Trey Benson remembers the day immediately. December 1st, the Tuesday practice before Oregon's game at Cal, the freshman running back suffered a season-ending knee injury. "Basically," Benson said. "I tore everything." Benson tore his anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament, lateral meniscus, medial meniscus and another tendon. He missed spring practice and lost over 20 pounds following surgery because he couldn't workout his lower body and felt down in wake of the injury. Benson gained the weight back this summer and has been back on the field through the first week of fall camp and says he's 95% recovered and "should be back before Sept. 4" when the Ducks open the season against Fresno State."I'm way stronger upper body now," Benson said. "I'm probably one of the strongest; me and CJ (Verdell) are probably close upper-body wise. I got better mentally as well too...I used to be negative all the time. Now, positive is the key." With Verdell and Travis Dye atop Oregon's depth chart for a third straight season, the competition at running back is for a complementary or situational role. Cyrus Habibi-Likio did that the past few years but is now at Boise State. Sean Dollars showed he was a viable option to take over but an offseason knee injury will keep him out well into the season. - The Oregonian