Brewton becomes a leader after time away from UTC football

Ben Brewton often found his way to the Riverwalk last spring to watch University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football practices.
He was supposed to be out there with the team, one he'd been with since 2018 after signing with previous Mocs head coach Tom Arth, but he had been left off the spring roster after what he called "some decisions that affected the future for me at that time."
"That was a hard time for me. It was hard being away from football," Brewton said prior to Monday night's practice at Finley Stadium. "It was a mental state for me. Going through mental challenges, it kind of helped me out. Seeing the guys everyday but not being around them every day, taking time for myself, finding out who I am and who I want to be."
Coming off consecutive All-Southern Conference seasons — first team in 2021, second team last season — Brewton was expected to be one of the leaders on a line that otherwise suffered just one loss, albeit a big one in three-time Football Championship Subdivision All-American Devonnsha Maxwell.
But there were things he had to handle. He needed to find himself, and that time away gave him an opportunity to do just that.
"Everything is not always about me," Brewton said. "I've got to put other people first sometimes, and I kind of lost that."
UTC head coach Rusty Wright decided after Brewton graduated from UTC in May to allow him back on the team. According to the head coach, defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward and outside linebackers coach Tyrus Ward (no relation), Brewton has been a leader for the team since his return.
"He just had to grow up and handle his business, you know?" Wright said. "The situation in the spring came up and the best thing for him was not to be involved with us. His teammates elected to have him back. That's why he's here — which I'm glad for him — and I think he realized being away was not the best thing for him when it was all said and done.
"Hopefully he grows from it. At the end of the day, I've got to teach these guys something, you know, and I didn't know if he was coming back or not to be honest with you. We'd pretty much moved on, but the seniors made the decision and he's come back and done the things he should."
Brewton enters his final season with 14.5 sacks in his past two seasons. With 2022 first-team All-American Jay Person back, along with second-team All-SoCon performer Marlon Taylor and promising junior Quay Wiggles returning, there's no reason to think the unit can't be as good as it was a year ago, when it led the league with 35 sacks.
But most importantly, Brewton gets to be a part of the team he's now the longest-tenured member of, and one he's become more of a leader on given the opportunity.
"There's a lot banking on this being my last year," he said. "I want to see the best out of the guys that are around me, as well as me giving my best to them. But it's also having appreciation for the game; that time off showed me that it's not about me. It's about the team and I want to see these guys win as much as I want to see myself do well."