UCLA Football Offers Twin North Texas Edge Rushers Gabriel, Grayson Murphy
The Bruins are the latest program to see double while recruiting the transfer portal this offseason.
UCLA football sent out offers to North Texas edge rushers Gabriel and Grayson Murphy on Saturday after outside linebackers coach Ikaika Malloe had an in-home visit with the twins over the weekend. The Murphy twins each have three years of eligibility remaining.
Any school that has extended an offer to one has also extended one to the other, as Oregon State, Penn State and Kansas got in on them since they entered the transfer portal on Thursday.
Gabriel and Grayson were both consensus three-star recruits coming out of Bishop Lynch High School (TX) in Dallas, and they stood as the same package deal back in 2019 when they were offered by Air Force, Connecticut, Navy, Texas State, Tulane and UTSA.
The duo redshirted the 2019 season, but still got on the field for four games each. In 2020, they each made a pair of starts and became more regular members of the rotation at defensive end. Gabriel recorded 18 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, a team-high 4.5 sacks, two quarterback hurries and a forced fumble as a redshirt freshman that year, while Grayson finished with 19 tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks and four quarterback hurries.
The Murphy twins were teammates with cornerback Cameron Johnson for those two seasons, before Johnson transferred to UCLA and made an immediate impact as a starter in his lone season in Westwood.
Gabriel and Grayson each started all 13 games for the Mean Green in 2021, with Gabriel picking up 52 tackles, 12.0 tackles for loss, 7.0 sacks, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, nine quarterback hurries and three pass breakups and Grayson notching 38 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery for a touchdown and nine quarterback hurries.
Pro Football Focus named both to All-Conference USA teams, with Gabriel earning Second Team honors and Grayson making the Third Team, while Grayson was an honorable mention according to the conference's coaches.
Gabriel and Grayson project to play the Bruin defensive end-outside linebacker position should they commit to UCLA. Of course, the 4-2-5 the team has run the past two seasons could be phased out by whoever the new defensive coordinator ends up being, but that still projects to be the base scheme for the time being.
Mitchell Agude is coming back for his super senior season at the Bruin, with sophomore Devin Aupiu and Washington transfer Laiatu Latu already set to back him up. UCLA has super senior Bo Calvert and true senior Carl Jones at the raider if the Murphys project better at that edge rusher position instead.
Either way, the Bruins already have three starting-caliber players on the edge in Agude, Calvert and Jones, plus a promising young player in Aupiu and a medical question mark in Latu.
With class of 2022 commit DeAndre Gill reportedly no longer in line to sign with UCLA, there is room for additional bodies to join Malloe's position room.
Gabriel and Grayson are entering their fourth season at the collegiate level but still have three years left because of the added year of COVID-19 eligibility. The balance in veteran experience and potential for long-term impact make the Murphy twins interesting targets wherever they end up.
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