Texas Football: 3 freshmen to watch heading into fall camp

Maalik Murphy, QB

A key position battle to watch on offense for the Longhorns in fall camp will be at quarterback. But the key battle in the quarterback room won’t be for the starting job.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy will duke it out with true freshman Arch Manning for the backup job in fall camp behind redshirt sophomore Quinn Ewers. Murphy has the edge on Manning heading into fall camp for the backup quarterback job.

Yet, it would be a mistake to count a quarterback as talented, and that was an early enrollee like Arch. The No. 1 rated quarterback recruit in the nation in the 2023 class had extra time to soak in Sark’s offensive concepts and to fix any mistakes he made during spring ball and in 7v7 work during the summer.

Meanwhile, Murphy finally stayed healthy enough this offseason to show off the insane arm talent he brings. Murphy participated in the latter stages of spring ball and looked good during the spring game. He also was a full participant throughout much of summer workouts.

Inside Texas reported (paid content) that Murphy got to “show off” his confidence and big arm in 7v7 this summer. This report also noted that Murphy is “still young and developing and nowhere close to his ceiling”.

It sounds like Murphy will be the second-team quarterback heading into fall practice in a few days, but Arch will be right on his heels. Murphy needs to display more maturity and consistency in his decision-making in training camp to solidify the backup quarterback job over Arch.