Full Scouting Report: What Maalik Murphy Brings To Oregon State's Offense
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Next in our series on potential impact players & breakout stars for the Beavers in 2025: starting veteran transfer quarterback Maalik Murphy.
Murphy began his career as a Texas Longhorn, where he played in seven games and made two starts. Over the two seasons he spent at Texas, Murphy went 40-for-71 for 477 yards and three touchdowns—both of his starts resulting in wins against BYU and Kansas State.
Ahead of the 2024 season, Murphy moved to Durham, North Carolina, to play for Duke, where he produced a historic campaign. He went 254-for-421 for 2,933 yards and 26 passing touchdowns—setting a school record for most passing touchdowns in a single season.
Murphy started 12 games for the Blue Devils, finishing with a 9–3 record. Despite what many would consider a highly successful season, he entered the transfer portal.
After committing to Oregon State in December, Murphy participated in all spring football activities, getting acclimated to life in Corvallis and to second-year offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson’s offense. Now in Corvallis, Murphy looks to set the tone early—starting with the season opener against Cal as the Beavers begin year three under Head Coach Trent Bray.
Height: 6’5
Weight: 236
Class: Redshirt Junior
Hometown: Inglewood, CA
High School / Previous School: Junipero Serra HS / Texas / Duke
Notable Stats & Accolades:
2024 Season: 254/421 (60%) | 2,933 passing yards | 26 TDs / 12 INTs | 2 rushing TDs
Career Stats (Texas & Duke): 294/492 (60%) | 3,410 passing yards | 29 TDs / 15 INTs | 2 rushing TDs
Duke’s single-season passing touchdown record holder (26 in 2024)
ARM STRENGTH
Maalik Murphy is the kind of quarterback whose overall arm talent is nothing short of amazing. Yes—amazing is the word that best describes the way he throws the ball.
There are great throws you see college quarterbacks make, and then there are throws that make you say to yourself, “That’s a next-level throw—a NFL throw.” Murphy, especially during his 2024 season at Duke, put those kinds of passes on display often.
It all starts with his arm strength. Whether it’s pushing the ball deep downfield or driving it into tight windows in the intermediate passing game, Murphy’s arm makes even the most difficult throws look effortless.
He can identify a target 30+ yards downfield and, with just a flick of the wrist, deliver it with beautiful spin, layered trajectory, and pinpoint accuracy. At the 8:18 mark in the video linked below, Murphy takes a three-step drop. The single receiver at the top of the screen is running a deep post, and Virginia Tech’s defense appears to be in a version of Cover 3, with the safety responsible for the deep middle. At the top of his drop, Murphy senses blindside pressure, takes a quick step right, and then launches a 50+ yard strike to his receiver on the post. Along with how effortless the release looked, what stood out just as much was how far the ball traveled—and how perfectly it was placed, out of reach of the deep safety and into the hands of his receiver for an 85-yard touchdown.
Plenty of quarterbacks can make opposite hash throws, but it often comes with visible strain—they lean into it, alter their base, and try to muscle it there. With Murphy, that strain never shows. His mechanics stay consistent. The effort looks the same.
At the 9:30 mark in the video, we see what might have potentially been the best throw of Murphy’s 2024 campaign. The clock is winding down late in the fourth quarter, and the game looks destined for overtime. Wake Forest drops eight and rushes just three, giving Murphy a clean pocket. He calmly scans left, then works his eyes all the way across the field before launching a 40-yard opposite-hash bomb that drops in perfectly—allowing his receiver to score the walk-off touchdown as time expires.
No matter the route, no matter where the receiver is on the field, Murphy makes it look routine. A throw only a select few can make in college football.
ACCURACY – BACK SHOULDER THROWS
Along with Murphy’s arm strength, he has shown time and again the ability to place the ball perfectly. Whether it’s over the shoulder downfield or right into his receiver’s chest on a stop route, Murphy can do it all—but there’s one aspect of his game where he has a clear knack: the back shoulder throw.
The highlight tape linked below is filled with back shoulder throws of all kinds—long range, short range, opposite hash—anywhere on the field. Properly executed back shoulder throws aren’t just a display of exceptional accuracy, but also a testament to a quarterback’s mental processing. Choosing to throw one is a decision in itself.
Once the quarterback locks onto his target—usually in a one-on-one man coverage situation—something in his mind triggers, secondary to the initial read. In a split second, he must position himself accordingly and deliver a pass that requires a unique blend of velocity and precision. The goal: take the defender by surprise and put the ball in a spot only the receiver can reach.
Against UConn last season, Murphy made what many would consider one of the elite throws in all of college football. At the 2:22 mark in the video linked below, UConn is in a clear man coverage look and bringing pressure—meaning Murphy’s job is to identify his best matchup and deliver in a way that gives his receiver the best chance at making a potentially contested catch. He does exactly that. His slot receiver runs a slot fade and, despite being well-covered, is able to make the touchdown grab relatively uncontested thanks to the flawless location of the pass. Murphy produced that level of accuracy from nearly 30 yards out, with little to no arc on the ball. If anyone is wondering what kind of throw qualifies as “next level,” this is one of them.
Quarterbacks typically attempt back shoulder throws on the near side of the field, toward the boundary, where the shorter distance makes the difficult throw more manageable. But on Murphy’s tape, he generates these throws from uncommon distances—and still executes them with the same timing and placement.
LAYERING – TRAJECTORY OF THE BALL
Many quarterbacks with arm strength like Murphy’s often lack the ability to properly layer their passes. They get caught up in the velocity and power they can generate and, as a result, struggle to combine that power with touch and feel. Layering requires being able to get the ball up and over defenders—protecting the throw while placing it accurately for the receiver. Murphy has this ability in spades.
We see a perfect example of this at the :53 mark in the video below. At the snap, Northwestern's safety immediately creeps toward the line of scrimmage. The look is ideal for what Duke had dialed up: the slot receiver runs a “sluggo”—a slant-and-go—and blows right past the safety.
Duke’s offense was in the red zone, which meant Murphy didn’t have much room to work with once the receiver got behind the defense. He had to place the ball with perfect touch—enough to get it over the trailing defenders, but also with the right amount of firmness so that it arrived in the receiver’s hands before he reached the back of the end zone or drifted out of bounds.
