On Thursday afternoon, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian announced that second-year quarterback Maalik Murphy would be the team’s starter for Saturday afternoon’s game against the BYU Cougars due to the injury to shoulder injury to starting quarterback Quinn Ewers. But when reporters got to the stadium to cover the game on Saturday, the team’s official depth chart showed something a little surprising.
As Texas Longhorns beat writer Joe Cook of Inside Texas points out, Texas surprisingly listed both Maalik Murphy and Arch Manning as the team’s first-team quarterback on Saturday, listing Murphy “OR” Manning as
“FWIW, the flip card says OR,” Cook said on X, sharing a photo of the Texas Longhorns depth chart appearing to list Murphy and Manning as co-starters for this week’s game.
FWIW, the flip card says OR pic.twitter.com/Bso2MQ922g
— Joe Cook (@josephcook89) October 28, 2023
It’s a pretty surprising turn of events given that Sarkisian previously announced that Murphy would be the starter and wouldn’t even commit to the idea of giving Manning any in-game reps on Saturday.
Obviously, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Manning will play, much less start, in the game. But it’s certainly interesting that Texas presumably thinks highly enough of Manning to list him as a co-starter along with Murphy heading into the game.
[Joe Cook]
