DALLAS -- Phil Bennett, who at Kansas State coached one of the nation's stingiest defenses and earned a reputation for recruiting players out of Texas, was introduced Wednesday as Southern Methodist's new head coach.

"I tell you what's appealing to me -- being able to sell the academic success as well as the football success," Bennett said at a news conference. "A degree here is something I can go in a home and sell."

Bennett was given a five-year deal to rebuild a program that has had just one winning season in the past 12 years.

"We need to win here and we need to win right away," he said. "I think that our expectation is to win a championship."

The Mustangs were 4-7 this season under coach Mike Cavan, who was fired in November.

Bennett said SMU's commitment to its football program won him over.

SMU last year moved into the $57 million Gerald J. Ford Stadium and has poured millions into a sprawling sports facility that includes a new weight room and practice fields.

Bennett, a 46-year-old native of Marshall, Texas, had been Kansas State's defensive coordinator since 1999. His defenses finished in the top five nationally each year he was there.

Kansas State had the nation's No. 1 pass-efficiency defense and No. 2 total defense in his first year. In 2000, the Wildcats ranked fourth in total defense, and this year they were third.

Bennett was Oklahoma's co-defensive coordinator in 1998 and TCU's defensive coordinator in 1997.

He was Texas A&M's defensive coordinator in 1995 and 1996. He also was defensive coordinator at Louisiana State (1992-1994), Purdue (1987-1991) and Iowa State (1983-1986).

Cavan, who was 22-34 in five years at SMU, came to the school in 1997 after kick-starting programs at Division II Valdosta State and I-AA East Tennessee State.

His first Mustangs' team went 6-5, in SMU's first winning season since coming back from the NCAA's death penalty in 1989. But the Mustangs went 5-7 the following year, then 4-6 and 3-9.

SMU has struggled since the NCAA hit the school in 1987 with its harshest punishment, the "death penalty," after discovering that a banned booster paid 13 players thousands of dollars.

The once-proud program was forced to disband for one year, but the school opted to also sit out 1988.

Cavan was the most successful post-death-penalty coach. Tom Rossley was 15-48-3 from 1991 to 1996, and Forrest Gregg was 3-19 from 1989 to 1990.