickname Daved earned in college for being "wild and crazy” according to Ty, understood how difficult it would be for his son to play high-level football. Take the already slim chances of making the NFL as an American youth player, then add growing up in Canada, and the path is steep.
A young Ty was encouraged to play quarterback by his father in youth football in Vancouver. But he despised the position.
"I was afraid of contact, so I was just running for my life," Benefield recalled of his youth quarterback days. "I was juking people out, not trying to get hit whatsoever. But I absolutely hated playing quarterback."
When COVID-19 shut down Canadian sports in 2020, 15-year-old Ty saw an opportunity rather than an obstacle. He made a proposal to his football-loving father that would change everything.
"I asked my dad, 'I want the smoke. I want to go to California.' And he said okay," Benefield remembers.
The relocation covered more than 1,300 miles – or as a Canadian like Benfield may say, over 2,000 kilometers. He moved in with his uncle Billy Neeley and aunt Amber in Altadena, California, near where his father grew up and his grandparents, David and Betty, had settled after David's military service.
The transition was not easy. Benefield played junior varsity as a junior in his first year in the United States. Typically, high-level college football players have already put in a year or two on varsity at that point.
“I realized I had to do something different,” said Benefield. “I’m not the fastest. I’m not the biggest. I’m not the most athletic. Sure enough, I had to work harder than anybody.”
He also had his new family home pushing him.
"I used to hate it, but now I look back, my uncle was consistently on me about being this and that, being super strict. It's really helped me to this day," Benefield reflected.
As a junior, Benefield played only wide receiver before transferring to Crean Lutheran High School for his senior year. That's where everything clicked and switched to defensive back.
Playing both offense and defense, Benefield discovered he relished the defensive role. He enjoyed "flying around, picking passes off, and understanding defenses,” he said. The contact that once terrified him became his weapon. He began to channel his hate for the quarterback position in a new way, as a defender of what they were trying to do.
"Now, I hunt the quarterback," he said.
The position change revealed his true nature. The cerebral aspects of safety – reading offenses, making calls, being the "quarterback of the defense,” as Benefield says – matched his football intelligence.
What also separates Benefield from other talented players isn't just his game-day performance. It’s how he approaches every single practice.
"I met with multiple NFL scouts, and they've told me he's one of the best practice players they've seen," Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said in October during his weekly press conference. "When people see what he does on Saturday, it shouldn't shock anybody because he does it all the time in practice. He practices the exact same way he plays when the nation's watching."
For Benefield, being an elite practice player means finishing every drill at full speed, whether it's individual work or team periods. It means studying film with the intensity of game preparation. It means treating every rep like it matters because to him, it does.
“Practice how you play,” said Benefield on Bronco Studios Live on Nov. 10. “I didn’t practice at all one week in high school, and sure enough, I played horribly. Whenever I practice, I’m going to simulate this like a game environment. I’m full speed until Coach D, Coach Chins (defensive coordinator Erik Chinander) or Coach Stockton (safeties coach Tyler Stockton) tell me to chill out.”
Danielson may have to tell him to slow down, but he prefers the example that Benefield sets for his teammates.
"Ty Benefield is relentless," Danielson explained this past Monday. "Not only one of our best football players, but how he preps, how he practices, how he trains, he's relentless. He's never satisfied. If he has a bunch of tackles, a bunch of interceptions, he's never satisfied. That's what makes him elite."
Perhaps the biggest change in Benefield's game from last season to this one isn't visible on the stat sheet but is reflected in his numbers. It's how he takes care of his body.
"I've taken a big step from last year, being in the training room, rehabbing," Benefield said. "As a freshman, I used to be able to work out three or four times a day, full speed all the time. But now, no, I can't do it."
Benefield has matured from a mental aspect as well over the last year. The increased physical demands of being a primary defender, combined with better knowledge of preparing his body, led Benefield to embrace a more sophisticated approach to his body maintenance.
His routine now includes ice baths, targeted rehab for different body parts, and compression boot sessions. He sees it as the difference between a talented player and a professional-minded one.
He even trained back in California with his father and uncle this past offseason as well as out in Florida.
The results speak for themselves. After recording 82 tackles and two interceptions last season, Benefield has elevated to 92 tackles and matched his interception total while becoming the defensive quarterback for a unit that's among the nation's best. He has played 877 snaps: 709 on defense and 168 on special teams.
Benefield's transformation isn't just physical, it's mental. The player who once avoided contact now thrives on it.
"Being able to take people's heads off and get the ball," he says of what he loves about the safety position. "You're like the quarterback of the defense. You make calls, you take control, you're a leader. I wouldn't want to play any other position."
His outlook and approach have helped Boise State finish in a tie for first place in the Mountain West standings at the end of the regular season. The Broncos will host UNLV in the Mountain West Championship on Friday at Albertsons Stadium, a rematch of last year's championship game on The Blue. A few weeks ago, the berth in the title game was not in their control. They needed help from other results. The team had to “cut it loose” while also dealing with the pressure of preseason expectations.
"When our back is against the wall, that is when we are the most dangerous," Benefield says. "You're not holding back, you're not thinking, it's instinct. You're playing the sport since you were little. When you finally cut it loose, you'll see that's how you play your best."
NFL scouts have been flocking to Boise State practices all season, drawn by reports of Benefield's relentless preparation and game-changing ability. He occasionally dreams of hearing his name called in the NFL Draft, though he has one year of eligibility remaining.
"He's an eraser back there," Danielson noted. "When things aren't right, it's going to get fixed quickly because of how hard Ty Benefield plays."
But for now, Benefield remains focused on the present, helping his team chase championships and being the best teammate possible.
"The most important thing to me is helping my team. Being the best safety I can be for them. Being the best teammate I can for them," he said. "Seeing my teammates happy on the sidelines after wins is what pushes me. It's what carries me, it's what keeps me happy. I want to leave no doubt on that field that I'm playing my best for them."
From a contact-shy quarterback in Vancouver to an elite safety leading one of the nation's top defenses, Ty Benefield's journey embodies a relentless pursuit of being the best version of himself. He's truly all over the Benefield, and all over the field, in a high-performing way. He was named All-Mountain West First Team on Tuesday, along with 10 of his teammates who received all-conference honors. But the awards are not what he is focused on.
"If I happen to get awards, that's cool, too,” said Benefield by what he is motivated by. “But definitely that championship."
