Steve Sarkisian details expectations for Maalik Murphy in first start

While these may not be the conditions he dreamed of, Maalik Murphy is making his first start for Texas on Saturday against BYU. Murphy steps in for an injured Quinn Ewers, taking over a 6-1 team still having hopes of a Big 12 championship and the College Football Playoff. While Steve Sarkisian did not totally dismiss the idea of Arch Manning, Murphy is going to get his shot.

So what are Sarkisian’s expectations of Murphy? First up, he understands no quarterback is going to play a perfect game. Sarkisian has been around some pretty good ones during his time as a coach. There are going to be mistakes made by everyone, let alone a redshirt freshman in his first start.

“In a perfect world, he finds rhythm, stays hot, plays a great four quarters, and that’s how the game goes,” Sarkisian said. “The reality of it is, most football games don’t go that way. I’ve yet to find a quarterback that goes 30 for 30 and everything is perfect and makes every perfect read.”

Murphy was the first quarterback to sign with Sarkisian out of the 2022 recruiting class. He has been learning the system ever since, redshirting his freshman season and now sitting behind Ewers through seven games plus a bye week.

Sarkisian just wants to make sure they are all on the same page entering the game. And when those mistakes inevitably happen, there needs to be a plan in place to recalibrate with one another.

“So, I try to gauge — is he seeing what he’s supposed to be seeing? Are his eyes where they’re supposed to be? Can he get fooled on coverages? Of course, he can,” Sarkisian said. “Can he get fooled on RPOs? Of course, he can. But as long as he can tell me what he saw and why — then I’m okay.

“If he does get a little bit out of rhythm, how do I do a good job of getting him back into rhythm?”

Sarkisian mainly mentioned the run game as a good way to reset the offense. Even if Ewers was out there, a healthy dose of touches for Jonathon Brooks and CJ Baxter were likely to be called. It’s just the nature of how Sarkisian calls his plays.

Texas will be hoping they play a clean enough game where Murphy himself does not have to be the reason they beat BYU.