Maalik Murphy is set to wear his third different uniform in as many seasons after starting his career off at Texas as a high four-star prospect out of Gardena, California.
A member of the Longhorns’ 2021 class, Murphy is as physically gifted a quarterback as you’ll see in college football. At 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, Murphy was touted as a contender to be the quarterback of the future in Austin.
Then, Quinn Ewers came back to the Lone Star State, and to top things off, the Longhorns landed the recruit of the century in Arch Manning.
After playing sparingly in 2023, Murphy hit the transfer portal and found a soft landing with the Duke Blue Devils. There, he got a chance to be the starting quarterback and blossomed, setting a program single-season record for passing touchdowns (26) while completing 60.3% of his attempts for 2,933 yards.
Murphy played a massive role in the Blue Devils’ 9-4 campaign and appeared to be a solid piece for them to build around in 2025, but all of that went up in smoke when he entered the transfer portal.
Fast forward to March and he’s taking practice reps in Corvallis ahead of his redshirt junior season with Oregon State.
Murphy, now a traveled veteran, met with the media on Wednesday and made quite a surprising revelation. When asked about leaving Duke after a breakout season in 2024, Murphy said that the decision to leave wasn’t his own.
“100% wasn’t my choice to leave,” Murhpy said. “You know, I had to just take what it was and move on. So, you know, no hard feelings for how that situation kind of went down. It is what it is. I’m where I’m at now because of it, and I’m happy.”
Murphy nearly landed with Oregon State ahead of 2024, but chose to go East instead. Now, after his second run-in with the program, Murphy says that it feels like home.
“It really felt like home this time around. I know the first time I kind of came and visited, it was real late at night. I didn’t have a lot of time to kind of see the place. I could only go up to Coach Gundy’s office and watch film. So this time around I was able to get around the guys, kind of feel the whole atmosphere and you know really feel special like on my visit here, and that’s kind of what you want as a player and as a person, you know to feel welcomed and at home and that’s what I did that’s why I’m here.”
