Paul Benefield attended high school at Fyffe before receiving his degree from Jacksonville State. Benefield won his 200th game as a head coach in 2012 at Fyffe.

He took over the head coaching job at Sylvania High School in 1992 and proceeded to lead the Rams to back to back 12-1 seasons in 1994 and 1995.

The twelve wins were the most in school history and also the first 10-0 regular seasons since Sylvania began playing football in 1947.

After five season at Sylvania and a 45-11 record Coach Benefield returned home to Fyffe as their head coach in 1997. Since then his teams have qualified for the playoffs in every season except 2000, won eighteen region championships and won at least ten games in nineteen of those years. He also has the distinction of never coaching a team with a losing record during his thirty-one seasons as a head coach.

In 2014, the Fyffe Red Devils won their first State Championship with a 28-17 victory over Elba in the title game. They finished the season with a school record 15-0 slate. They duplicated that in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 with perfect seasons and state championships.

His Red Devils won 51 consecutive games between 2018-2021.

Coach Benefield has an overall record of 351-56 in thirty-two seasons as a head coach.

Benefield was named at the Coach of the Year by the Alabama Sports Writer in 2007.