Steve Sarkisian reveals what he has learned about Maalik Murphy, Arch Manning

Losing Quinn Ewers to injury against Houston could have ended in disaster. Instead, Malik Murphy came in to replace him, salvaging a 31-24 victory and keeping Texas‘ College Football Playoff hopes alive.

Now that Murphy has been shoehorned into the starting quarterback role for the first time in his career, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian explained how Murphy — and backup quarterback Arch Manning — have continued to impress him over the last several weeks.

“I learned that they have the ability to keep doing what they’ve been doing,” Sarkisian said during his media availability on Thursday. “They prepare really well. Again, I think they have great rapport with [quarterback coach AJ] Milwee. One thing that I learned a bit more about, which I felt coming in, is that they have great rapport with their teammates. Their teammates want these guys to play well if and when their number is called.

“It’s kind of, ‘Oh, Maalik is making his first career start? Well, we have to play well around him.’ Naturally, for anybody, there is going to be some excitement in his bones to want to go play good, so they make sure they play well around him.”

As Sarkisian pointed out, it’s not just Murphy who is hitting his stride at the perfect time this season. Manning has had his best practices of late, and the team is taking notice.

While Murphy will be the Longhorns’ starting quarterback, that doesn’t mean that Manning is going to be sitting on the sidelines like he was against Houston. With Texas heading into Week 9 as a 19-point favorite over BYU, a large enough leads might just force Sarkisian to throw the former Five Star Plus+ prospect into the matchup.

“Maalik’s going to start the game and go play in this game,” Sarkisian said. “I haven’t made a decision if I want to get Arch in there just to get him in there or not, but we have discussed that some because I do think there’s some valuable experience for him in that. But, I have to make that’s in the best interest of the team.”

If one thing is for sure, the fans inside DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium would erupt for the man who everyone believes to be the future of the program. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET live on ABC.