Three things from Sark: Maalik Murphy's growth, issues with officiating, injury updates

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke about plenty of topics on Monday, starting with an update on Quinn Ewers before diving into a number of other questions stemming from the Longhorns’ win over Kansas State and looking forward to a Big 12 matchup in Fort Worth on Saturday with TCU.

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Here are three things to know from his press conference.

Lessons learned for Maalik Murphy

During his most recent outing versus Kansas State, Longhorns backup quarterback Maalik Murphy threw two interceptions. One of them was an indefensible throw to offensive lineman Hayden Conner on a busted screen play, the other was a deep pass intended for Johntay Cook. Cook fell down on his route, but the ball was still in the vicinity of several KSU defenders.

Those two interceptions were the only two converted turnover opportunities converted on Murphy passes by the Wildcats, but they had several more.

Sarkisian spoke after Saturday’s game about the value of taking a sack or throwing the ball away in order to maintain possession even if for a punt. He elaborated on that thought Monday as it pertains to his young quarterback.

“You don’t get to have the consequences in practice when you throw an interception and you force a ball because you’re going through the script of practice and you’ve got to get certain plays repped and done,” Sarkisian said. “In game, you throw that interception, you’re off the field, they get the ball on your eight yard-line or whatever it is, and they score a touchdown. That impacts everybody.

“Sometimes you have to have the real life experience. You have to have some of those growing pains to understand the value of those types of plays. And they’re the least sexiest plays for a quarterback. It is a tough thing to do.”

For Murphy, he’s going through many of the growing pains Ewers went through as a redshirt freshman in 2022. There are times when he trusts his arm to make plays that probably came easy in high school, even though those windows aren’t open at the Power 5 level. He has panicked under pressure, something every young quarterback has to adjust to in college football.

That doesn’t mean Sarkisian is giving up on Murphy, far from it. With Ewers only “day-to-day,” there’s a scenario when Murphy plays quarterback for the Longhorns this Saturday at TCU. If he does, Sarkisian wants to see No. 6 improve in that area because it’s one where he desperately needs to get better.

Sarkisian also discussed how they try to tailor the plays called to the strengths of the quarterback. That hasn’t included any designed or improvised runs for Murphy. Where Ewers has run for five touchdowns and moved the chains a number of times with his legs this year, those opportunities haven’t been given to or taken by the Longhorns’ backup.

Part of that likely is the injury situation with Ewers and Sarkisian not wanting to rely on third-string quarterback Arch Manning, talented though he may be. Another aspect is that’s just not one of Murphy’s strengths. That’s something Sarkisian said on Monday in every way but actually saying it.

“Everybody is a little bit different in their skill set and their strengths,” Sarkisian said. “We just try to get them to play to their strengths, and then work on those other things while we’re trying to build momentum as a player.”

With Ewers’ improved status, it may not be something Murphy is able to prove on a live field this Saturday. If Texas’ regular starter is unable to go in Fort Worth, Murphy will have to show marked improvement elsewhere in order to help Texas leave Amon G. Carter Stadium with a win.

“I think that he learns from that,” Sarkisian said of Murphy. “The sign of a really good player is that they don’t make the same mistakes twice and that they learn from those things. Maalik is a very conscientious young man, and I think he’ll learn from that.”

Officiating

Officiating has been a storyline among Texas faithful this year in relation to the Longhorns’ leaving the Big 12 for the SEC after the 2023 season. So far, Texas opponents have not been penalized often, and some flags against opponents that appear obvious to Longhorn fans have not been thrown.

Sarkisian spoke about that on Monday in relation to holding penalties, especially as it pertains to Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat.

“As far as what’s called and what’s not, I know this: In my opinion we have the two most dominant defensive interior linemen in the country, and if not the country in our conference, and I’m not sure they’ve gotten a holding penalty called on either of them this year,” Sarkisian said. “I’m not sure how that adds up, but I’ve just got to keep getting those guys to play hard and be committed to trying to affect the run game and the pass game that way.”

He also mentioned the same as it relates to pass interference and holding, including a missed call on Xavier Worthy versus Kansas State.

“Same when we throw the football,” Sarkisian said. “I love when I line up and I see No. 1 and (Adonai Mitchell) out there together. I know they’re a problem for our opponents. I recognize people are going to do things to try to minimize their effectiveness to the game. We’re going to take advantage of those opportunities when they’re. If things get called, they get called. If they don’t, we just don’t have a lot of time to complain about it.”

Asked what his recourse is with the league, Sarkisian explained it this way.

“What I do every week is I send in plays that I think there should have been a call, or could this have been called, or why wasn’t this called,” Sarkisian said. “We get the information back, and we try to coach off of it.”

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Injury updates

Sarkisian provided an injury update on all the players who are dinged up.

“I think the thing that was probably the most encouraging thing for me today was that everybody practiced. That was awesome. We’ve gone about a month now or so where certain guys have been out, certain guys have been limited. The beauty of today’s practice? Everybody was out there.

“(Jalen) Catalon was back out there. (Kitan) Crawford was out there. Kelvin (Banks) was out there. Christian Jones was out there. So that was a real positive. Naturally, as the week goes on, we’re going to have to monitor all these guys and figure out who can really contribute to the game, how much, and what is that going to look like. For a Monday, for all of them to be out there today, that was really encouraging for me.”