Texas Football: 3 key injured players that returned to practice this week
Maalik Murphy, QB
One of the biggest injury updates that we got coming out of the first spring practice of this week was the return of sophomore quarterback Maalik Murphy. For the first time since last fall, Murphy was a full participant in throwing drills.
Murphy jumped into the QB rotation in spring drills on March 21 with the second team behind redshirt sophomore Quinn Ewers. Murphy getting the second-team QB reps on March 21 meant true freshman quarterback Arch Manning was moved to the third team.
From everything we’ve heard and seen coming out of Murphy’s first practice of spring ball, he looked good in multiple respects. Not only did his footwork look improved compared to last year, but his throwing mechanics also appeared to be solid.
A look at Maalik Murphy back in throwing drills at practice this week! pic.twitter.com/g0DSozOIRw
— Hook'em Headlines (@HookemHeadlines) March 21, 2023
Sark certainly seemed encouraged by the way that Murphy looked upon his return to spring ball this week when he spoke on the second-year QB during his press conference on March 21.
"“It was great to have Maalik back out there. He had a minor setback at the end of winter conditioning. We were probably a little bit conservative with him that first week. Thinking ‘if we back off him the first week of spring ball and give him spring break, then he can get back and be going back again here in the second week of spring ball.’ So, that was positive to have him back.”"
It goes without saying that it is huge for Murphy to get back in the mix for QB drills for the Longhorns this spring. He needs all the practice reps he can get with the time he missed due to injury issues last year and in the first week of spring ball earlier this month.
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Murphy is expected to compete with Arch for the backup quarterback job behind Ewers heading into the fall. And for him to secure the backup job coming out of camp, Murphy will need to continue to show improvement in terms of his mechanics in the pocket and throwing motion. He’s definitely got all the talent in the world, but his development path was marred by injury in the last 15 months or so.