Kansas State Wildcats Coach Chris Klieman Impressed With 'Tremendous' Texas Longhorns QB Maalik Murphy

Maalik Murphy is set to get his second start for the Longhorns on Saturday against the Kansas State Wildcats.

Matt Galatzan | Oct 31, 2023

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Texas Longhorns

The No. 7 Texas Longhorns are set for a big test on Saturday, with the No. 25 Kansas State Wildcats matching into Austin coming off a 41-0 shutout of the Houston Cougars.

The Longhorns are also coming off of a dominant win on Saturday, blowing out the BYU Cougars 35-6 at Darrell K. Royal.

Outside of a suffocating defensive effort, one of the main reasons behind the Longhorns' win was the play of redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy, who made the first start of his career vs. the Cougars.

And when asked about the rocket-armed freshman, Kansas State coach Chris Klieman heaped praise on the Texas gunslinger, who is set to make his second start on Saturday.

"You'd like to have more (film), would like to have a bigger sample size," Klieman said. "I think they did some things with him to try and get him going early throwing the football... He's been in that system now for a while and they have a lot of confidence in him. You can see that he's got tremendous, tremendous arm talent, and I think he sees the field well.'

Maalik Murphy vs. BYU / © Sara Diggins, Austin American-Statesman

Murphy was far from perfect in his starting debut, throwing an interception and losing a fumble to the BYU defense - both of which were bad decisions and could have been easily avoided.

That said, Murphy still completed 16 of his 25 passes for 170 yards and two scores, showing great potential throughout the matchup - something that Klieman attributed to the freshman's patience in the pocket.

Oh, and the Longhorns' elite collection of playmakers around Murphy as well.

"I think he's got patience in the pocket, so when you can make all the throws and are patient in the pocket, you're really dangerous," Klieman said. "Plus, he's got tremendous guys to throw the ball to and hand the ball to. I would love to have another game or two on him but that's what we have."

Murphy and the Horns will take the field against Kansas State at 11 am CT in Austin, with the game set to be broadcast on FOX.

Published Oct 31, 2023

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.