Oregon Football Recruiting: Ducks Add Transfer Receiver with 10.4 Speed

The raw numbers got him offers at Alabama and Florida State, entering the transfer portal twice. Neither stop amounted to much. In Nick Saban's last year at head coach he caught 13 passes for 162 yards and one touchdown in 2023, a 27-yard grab against Mississippi State, a 33-yard play in the Iron Bowl. The touchdown came in a 66-10 win over Chattanooga in November.

For 2024 Benson moved on to Florida State, where the Seminoles were looking for a new go-to guy and deep threat after losing Johnny Wilson and Keon Coleman to the NFL. 

Though it was his third school and another fresh start, it wasn't the redemption story he hoped to write. The Seminoles tanked this season. Ranked #10 at the beginning of the year they went through three quarterbacks that combined for only 2,164 yards and 11 touchdowns with 13 interceptions.

Even so, Benson, who's not related to former Oregon and Florida State running back Trey Benson, tied for second on the team with 25 receptions for 311 yards and a touchdown. He flashed early but got lost in the general miasma of a decrepit program going nowhere:  a 50-yard catch against North Carolina and a 67-yard catch against Memphis, 12 catches in the first three games for 171 yards and a touchdown but targeted sparingly after that.

So the question remains, why Oregon and why now?

The first part of the answer is that Benson got a fourth strike when the NCAA Board of Directors moved to grant athletes who started their career at Junior College a fifth season after Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won an injunction in federal court.

At the start of the week for the Ducks, Tez Johnson and Traeshon Holden declared for the NFL, while freshman receivers Dillon Gresham and Ryan Pellum entered the transfer portal.

Benson made a visit over the weekend, announcing Kansas, Tennessee and Oregon as his top three. For Junior Adams and the rest of the UO coaches, this is a low risk/high reward addition. Benson won't command exorbitant NIL numbers given his past, but the upside is undeniable. He has the speed to become a deep threat with rocket-armed Dante Moore taking over at quarterback, something the Ducks might be able to use to give the offense a new dimension. 

Some digging reveals that Benson isn't your typical JC washout. Tony Tsoukalas of Tide Illustrated told a story about Vincent Sanders, a mentor for Alabama Heisman winner DeVonta Smith and his reaction when he met Benson for the first time. Sanders saw the young man working the Jugs machine, working on routes, breaking down film.

Sanders said to Tsoukalas, “It was like, wait a minute, I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen this hunger. I’ve seen somebody that wants it and is willing to do anything for it. He doesn’t worry about the accolades or any of that. That’s the mindset DeVonta had when he won the Heisman.”

“Malik is a grinder. He’s old-school. Kids these days want instant gratification, but what happened to grinding?"

Hutchison receivers coach Matt Martin confirmed he saw the same thing back in Kansas. He watched Benson after he'd landed the offer to Alabama. “An hour later, he’s organizing all the receivers and all the quarterbacks to be out on the field throwing,” Martin said. “For a lot of guys, it would be like, ‘I made it, I’m at Alabama.’ With him, it’s like ‘I’m at Alabama, and now it’s time to prove why.’”

The drive that Benson has stems from personal conviction. Speaking to Ethan Kruse of His Huddle he said, “Without God, I wouldn’t be where I am today. He is my rock, and through the ups and the downs, I know I can lean on him to get me through anything.”

The Ducks seemed like a natural choice when circumstances gave him another crack at the portal. In 2023 he told Jeff Sentell of Dawgs Nation, “I grew up watching De’Anthony Thomas and Oregon when they were really contenders. It was always like a little kid always just dreamed of going to Oregon and playing there.”

 Thomas ran a 10.52 100 as a high school senior. Benson is faster, And as any receiver coach will tell you, you can't teach speed. This experiment might work out for everybody.

The sports airwaves and social media are full of bitterness and vitriol, labeling teams and athletes a "bust" or a "choke." In this column we try to focus on telling stories. I think the Apple award-winning comedy series Ted Lasso captured it as well as anyone: The best part of sports is about hope, and people striving to become the best version of themselves. That's what Malik Benson is trying to do, making the long trip west to Eugene.