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TEXAS QB TALK


LTtxfan

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14 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

Cowturd so wants to be right on his comparison of Ewers to Jay Cutler and Zach Wilson

Starts around 3:11 mark

I hope he's right...for 2024.  Also, Ewers was a freshman last year.  Surely no one progresses from their freshman year right?

Edited by Biff Tannen
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  • 2 weeks later...

#6    Maalik Murphy 

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Maalik Murphy season outlook

Injury after injury after injury kept Murphy limited for most of his first year on campus. When the quarterback room finally cleared up, he stepped into the backup role ahead of the Alamo Bowl and used the 15 available practices to put polish on a year-long process that saw a re-tooling of his throwing motion.

Murphy rode that momentum into the offseason, and he needed every bit of it when Arch Manning arrived in January. Quinn Ewers took hold of the starting spot during Texas’ spring drills leaving Murphy and Manning to duke it out for the backup role.

When the public was able to watch, Murphy put on a tremendous performance in the spring game. He showcased his arm strength and threw two touchdown-worthy passes in the Orange-White game, one caught by Johntay Cook and the other dropped by DeAndre Moore.

Murphy needed that strong step into the offseason because the most recent summer became the stage for a battle to be the backup with Manning. Murphy’s arm talent and improved processing has become apparent during the preseason, but so too has Manning’s pedigree and ability.

Murphy is in line to play behind Ewers this season for as long as he can hold off the uber-talented freshman. It’s something he’s capable of doing, but it will no doubt be a challenge.

Murphy did not see any game action last year as he rehabbed an ankle injury he suffered in his final game in high school. He was a member of the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll (spring 2023).

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Definition of Insanity... Where is Quinn's improvement

Quarterback      (Scipio Tex)

Ewers ran effectively and opportunistically for first downs and a touchdown and he looked good overall in the short to intermediate game. He was particularly slick on his RPO completions to Whittington, Worthy and Mitchell. On point reads, delivery and accuracy. We’ll need to see more of that. He finished 19 of 30 for 260 yards, 3 touchdown passes, 1 touchdown run (and two opportunistic first down scrambles) with no turnovers. Not a bad day at the office in isolation, but one also has to look at what was left on the field.

A lot was left on the field. The deep ball was totally inaccurate and it looked like last year. Sometimes it was poor mechanics (bad footwork, prolonged releases starting at the hip, throwing off of his back foot or hopping unnecessarily), sometimes it was putting unnecessary air on a ball that should go on a sharper line, sometimes it was just a bad ball to the worst spot (if a guy has two steps on the sideline and you can’t put it on him, err a little inside instead of throwing it out bounds – he’ll adjust and score). He missed a half dozen shots ranging in difficulty from easy to pretty hard. I’ll reiterate my opinion that Quinn’s ability to release accurately from different angles on intermediate throws without good mechanics is a curse on deep balls as they require consistency and replicability. Aim big, miss big.

We’re back to Sark’s conundrum. If the deep shots are there, but the QB can’t hit them, do you keep trying? That’s a lot to give up in an offense if you stop. Throwing 65 yard touchdowns is valuable. It’s also a lot of wasted downs and frustration that can leak into other areas when the QB fails. Or do you just keep focus on what Ewers can do, pick up the tempo to limit defensive adjustments and concentrate on distributing the ball to a talented wide receiver group in the short and intermediate game? Should Texas try different angles on deep balls? What can Ewers throw? I don’t know the answer, but most effective OC’s ultimately craft their offense to the thrower and then baby step expanding their games. Or they go get the thrower they want.

 

 

Final Thoughts

What you are willing to tolerate becomes the standard. Don’t talk about physicality if you don’t enforce it. Heading into Alabama and moving forward, right now Texas profiles as a spread and RPO based passing team that should play at a faster tempo to limit defensive adjustments, wear out defensive linemen with short drops and quick releases, and play more within the QB’s wheelhouse of the short to intermediate game. Playing the above style without some tempo destroys a good bit of the value proposition. I don’t have an easy answer on the Ewers deep ball conundrum and neither does Sark. Ultimately, some of these problems needed to be addressed in the offseason and weren't. But one game samples are always a lie. Texas won’t always play well. Playing really hard is not an option.

 

Edited by LTtxfan
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8 hours ago, lilMAC25 said:

He did well against Rice under blitz (but that is Rice). Gotta hope the pass catchers read the same hots as he does.

  It's all about matchups. Sometimes it's easier for offensive linemen to get their hands on big dudes. Rice is small and we struggled at times getting hands on smaller rushers. The most terrifying person to guard in basketball isn't the big man, its the really quick short guy that you can't keep in front of you. This issue will come up again and when it does how will we handle it? Even when VY was here we had games where we struggled up front. Quinn is going to have to stand in there and deliver. We will see how that goes moving forward. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

AUSTIN, Texas — Thankfully, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian didn’t need to figure out whether Arch Manning or Maalik Murphy would be better suited to fill in for Quinn Ewers through his team’s first six games. Ewers made it through a productive first half of the regular season unscathed from an injury standpoint and the Longhorns playing fourth-quarter games with Alabama, Wyoming and Oklahoma left few opportunities for the backup quarterbacks to see live action.

Nevertheless, the life of a reserve signal-caller is preparing each week for a game knowing you’re one play away from being the guy with the understanding playing time is far from guaranteed. The preparation Manning and Murphy continue to go through is critical to the development of the former blue-chip recruits and with the Longhorns heading to Houston for a Big 12 bout at TDECU Stadium on Saturday (3 p.m., Fox) as 23.5-point favorites over the Cougars, an opportunity could pop up for one or both of Ewers’ understudies to get into the game.

While Sarkisian was responding to a question posed to him on Monday regarding the bye-week development of players further down the depth chart, he said Manning and Murphy have “grown systematically in a real sense and understanding of what we're doing.” Although Sarkisian praised Manning specifically, it’s clear the No. 1 overall prospect in the Top247 for 2023 and Murphy need to keep making strides toward the kind of consistency required to man the most important position on the field because they're not yet there.

“I mentioned a couple of weeks ago: I thought Arch probably had his best practice that he'd had since he'd been here,” Sarkisian said. “Again, there's a level of consistency in that play: How do you carry that practice to the next one and the next one and the next one? That's always a challenge at the quarterback position for us.”

Manning has yet to make his Texas (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) debut, but Murphy has logged 22 snaps over three appearances according to Pro Football Focus. The 6-foot-5-inch, 238-pound redshirt freshman and former 247Sports four-star recruit (No. 197 overall in the Top247 for 2022) has gone 3-for-6 through the air for 40 yards, a sample not big enough to judge Murphy’s ability to run the offense at a point in a game when the outcome isn’t a foregone conclusion.

As enticing as it is to think about how Manning’s pedigree and innate ability behind center or Murphy’s arm talent and unique set of skills might translate to the position on a full-time basis, Sarkisian and AJ Milwee remain focused on developing both quarterbacks before determining what either one might bring to the table over the long haul.

Murphy figures to get the first opportunity to step up and prove himself worthy of the job if the Longhorns find themselves needing to turn to a backup quarterback. Regardless, Sarkisian wants Murphy and Manning to maintain the approach they’ve shown to be as prepared as possible for the moment when they’re asked to take the field, whether that’s on Saturday against Houston (3-3, 1-2) or somewhere else down the line.

“There's been great intent in that room with those guys working hard and working with Coach Milwee to take their game to another level,” Sarkisian said. “There's going to come a time — knock on wood — when their number is gonna get called and we're going to need them to play a high level of football to win a ballgame.” 

 

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  • 5 months later...

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