Texas Football: 3 NCAA Transfer Portal OG Longhorns targets

An upgrade for the Texas football program compared to what Pines would bring to the table is the UCLA Bruins rising junior offensive guard Chris Murray. The Longhorns would be able to get maybe the best and most proven offensive guard in the transfer portal at this point in time if they were able to win over the interests of Murray.

In each of his first two seasons where he played for the Bruins, Murray played/started in a dozen games. He did well to help establish a better offensive line down the stretch during the 2018 and 2019 seasons under head coach Chip Kelly, who is still getting his program built up at UCLA. But this seemed like it was a bit too much for Murray to lose so much in this process under Kelly’s direction.

Although, Murray does have a lot of experience in successful run blocking schemes in front of a dual-threat quarterback like Dorian Thompson-Robinson and star running back Joshua Kelly. Last year, Kelly rushed for more than 1,000 yards and Thompson-Robinson amassed around 2,500 total yards from scrimmage and 25 touchdowns in his first full year as the starting quarterback.

Murray is a former four-star recruit and product of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, CA. He is a product of the same high school as former five-star Texas recruit Bru McCoy. Coming out of Mater Dei, Murray was rated as the nation’s No. 232 2018 high school prospect and the No. 9 offensive guard. He chose UCLA over other offers from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Iowa State Cyclones, Stanford Cardinal, Texas Tech Red Raiders, and Washington Huskies.

Landing Murray would give Texas an immediate impact offensive guard who could start right away.