A Duke football one-and-done. QB Maalik Murphy leaving Blue Devils after one season
When Riley Leonard left Duke a year ago to join Notre Dame via the NCAA Transfer Portal, Maalik Murphy moved in the same way from Texas to become the Blue Devils’ starting quarterback.
Now Murphy is on the move again, and Duke’s search for a new starting quarterback begins anew.
After playing at Texas before coming to Duke, Murphy is entering the transfer portal again following his lone season with the Blue Devils.
The 6-5, 230-pound Murphy, from Inglewood, California, threw 26 touchdown passes with 12 interceptions while starting all 12 games for Duke (9-3) this season. He completed 254 of 421 passes (60.3) for 2,933 yards, helping Duke to its most regular-season wins since 2014.
His 26 touchdown passes set the school’s single-season record, with his final throw, a 39-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Moore, giving Duke a 23-17 win at Wake Forest on the game’s final play on Nov. 30.
“I’ve got a ton of respect for Maalik Murphy,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said Tuesday morning during a Zoom press conference promoting the Gator Bowl. “Our story as a program, it doesn’t happen to this way without Maalik. He’s been everything we could have hoped for and more in his time with us. And so I’m excited for him and for his future, and I’m glad that we were part of each other’s story.”
Murphy will arrive at his next school with two seasons of college football eligibility remaining.
Meanwhile, the Blue Devils are preparing for their Gator Bowl matchup with No. 16 Mississippi (9-3) on Jan. 2 with their quarterback situation in flux. The only other quarterback who played for Duke this season was Henry Belin, who completed his lone pass attempt while appearing in three games.
Last season, Belin started Duke’s 24-3 win over N.C. State while playing in four games as he was slowed by an upper-body injury.
The Blue Devils also have sophomore Grayson Loftis, who started the final five games of 2023. Loftis completed 19 of 29 passes for 183 yards in Duke’s 17-10 win over Troy in the Birmingham Bowl last December. But he was third on the depth chart behind Murphy and Belin this season.
On Monday, prior to the Murphy news becoming public, Duke coach Manny Diaz was asked during a Zoom session with reporters if players who entered the portal would still be allowed to play for the Blue Devils in the bowl game.
“It’s a little too early for all that,” Diaz said.
Now, in college football’s new world of annual free agency for all players, Diaz and Jonathan Brewer, Duke’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, will scour the portal to see if another starting quarterback, like Murphy a year ago, will accept Duke’s NIL offerings and change schools.
One possibility is Darian Mensah, Tulane’s starting quarterback this season who has entered his name in the portal. As a redshirt freshman this season, Mensah completed 65.9% of his passes, throwing for 22 touchdowns with just six interceptions for the Green Wave (9-4).
He’s visiting Duke on Tuesday.
A year ago, when Leonard left Duke for Notre Dame, he was one of five quarterbacks who transferred to new schools and led them to this season’s College Football Playoff. Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, Ohio State’s Will Howard, Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt and Kurtis Rourke of Indiana are the others.
This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 6:11 AM.