While the Texas Longhorns are heading to the Sugar Bowl to take on the Washington Huskies in the College Football Playoffs, one of their quarterbacks will not be joining them.
Maalik Murphy will be entering the transfer portal, he told ESPN Wednesday night.
“I hate it, I hate it,” Murphy told ESPN about missing the College Football Playoff. “I’m super invested in this team. Everything that we’ve done along the way and all the work we’ve put in together. It’s hard to walk away, especially at this point during the season.”
Since Murphy will not be with the Longhorns in the College Football Playoff, true freshman Arch Manning will be backing up Quinn Ewers. That is obviously significant because Manning now has an avenue to start for the Longhorns if anything happens to Ewers, which could entice him to stay at the program.
Murphy, a redshirt freshman, started a pair of games for the Longhorns this year when Evers was injured. He led Texas to a pair of wins, a 35-6 victory over the BYU Cougars and a 33-30 overtime victory over the Kansas State Wildcats. He went 34-for-62 for 418 yards and three touchdowns to go with three interceptions.
He will be one of the most sought-after players in the transfer portal. Plenty of teams are still looking for a quarterback, including the Syracuse Orange, Louisville Cardinals, Florida State Seminoles, Duke Blue Devils, and many more. Murphy was a four-star recruit in the class of 2022. He is originally from Gardena, California.
[ESPN]
