Last year at this time, Malik Benson thought his future was in track. Benson was a standout at Lansing High in Kansas and was turning in eye-opening numbers.
He ran a 10.44 in the 100m and recorded a long jump over 25 feet.
“Honestly, I thought I was going to be running track,” he said. “My sophomore year is when I really started to see what I could do with sprint and jump. My sophomore year, I ran a 10.6 and I was shocked. I was like, ‘Okay, I'm going to get faster and stronger.’
“That's when I did long jump, and I jumped the 23 my sophomore year. And then because of COVID, they had to cancel track which I was kind of irritated about it. But everything happens for a reason.”
After making a name for himself in track, Benson has done the same in football. He signed with Hutchinson Community College last year and his name is circulating fast with college recruiters.
One of his most recent offers came from Kansas, where he attended high school just miles from campus. The Kansas coaches spoke with him last week when they extended the offer.
“They were just talking to me about keeping me home,” Benson said. “I was excited to get it, because they are recruiting Kansas kids, and how they're trying to get that culture to have every kid that was born and raised there, come and change that culture. So, I'm excited to see them, check it out, see how they do this season, and hopefully get up there and see what everything's looking like.”
Coming out of high school Benson said he was getting interest to run track from schools like Texas Tech, LSU, North Carolina, Houston and others. He said he did not have the grades and went the junior college route.
His stock is on the rise and recently added an offer from Georgia, along with Kansas State, Auburn, Tennessee, Iowa State, Texas Tech to name a few.
“It's really exciting,” Benson said of the recruiting interest. “It's just mind blowing that looking back to when I committed to Hutch, I had these goals to get offers. It showed me to believe in yourself and putting in all the hard work, you can do anything you put your mind to.”
Benson said he plans to get out and look at colleges soon. He still has his sophomore season next fall but plans to graduate in December. He will not have a lot of time to make visits after his season starts.
“The main thing I'm really looking forward to is just finding a place that feels like home,” he said. “Somewhere that I feel comfortable the next two years of my college career, I can go, and I can put up the numbers. Somewhere that just feels like one family, I'm not just there for football. I’m looking for a place that's going to develop me to get me to the next level, which is the NFL.”
