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Cedar City named assistant coach Josh Bennett to replace long-time football coach Todd Peacock who has retired from coaching.

"He had 24 years at Cedar City," said Bennett about Peacock. "There are a lot of expectations, which is fine. They are hard shoes to fill. He ran such a quality program for so many years. I am looking forward to the challenge of it."

Bennett began his coaching career as an assistant at Timpanogos before moving to Cedar City, where he has been a varsity assistant football coach and head track and field coach for 10 years. He played college football at Snow College and graduated from Southern Utah University in 2005. He later earned a masters from SUU.

A native of Fillmore, he was on Millard's state championship football team in 1996.'

Bennett said he planned to diversify Cedar's run-oriented option offense a bit. He hopes to find a 50-50 mix between throwing and running.

The new head coach called the 3AA South football region that includes St. George area schools extremely competitive.

'"That's how we want it," he said. "The kids look forward to the challenge of playing those schools week in and week out."

– Tom Wharton