Texas Football: 3 biggest remaining position battles heading into season

Backup QB

Candidates: Maalik Murphy, Arch Manning

The only position battle on this list that doesn’t involve a starting spot being on the line is the backup QB competition behind redshirt sophomore Quinn Ewers. True freshman Arch Manning and redshirt freshman Maalik Murphy are still duking it out for the backup quarterback job heading into the season.

Early in the season, it will be a huge narrative to see which quarterback wins the backup job heading into Big 12 play. Texas has some key opportunities to get these younger quarterback valuable live-game reps in the non-conference slate against teams like Rice and the Wyoming Cowboys on Sep. 16.

Moreover, Murphy looked like the favorite to win the backup quarterback spot coming out of spring ball. Murphy got solid reps in late in spring drills and in the spring game on April 15.

But Manning has come on strong in the latter portion of fall camp and the two scrimmages. Arch showed great speed and awareness during the two scrimmages, including a 70+ yard touchdown run a couple of weekends ago.

Meanwhile, Murphy had more ups and downs than Arch, from what we heard in the last two weeks of fall practice. It sounds like Murphy is still getting his feet wet in the offense, which makes sense, given this is his first full offseason of reps in the program after he dealt with injury last year as a true freshman.

Jeff Howe of Horns247 projected Murphy to win the backup quarterback job over Manning heading into Week 1 against Rice in his final projected two-deep depth chart ahead of the season. Howe reported that Manning’s “recent surge in practice has put him squarely in the mix” to push Murphy for the backup job this fall.

Quarterback depth proved critical last season for the Longhorns when Ewers went down with injury in Week 2 against Alabama. Texas needs a solidified backup quarterback ready to assume live-game reps this fall if anything happens to Ewers.