Maalik Murphy Leads Texas Longhorns Past BYU Cougars in First Start

He wasn't perfect, but Maalik Murphy guided the Texas Longhorns to their first win with him under center on Saturday.

Matt Galatzan | Oct 28, 2023

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Texas Longhorns

AUSTIN, TX -- Maalik Murphy made his first start under center for the Texas Longhorns on Saturday in front of a packed house at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

And while his performance was far from perfect, the redshirt freshman shined throughout, leading the Longhorns to an easy 35-6 win over the BYU Cougars.

From the get-go, Muprhy looked sharp on his initial drive, completing his first couple of passes, before the Longhorns came up short on a third down, and punted away.

Then after a couple of mistakes and a Xavier Worthy punt return touchdown, the Longhorns were able to get their first offensive score of the day, with Jonathon Brooks powering his way across the goal line to make the score 14-0.

Murphy then fumbled on the next drive, leading to a BYU field goal.

However, the redshirt freshman bounced back in a big way on his next opportunity, cashing in for the first touchdown pass of his Longhorns career on a 30-yard strike to Adonai Mitchell, making it 21-3 Texas.

Texas Longhorns quarterback Maalik Murphy (6) reacts after throwing a touchdown pass during the first half against the Brigham Young Cougars at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. / Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

Then two drives later, Murphy got the Horns in the end zone once again, hitting Mitchell for the second connection of the game between the two players, and ostensibly sealing the game for the Longhorns.

Jaydon Blue would then cap off the scoring for Texas with a long touchdown run with less than two minutes to go, making it 35-6.

Murphy finished his debut completing 16 of 25 passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns.

Meanwhile, throughout Murphy's impressive debut, the Longhorns defense had a desperately-needed bounce-back performance on defense, holding the Cougars to just 12 first-quarter yards, and less than 300 for the game before garbage time.

Following the win, the Longhorns will now turn their attention toward the 6-2 Kansas State Wildcats, who invade Austin next weekend after shutting out the Houston Cougars 41-0 on Saturday.

The Longhorns struggled to beat that same Cougars team only a week ago, escaping TDECU Stadium in Houston with a 31-24 win.

Published Oct 28, 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.