Texas Longhorns Have Interesting Connection to UTEP QB Malachi Nelson

In their third of four non-conference matchups of the 2025 season, the Texas Longhorns take on their first in-state foe, the UTEP Miners.

Saturday's meeting at Darrell K Royal Texas-Memorial Stadium is headlined by two of the top quarterbacks from the 2023 recruiting class. Texas' Arch Manning has become the starter in Austin in his third year with the program. UTEP's Malachi Nelson is at his third school in three years, finally earning a starting position.

Now, despite contrasting collegiate paths, the two will go head-to-head as redshirt sophomores.

Steve Sarkisian Talks DeAndre Moore's Connection With Malachi Nelson

Out of Los Alamitos High School in California, Nelson was the No. 1-ranked player in the ESPN 2023 recruiting database, ahead of fellow quarterbacks Manning, Dante Moore (UCLA, now at Oregon), Jackson Arnold (Oklahoma, now at Ole Miss) and Nico Iamaleava (Tennessee, now at UCLA). He was the Gatorade California Player of the Year as both a junior and senior in high school and participated in the 2022 Elite 11 Finals.

To no surprise, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was well aware of Nelson as a prospect.

However, Nelson's ties to Texas go deeper than recruiting. Sarkisian added that Longhorns wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. was high school teammates with Nelson at one point before transferring to prestigious St. John Bosco.

"I thought [Nelson] was a really talented player in high school," Sarkisian said during Wednesday's SEC teleconference. "Was a very natural passer, had a quick delivery. They had a heck of a high school team. He had some really talented receivers -- DeAndre Moore was actually with him at one point there."

Unfortunately, Sarkisian revealed Thursday that Moore Jr. is unlikely to play against UTEP after exiting early in the win over San Jose State.

Among 25 offers, Nelson originally committed to the Oklahoma Sooners in July 2021 to play for head coach Lincoln Riley. Moore initially joined Nelson as an Oklahoma commit before flipping to the Louisville Cardinals and then to Texas.

When Riley left Norman for Southern California that November, Nelson followed him and switched his pledge to the USC Trojans. But after sitting behind Caleb Williams as a freshman and redshirting, Nelson entered the transfer portal still with four years of eligibility.

Nelson chose the Boise State Broncos as his destination, though unexpectedly lost the starting quarterback competition to then-redshirt sophomore Maddux Madsen. Nelson only saw action in three games, all blowout wins, completing 12 passes for 128 yards and throwing one interception.

Following Boise State's College Football Playoff exit, Nelson transferred for the second time, heading to El Paso this past offseason. In the Miners' 1-1 start, Nelson has 456 passing yards, five touchdowns and an interception on a 60% completion percentage.

"He's been on his own journey at this point, and it's great that he's found a home," Sarkisian said about Nelson. "He's playing good football. Their offense obviously revolves a lot around him being the quarterback and that style of play. And so we've got to try to do our best to contain him that way, and hopefully we can disrupt him a little bit with our disguise and coverages and then ultimately with the pass rush."

This weekend, Nelson will go through, without doubt, his biggest collegiate test so far, facing off against a Longhorns' defensive unit coming off a four-turnover performance against San José State. In a quarterback matchup against Manning, it is a chance for Nelson to put his skillset back on the national map.