Texas Football: Maalik Murphy recruiting 4-Star WR Brenen Thompson

A highly anticipated season debut arrived for one of the top commits in the 2022 Texas football recruiting class last weekend, with four-star Junipero Serra quarterback Maalik Murphy. Texas and new head coach Steve Sarkisian went all-in on the recruitment of the California native Murphy more than six months ago.

And Murphy was one of the marquee initial commits that Sark and the Longhorns landed for either the 2022 or 2023 class. He is one of a double-digit number of blue-chip commits now in the Longhorns 2022 class. Hopefully, there will be more on the way soon.

Murphy got his first action of the California high school football season last season with Junipero Serra, but it resulted in a two-possession loss. The four-star Texas commit did throw did costly interceptions in this game on what ended up being an injury-laden team when it was all said and done. Murphy’s top three wideouts were all out by the end of this game.

In a piece with Horns247 on Aug. 23, Murphy talked about the developments in his game, and how his recruitment has gone since his commitment to Texas back on Feb. 13. Murphy noted that he wasn’t too happy with some of the mistakes he made in the season opener, but that he’s positive that he and a lot of his teammates held their heads high down the stretch.

This report also notes that Murphy’s body language and leadership around his teammates when Serra was down in the second half was much better than it was at times in similar situations last season.

Texas football looking to use the Maalik Murphy-Brenen Thompson connection for good

Moreover, an important part of some of the parts of this piece that Murphy talked about had to do with who he’s recruiting. Murphy specifically tabbed a speedster and four-star Spearman (TX) wide receiver Brenen Thompson as to who he’s recruiting to join him in the Longhorns 2022 class.

Last week, Thompson included the Longhorns amid his top three schools. The other two schools that sit among Thompson’s finalists are the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Texas A&M Aggies. That was a good sign for Texas that the likes of the Clemson Tigers and Oregon Ducks were cut in this round of finalist schools for the in-state wideout.

Moreover, a strong senior campaign from Murphy for Serra could do a lot to officially win over the interests of some of the top skill position targets of the Longhorns 2022 class. Top wideouts such as Thompson, and five-stars Evan Stewart and Kevin Coleman are some particular names of importance to watch for Longhorns fans.

Texas looks to have Thompson pretty high on their board of the top remaining uncommitted 2022 prospects. He ranks as the nation’s No. 87 2022 high school prospect, No. 11 wide receiver, and No. 15 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite).