Washington State quarterback John Mateer is going into the portal but supposedly with a no contact tag. If you will recall, mentioned that he would be of interest but then said that it had already come and gone as a possibility.
That leaves Maalik Murphy visiting from Duke, and I hear it's today. I've done plenty of digging and had conversations on Murphy, primarily with Conor O'Neill, who covers the Blue Devils here on the Rivals.com network and has a great perspective.
First off, he said that the first school linked to Murphy after he went into the portal was Auburn. Of course, they have taken a commitment from Oklahoma's Jackson Arnold. O'Neill told me that Kentucky is the second school to be linked to Murphy in a major way. There may have been a lot more going on behind the scenes, but this is the second thing that has evolved to talk of a visit.
I asked O'Neill how Murphy's first full season as a starter went and here's what he had to say:
"It was a rollercoaster. It was his first year as a starter. He had the two starts at Texas but the game plan for those games was don't wreck the bus on our way to the CFP. This year was really the first time he had a lot put on his plate at the college level. He had stretches where he looked like one of the best arms in the country. His arm talent is probably the best that I've seen between the guys I've covered at Duke for the last three years or Wake Forest the last eight years. But man, he can be inconsistent and he'd also have stretches of games where Duke's offense sputtered because he was missing some layup type throws. You felt like that got ironed out as the season went on as he got more comfortable.
"In their last game of the regular season they were down 17-3 to a four-win Wake Forest team. Then he got going and they won 23-17. To get into the (details), he threw a game-winning touchdown pass on the last play of the game against Wake Forest. He made the wrong play, it just happened to work out and Duke won the game. Duke had the ball at Wake's 39 with eight seconds left and at least one timeout. They were just looking to get a 5 to 7 yard route and fall down quickly to kick a 50-something yard field goal to win the game. Maalik told us postgame he stayed on the second route too long holding the ball. He made eye contact with Duke's best receiver, Jordan Moore, and he went deep. He got behind the corner and the safety was in the middle of the field, got it at the 10 and crossed the goal line with zeroes left on the clock. It was the wrong play but it wound up winning them their ninth game of the year.
"He's not a runner. He has no desire to be a running quarterback. He wants to sit in the pocket an unleash balls. Probably the biggest area of growth from Game 1 to Game 12 was how much he improved at buying himself time. In the first half of the season if there was even the slightest bit of pressure that got to him you never felt like he could extend the play. He started doing that more in the second half of last year. It's fine if you're a pocket quarterback but Duke wasn't putting five draft picks in front of him as pass blockers. I don't know what Kentucky's offensive line looks like. I started comparing him to Mac Jones about halfway through the year. If you put NFL talent around him and don't ask him to run zone reads or RPOs he might be able to win a national championship. But with the talent Duke had around him it never felt like it was a perfect fit. I think more of a pro-style offense would be better. The numbers won't reflect that he was bad in the pocket but a lot of that has to do with Duke getting the ball out of his hands as quick as possible. The PFF number I always tried to bring up on Mondays and Tuesdays was his time to throw. It was almost always under three seconds. It was very much pop passes and jet sweeps. They did everything they could to minimize the risk of having him take three and five step drops to throw the ball. They took those shots every now and then but the sack number was low and that had a lot to do with play calling."
That leaves Maalik Murphy visiting from Duke, and I hear it's today. I've done plenty of digging and had conversations on Murphy, primarily with Conor O'Neill, who covers the Blue Devils here on the Rivals.com network and has a great perspective.
First off, he said that the first school linked to Murphy after he went into the portal was Auburn. Of course, they have taken a commitment from Oklahoma's Jackson Arnold. O'Neill told me that Kentucky is the second school to be linked to Murphy in a major way. There may have been a lot more going on behind the scenes, but this is the second thing that has evolved to talk of a visit.
I asked O'Neill how Murphy's first full season as a starter went and here's what he had to say:
"It was a rollercoaster. It was his first year as a starter. He had the two starts at Texas but the game plan for those games was don't wreck the bus on our way to the CFP. This year was really the first time he had a lot put on his plate at the college level. He had stretches where he looked like one of the best arms in the country. His arm talent is probably the best that I've seen between the guys I've covered at Duke for the last three years or Wake Forest the last eight years. But man, he can be inconsistent and he'd also have stretches of games where Duke's offense sputtered because he was missing some layup type throws. You felt like that got ironed out as the season went on as he got more comfortable.
"In their last game of the regular season they were down 17-3 to a four-win Wake Forest team. Then he got going and they won 23-17. To get into the (details), he threw a game-winning touchdown pass on the last play of the game against Wake Forest. He made the wrong play, it just happened to work out and Duke won the game. Duke had the ball at Wake's 39 with eight seconds left and at least one timeout. They were just looking to get a 5 to 7 yard route and fall down quickly to kick a 50-something yard field goal to win the game. Maalik told us postgame he stayed on the second route too long holding the ball. He made eye contact with Duke's best receiver, Jordan Moore, and he went deep. He got behind the corner and the safety was in the middle of the field, got it at the 10 and crossed the goal line with zeroes left on the clock. It was the wrong play but it wound up winning them their ninth game of the year.
"He's not a runner. He has no desire to be a running quarterback. He wants to sit in the pocket an unleash balls. Probably the biggest area of growth from Game 1 to Game 12 was how much he improved at buying himself time. In the first half of the season if there was even the slightest bit of pressure that got to him you never felt like he could extend the play. He started doing that more in the second half of last year. It's fine if you're a pocket quarterback but Duke wasn't putting five draft picks in front of him as pass blockers. I don't know what Kentucky's offensive line looks like. I started comparing him to Mac Jones about halfway through the year. If you put NFL talent around him and don't ask him to run zone reads or RPOs he might be able to win a national championship. But with the talent Duke had around him it never felt like it was a perfect fit. I think more of a pro-style offense would be better. The numbers won't reflect that he was bad in the pocket but a lot of that has to do with Duke getting the ball out of his hands as quick as possible. The PFF number I always tried to bring up on Mondays and Tuesdays was his time to throw. It was almost always under three seconds. It was very much pop passes and jet sweeps. They did everything they could to minimize the risk of having him take three and five step drops to throw the ball. They took those shots every now and then but the sack number was low and that had a lot to do with play calling."
