Golden: A win-win for Texas as transfer portal closes, adding talent while keeping Murphy
The football transfer portal just closed.
That’s great news for coaches like Texas' Steve Sarkisian, who landed some nice pieces from it and retained what was already in the Longhorns' arsenal.
Football players who were already in the portal can still leave programs and play this fall, but players who enter between now and the season opener will have to sit out the 2023 season.
Call it the quiet storm or a chance for coaches to take a collective breath because there aren’t that many legitimate NFL prospects willing to sit out a year.
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The portal is as much about helping one’s team as it is about keeping your own talent from leaving.
The Longhorns didn’t take any critical hits during this open period but added a couple of valuable pieces in Georgia wide receiver Adonai Mitchell, Arkansas safety Jared Catalon and Wake Forest cornerback Gavin Holmes. The biggest news has to come in backup quarterback Maalik Murphy, who reportedly had some options following the Orange-White spring game.
According to 247Sports, several Power Five schools reached out to Murphy’s camp to gauge his intent in finding a new zip code. This came after he completed 9 of 13 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown while displaying a live arm and some great accuracy, particularly on deep throws.
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For now he’s staying, and that has to be a boon for Sarkisian, who announced Quinn Ewers as the starter after the spring game. Sark has plenty of confidence in Ewers but understands the need to have more than one cannon in the quarterbacks room.
We know freshman Arch Manning has tremendous upside, but the feeling over there is that Manning is the future. The best-case scenario would be for Ewers to blow up this season and leave for the pros, setting up a nice situation with Murphy and Manning.
Worst-case: Ewers struggles, returns for another year and puts the Manning family in the position of having to decide if Arch is in the right place because the guess here is they have zero interest in any chance of their progeny sitting two seasons, especially one behind a senior quarterback who didn’t cut it his second year on campus.
Or Murphy could leave, which is likely since he showed the potential to be a Power Five starter, if not at Texas then somewhere else.
Texas baseball likely on the move in NCAAs
Empty Disch is likely: Even with its nice response to the darkest weekend of the Big 12 season, Texas baseball is still looking at packing its bags for the postseason.
After taking two of three on the road against Kansas, the Horns are in a slightly better position to keep their improbable regional hosting dreams alive, but the odds aren’t in their favor.
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If anything, their 6-3 Big 12 road record after that home sweep at the hands of Oklahoma should give them confidence should they be dispatched to a foreign location following the conference tournament. That said, it’s possible the Big 12 could be shut out of one of those 16 home regional sites come tourney time. Even if first-place West Virginia wins the league, it’s possible the Mountaineers also will be traveling on opening weekend.
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West Virginia is No. 17 nationally in RPI in the latest D1baseball rankings, one spot from the influential 16 spot. Meanwhile, the Longhorns, who rarely win easily as evidenced by Kansas loading the bases with no outs in the ninth inning before reliever Andre Duplantier closed it for a 7-6 win on moving day in Lawrence, are sitting at No. 27, well off the pace.
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At 12-9 and in fourth place in Big 12 play, Texas is still mathematically in play to win the regular-season title, but it will need plenty of help from several sources, especially in Lubbock when Texas Tech hosts first-place West Virginia (13-5) this weekend.
The Mountaineers will close out conference play in Austin, but for the series to mean anything, the Horns really need Tech to win at least two of those games, which would put Texas in place to finish 15-9 with a sweep.
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Like I said, plenty of help. By the way, Oklahoma State and Kansas State are tied for second place with 11-7 records and will still have one more series remaining after facing each other.
The NCAA began seeding the top 16 teams in 2018 and that’s significant because the Longhorns came in at No. 13 that same year and hosted a regional where they swept through Texas Southern, Texas A&M and Indiana before topping Tennessee Tech in the super regional.
The Horns then went 0-2 in the College World Series.
The league has had at least one team seeded in the top eight for eight straight years, not counting 2020 when COVID-19 caused a cancellation of the season in March.
Credit David Pierce’s team for hanging in there. The recent road improvement has upped Texas record to 10-7 outside the Disch, even though that 8-15 record against the top 50 RPI teams — they’re 1-5 against the top 25 — isn’t a good one.
The next four nonconference home games — Tuesday against 25-21 UT-Arlington and a three-game series against 22-22 San Jose State — won’t move the RPI needle but could serve as more of a confidence booster before the most important series of the season.
Words matter, Oakland A's
Kuiper should be fired: Oakland A’s broadcaster Glen Kuiper was suspended, but not fired, for dropping an N-bomb on air during Friday’s game against Kansas City while referring to the Negro League Museum.
Not lost in Kuiper’s use of the word was that it reeked of familiarity. He didn’t stutter when he said it. Didn’t try to catch himself after saying it. He came across as someone who has used that word many, many times. And I’m not being presumptuous. Watch that video a dozen or so times like I have and draw your own conclusions.
Kuiper, who has been calling Athletics games for nearly 20 years, apologized, of course. What else did you expect him to do? But he’s in CYA mode now. The organization suspended him when it would have been well within its rights to show him the door. Sure, he made a mistake, but how many people in America get fired for much less?
He should go, but I expect he will be back.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football keeps Maalik Murphy after NCAA transfer portal closes
