QB Murphy: Wanted ‘fresh start,’ found it at Duke

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Duke quarterback Maalik Murphy said Wednesday he could not have asked for a better fresh start, following his decision to transfer from Texas.

Murphy said once he learned Quinn Ewers would return as the starter, he decided to find a school where he could compete for the starting job.

“This is my third year in college, so if I’m going to compete, I want to compete with a new place,” Murphy said during ACC Kickoff. “Quinn coming back makes it pretty tough on me just because it was his job to lose, and I didn’t really want to deal with a situation like that again. I wanted a fresh start, and I feel like this is a great place to have a fresh start.”

Murphy spent last season as the backup to Ewers and started two games after Ewers got hurt. He won them both. All eyes have been on the Texas quarterback room since Arch Manning arrived last season as a true freshman. Murphy said there was never any animosity there.

“It was great because all the pressure was on them,” Murphy said. “I didn’t have to do anything besides play football. They both love me to death. There was no tension between us. It was all outside noise, which none of us cared about. We’re just a couple guys being dudes.”

In fact, he enjoyed the relative anonymity he had in Austin when the players would go out together.

“That was the fun part,” Murphy said. “Because I’m the type of guy to joke about stuff like that. We would go out to eat as quarterbacks and people would come up to me and ask me, ‘Bro, is that Arch Manning? And I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s Arch, you should go talk to him,’ then not even know I’m one of the quarterbacks in the room. I’m good with not having the most attention in a room. That doesn’t that doesn’t faze me at all. I’m fine without it. So yeah, it was a treasure being with those dudes.”

When Murphy entered the portal last December, first-year coach Manny Diaz decided to make a play for the former Elite 11 quarterback, with Duke starter Riley Leonard gone to Notre Dame.

Diaz had an old photo of Murphy, when he was a middle schooler attending a football camp at Miami — where Diaz previously worked. Murphy said when he got the text he was shocked Diaz still had it.

“The standpoint of me knowing I met him, I talked to him before, made me comfortable enough to take my talents to where he was coaching.”

Diaz described Murphy as a gifted passer, and knew that Murphy had started big games in big environments. But he also knew convincing Murphy to come to Duke — which had lost head coach Mike Elko to Texas A&M, Leonard and other key players to the transfer portal — would be a huge win for his locker room, too.

“There was this malaise, and I got hired, and that helps a little, but I just felt like I had to make a big move,” Diaz said. “When he walked in, our players being like, ‘Oh, wow, OK, this is different.’ It definitely helped with the narrative and convincing them we can do things.”

Murphy is in a competition with Grayson Loftis for the starting job, one that will continue into the fall. Loftis had planned to redshirt as a true freshman last season, but ended up playing in eight games — including five starts — after injuries to both Leonard and Henry Belin IV.

“One of the things I said when I first walked into the room was, ‘Hey man, this is how I am,’ and I let them know I want the best for you guys and I want the best for me, and I want you to push me as hard as I push you, and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing,” Murphy said.