Texas Football: Maalik Murphy is ‘way ahead of last year’ after spring ball

One of the biggest storylines heading into the spring game for Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian last weekend was the DKR debut of freshman quarterbacks such as Maalik Murphy and early enrollee Arch Manning. Maalik and Arch both got live spring game reps under their belt for the first time in their respective collegiate careers during the Orange-White spring football game at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on April 15.

But the former of those two freshman quarterbacks, Murphy, was the one that stole the show with some nice throws during the spring game. Murphy showed off the arm strength we saw out of him on his high school highlight film and in recruiting camp and combine settings a couple of years ago.

The highlighting throw that Murphy made during the spring game was a 79-yard bomb to true freshman wide receiver and early enrollee Johntay Cook II that went for a long touchdown. Murphy had a handful of other nice throws that highlighted his arm strength and timing on the ball during the spring game.

Moreover, Murphy definitely had a big spring game for the Longhorns. And it’s easy to get caught up in all the excitement surrounding the direction of his game coming out of spring camp.

That’s why it’s good to hear the other practice reports and buzz in and around the program surrounding the progress that Murphy made this spring. We heard that Murphy made some significant strides in the latter stages of spring camp, once he was able to return from a lower-body injury that limited him in the first week of drills.

Texas football QB Maalik Murphy made significant strides to close out spring ball

Eric Nahlin of Inside Texas reported on April 21 (paid content) that Murphy was in the midst of a group of Longhorns players that were some of the most improved year-over-year in spring ball this offseason. The rest of the group that was mentioned by a team source was redshirt freshman defensive lineman Jaray Bledsoe and redshirt freshman safety BJ Allen Jr.

It sounds like Murphy took some by surprise within the program with his strong showing in the spring game. But there were others that weren’t too shocked by his performance at DKR in the spring game last weekend given the strides that he showed on the practice fields in the weeks prior.

What was nice to hear about in various practice reports in the last few weeks of spring ball was the “NFL” arm that Murphy has on him. And then we got to see all that arm talent come together on the field on a few nice throws last weekend.

All in all, it was big for Murphy to show out this spring. He’s going to duke it out with Arch in the competition to win the backup quarterback job in fall camp. And having a strong conclusion to spring ball should give Murphy a leg up in that backup position battle.

Murphy is part of a very strong quarterback room for the Longhorns this year that also includes two former No. 1 rated recruits in the nation in their respective classes in Arch and redshirt sophomore Quinn Ewers.