'This has been great': Former Duke QB Maalik Murphy details Auburn football visit

‘This has been great’: Former Duke QB Maalik Murphy details Auburn football visit

Posted by Admin December 12, 2024 Football

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AUBURN — The first quarterback to visit Auburn football during this transfer portal cycle, former Duke Blue Devil Maalik Murphy “checked a lot of boxes” after two days on the Plains.

“This has been great,” Murphy said Wednesday morning. “Being here, being able to meet all the coaches, and be around the facilities, see the place for my first time. I’ve never been to Auburn before, and I like what I see so far.”

After entering the portal Monday, Auburn was Murphy’s first visit, he said. He also said he does not have any other visits lined up at the moment, nor does he have a timetable for his commitment.

Murphy was high on Auburn’s coaching staff, particularly head coach Hugh Freeze and quarterbacks coach Kent Austin, noting that having an offensive-minded was a big positive for him.

“That’s huge for a quarterback, being able to relate to his head coach, and him being the guy that’s calling your play,” Murphy said. “So it’s been good to see it and kind of take mental notes of how I can see myself in the offense and produce.”

Who is Maalik Murphy? More on the Auburn football transfer prospect

Murphy is a consensus top-five quarterback in this portal cycle, with 247Sports listing him as the No. 2 passer in the portal and On3 listing him at No. 5. He’s also considered the No. 12 and No. 26 player, respectively, by those sites.

He transferred to Duke from Texas for his junior season and won the starting job, putting up productive numbers during the Blue Devils’ 9-3 campaign.

In 12 games, he threw for 2,933 yards and 26 touchdowns while completing a career-best 60.3% of his passes. He had one contest in which he threw for fewer than 205 yards, and three games with one of fewer touchdown passes.

In two seasons at Texas, Murphy played in seven games and made two starts. He redshirted his freshman season, so all seven of his appearances came as a sophomore in 2023. The Longhorns were 2-0 in his two starts, in which he was 35-62 (56.4%) passing with 418 pass yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.

The Inglewood, California, native was a four-star recruit out of high school, ranked as such by three of the four major recruiting sites. Both 247 and Rivals considered him a top-10 quarterback and top-200 player nationally, and composite rankings from 247 graded Murphy out as a five-star.

He chose Texas over UCLA, but had offers from 25 Power Five programs, including Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Florida LSU, Miami, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State and USC, among several others.

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.