Texas Football: 5 overreactions after Longhorns’ stomping of BYU

Maalik Murphy has the best deep ball in the Big 12

Every week, it seems like we have one or two overreactions that are still pretty overblown in their own right. And this is one of them.

Saying that Murphy has the best deep ball in the Big 12 is not only a premature take after just one start this season, but it is also underselling his ability when he gets more comfortable in this offense in the weeks to come (depending on how long Ewers is out for with the shoulder injury).

Nonetheless, Murphy impressed with his composure and confidence in leading this offense after the two early turnovers that BYU forced in this game. After the first quarter against BYU, Murphy completed 9-of-14 passing attempts for 118 yards, two passing touchdowns, and no interceptions.

Murphy also didn’t have any turnover-worthy plays in the final 45 minutes of this game. This ability of Murphy to respond to adversity after two early turnovers in his first career start against a 5-2 conference foe is an encouraging sign of where his game is headed.

It’s also noteworthy that Murphy could show off more of that arm talent we all know he brings once he got more settled into the offense in the second quarter. In the final 45 minutes against BYU, Murphy had three big-time throws, all having at least 11 air yards.

No other Big 12 starting quarterback had more big-time throws or a better big-time throw percentage (12.0) than Murphy.

Basically, Murphy found a rhythm in the intermediate and deep passing game and delivered the ball where it needed to go in many of those situations against the Cougars.

We should see Sark having even more confidence in Murphy to make these big-time throws in the intermediate and deep passing game in the coming weeks after he was able to get out some of the first-start jitters against BYU this weekend.