My guess? Benton at MLB. He played well after Barber was hurt last week (two tackles, one TFL) and he's terrifying. pic.twitter.com/jL9esByZie

— Mike Casazza (@mikecasazza) September 12, 2015

When Jared Barber got hurt in the opener last season and missed the following week’s game against Liberty, we weren’t sure who’s start in his place. Maybe Nick Kwiatkoski would slide back over to the middle, where he started every game the year before, and then Xavier Preston would start in Kwiatkoski’s place.

Or maybe Kwiatkoski would stay put and the depth chart would do it’s job by elevating Al-Rasheed Benton to starter.

That’s what happened, and he finished with seven tackles, two tackles for a loss and a subsequent award as the team’s defensive player of the week. We had a hunch, if not a hope, it would happen that way, because, again, Benton is a frightening presence, and it’s fun to watch. And he knows it.

It’s almost a prerequisite, though the Mountaineers have had many middle linebackers through the years who weren’t quite as stirring but were plenty successful. Benton is the keystone in the 3-3-5, a role and a scheme he familiarized himself with in high school, and he has to raid the backfield and range to make plays.

But he also needs people to know who and where he is. So when he hovers around the ball before it’s snapped, when he stands in one place and slides to another and then suddenly returns to where he started, when he fixes a stare on someone and starts to huff and puff, there is intent.

That Benton gets the attention doesn’t matter as much as what happens around him once he has it.

“It helps with my game,” he said. “I want them to fear me. I want them to pay attention to me, because at the end of the day, there are 10 other people on the field. If I can walk up to the line and you feel some kind of way, if you feel scared because of my beard or my big eyes, that frees up somebody else on defense to make the play.”