Texas Football: Maalik Murphy takes first-team practice reps on Monday

The headlines surrounding the Texas football program and head coach Steve Sarkisian are predominately for the quarterback situation. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Quinn Ewers suffered a reported (per ESPN’s Pete Thamel) Grade 2 AC joint sprain in his right shoulder in Texas’ narrow 31-24 win on the road on Oct. 21 over the Houston Cougars.

Ewers will reportedly miss “some time” with the shoulder injury he suffered on a sack against Houston in last weekend’s game. Sark also said in his press conference on Oct. 23 that Ewers will be “week-to-week”.

Murphy took over in the second half of the Houston game after Ewers went down the tunnel due to the shoulder injury. He completed 1-of-2 passing attempts for seven yards and led the Longhorns to one touchdown on two drives.

Texas football QB Maalik Murphy takes first-team practice reps early this week ahead of “likely” first start vs. BYU

ESPN also reported early this week that Sark and the Longhorns are “likely to start” redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy while Ewers is out with the shoulder injury.

Sark did say in his Monday press conference on Oct. 23 that if the game were played “today”, Murphy would be the starting quarterback. But Murphy and true freshman quarterback Arch Manning will both get first-team reps in practice to prepare for the Oct. 28 matchup at home against the BYU Cougars.

The coaching staff will design the offense around the quarterback’s strengths while taking a patient approach with their development in the system in preparation for live-game action.

"“I think in the we gotta take our time as a coaching staff, which we started on yesterday. What are the things that Maalki does well? What are the things that Arch does well? It’s not always about the idea of the play and putting it on a whiteboard, because there’s a lot of plays that look good.”"

There is a lot of excitement within the fan base, with Murphy likely to get his first start of his collegiate career on Oct. 28 against BYU.

Murphy takes the first-team reps in practice on Monday morning

CJ Vogel of TFB Texas reported on Oct. 23 (donor content) that Murphy received the first-team practice reps on Monday. Vogel also noted in this report that “Manning was able to carve out some snaps for himself” in Monday morning’s practice.

Assuming Murphy gets the start this weekend against BYU with Ewers dealing with the shoulder injury, it would be the first time Sark and the Longhorns have started a backup quarterback since Hudson Card got the nod with Quinn out last year vs. UTSA.