Syracuse Football: Orange has interest in Texas transfer, a 4-star, top-5 QB in portal

Syracuse football coaches appear to be focused on potentially landing a college quarterback out of the NCAA’s transfer portal.

Per Rivals.com national recruiting director Adam Gorney, the Orange is among numerous schools that have shown interest in Texas redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy.

The 6-foot-5, 238-pound Murphy entered the transfer portal on December 13, according to recruiting services and media reports.

Gorney says that college squads displaying an interest in Murphy include Syracuse football, Georgia, UCLA, LSU and Rice.

Texas (12-1) won the Big 12 Conference championship earlier this month, and the No. 3 seed Longhorns will take on No. 2 seed Washington in a College Football Playoff semifinal battle on January 1 at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Murphy is not expected to be with Texas for the CFP semifinal match-up.

Syracuse football is showing interest in Texas quarterback transfer Maalik Murphy.

Murphy was a member of the 2022 recruiting cycle who played for Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, Calif.

He didn’t see any action for Texas in the 2022 term. During the current 2023 stanza, per ESPN statistics, Murphy completed 56.3 percent of his pass for 477 yards, with three touchdowns and three interceptions.

When I wrote this column on Thursday, the Inglewood, Calif., native checked in at No. 16 overall and No. 4 at quarterback in national transfer rankings from 247Sports.

Within the 2022 high school class, Murphy was ranked as four stars, the top 250 nationally and the top 15 at quarterback, according to several recruiting Web sites.

Rivals.com, in high school, was most bullish on him, placing Murphy at No. 129 nationwide, No. 8 at quarterback and No. 7 in California.

Per recruiting services, Murphy held more than 30 scholarship offers while at Junípero Serra High School. His offer sheet included Texas, Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Texas A&M, Southern California, Washington and many others.

It's worth noting that new Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown, most recently, served as the defensive backs coach at Georgia, while new ‘Cuse defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson is currently Texas A&M’s interim head coach and co-defensive coordinator.

As I wrote about on Wednesday evening, some national experts are also pointing to Syracuse football as a team to watch for Ohio State transfer Kyle McCord.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound McCord, a junior with the Buckeyes, held a scholarship offer from the Orange while suiting up for the St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia. He was a part of the 2021 recruiting class.

A former five-star player in prep school, McCord is rated by numerous recruiting services as a top-50 overall prospect in national transfer rankings. Recruiting Web site 247Sports has him as the No. 10 quarterback presently in the portal.