Texas Officially Names Starting Quarterback For BYU Game
Oct 26, 2023, 12:10 PM | Updated: 12:14 pm
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian officially announced on Thursday who will start at quarterback for the Longhorns against BYU.
No surprise, redshirt freshman Maalik Murphy is getting the nod to start at quarterback for Quinn Ewers, who is out with a shoulder injury.
“I think naturally all the players know, ‘Hey, Maalik’s making his first career start. We need to play well around him.’ That’s natural for anybody. There’s going to be some excitement in his bones and his veins to want to go out and play good. Let’s make sure we play well around him.”
Maalik Murphy will be the Texas starting quarterback against BYU
Murphy is 6-foot-5, 238 pounds out of Inglewood, California. Coming out of Junipero Serra High School, Murphy was a four-star prospect and No. 179 in the 247Sports Composite rankings for the class of 2022.
He will be making his first career start.
Arch Manning appearance?
There was speculation about what Texas would do at quarterback when Sarkisian said earlier this week the No. 1 quarterback in the 2023 recruiting class, Arch Manning would also get first-team quarterback reps with Murphy.
Sarkisian didn’t rule out the idea of getting some snaps to Manning in the game.
“Maalik’s going to start the game and go play this game. I haven’t made a decision if I’m going to get Arch in there or not. We have discussed that some. Because I do think there’s some valuable experience for him in that. But I have to make sure that it is in the best interest of the team.”
BYU football is getting used to backup quarterbacks
BYU is entering its third consecutive week against a Big 12 opponent with a backup quarterback. The Cougars had success shutting down true freshman Jake Strong at Texas Tech. But they allowed a career day to redshirt freshman Josh Hoover from TCU two weeks ago.
BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill wants to continue with business as usual.
“We’ve got to anticipate that the backup quarterback plays better than the starter. He’s got elite talent around him. They’ve got a great run game; they got a great throwing game. We’ve got to do some things, obviously, to try to confuse them in the run game and the throw game. This is business as usual. We need to just handle our business first and foremost. It doesn’t really matter who’s the quarterback out there. We’ve got to expect they’re going to play their best.”
BYU vs. No. 7 Texas
Date: Saturday, October 28, 2023
Location: Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium
Kickoff: 1:30 p.m. (MT)
TV: ABC
Radio: KSL NewsRadio (102.7 FM, 1160 AM) — Extended pregame coverage begins at 9 a.m.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X and Threads: @Mitch_Harper.
