Florida State Lands Former Alabama And Top Juco Recruit Malik Benson

Florida State has just added another piece to its wide receiving core with the commitment of 6’1”, 185-pound senior Alabama wide receiver Malik Benson. This comes just two days after landing former LSU receiver Jalen Brown as Florida State continues to revamp its receiving core. 

Malik Bensen has certainly had quite the journey so far during his college career. Benson attended Lansing High School in Lansing, Kansas, where he recorded 1119 yards and 11 receiving touchdowns. After high school, as part of the 2021 class, Benson attended Hutchinson Community College, where he emerged as the number one junior college recruit after racking up 2,152 yards and 21 touchdowns. Benson eventually committed to Alabama and wasn’t able to see much playing time. 

During Benson’s limited time on the field, he recorded 13 receptions for 162 yards and one touchdown as the Tide fought its way into the final four after the CFP playoff committee ultimately decided to remove Florida State and insert Alabama.

Despite not playing a whole lot in 2023, Malik Benson provides big play potential and a deep-threat skill set to the Noles. Similar to Jalen Brown, Malik has blazing speed, as he ran a 10.4 in the 100-meter dash. Rather than being a shifty juke player like Jalen, Malik is more of a downfield deep-shot weapon. As we said with Jalen Brown, it will be very interesting to see how he fits in with this offense in the spring, as neither received a huge load of work in 2023. 

Florida State is eyeing several of Benson’s former teammates, most notably Alamaba running back Roydell Williams, and it will be interesting what kind of role both Malik Benson and Earl Little play in trying to recruit their former teammates into garnet and gold uniforms.

Florida State has added two transfer receivers in the last 48 hours, trying to build a receiving core that will provide a suitable replacement for the 2023 substance that featured guys like Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson. On top of that, the Noles received good news as veteran receiver Darion Williamson announced that he would be returning to Florida State after reaching an agreement with Battles End Collective.

Similar to Jalen Brown it is impossible to predict Malik Benson’s impact on Florida State’s offense in 2023 however both bring incredible big play potential which is something Florida State desperately needs in the wide receiver room.