Maalik Murphy finds a new team after leaving Texas for the transfer portal

Maalik Murphy saw a great opportunity and took advantage of it. The former backup quarterback of the Texas Longhorns opted to hit the transfer portal ahead of their first-ever trip into the final four-team College Football Playoff. Murphy could have gotten offers to come play at any number of SEC schools, but as soon as Duke was mentioned as a possible landing spot, the dots started to connect.

Murphy heads to Durham to go play for new head coach Manny Diaz in the ACC. After an up-and-down three-year run leading the Miami Hurricanes, Diaz spent the last two seasons as James Franklin's outstanding defensive coordinator at Penn State. It was his side of the ball that carried the Nittany Lions to back-to-back New Year's Six Bowl appearances. What a great get for Duke with Diaz!

What makes the Diaz fit so solid is he is a defensive-minded head coach who will build on what Mike Elko did before him. In all fairness, Diaz should not have been fired from Miami. Just look at how wonderfully .500 they have been over the last two years under their former offensive lineman Mario Cristobal. Murphy will join Diaz in Durham to replace Riley Leonard, who transferred to Notre Dame.

With three years of eligibility, Murphy's budding partnership with Diaz could be huge for both parties.

Murphy can use these next three seasons to get ready for the NFL, while Diaz can build up his coaching legacy. Whether that is still at Duke or possibly somewhere come 2027 remains to be seen.

Maalik Murphy transferring to Duke makes all the sense in the world

With the ACC in a state of flux, depending on what the likes of Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina want to do, Duke could be in a rare advantageous spot on the gridiron. Florida State is Diaz's alma mater, but Mike Norvell has that job for as long as he wants at this point. Given how messy things got when he was at Miami, he is never going back there. Duke honestly suits Diaz very well.

For Murphy, Duke might be more of a basketball school, but it is a place where quarterbacks be groomed to go to the NFL. Leonard is an NFL prospect, probably a future first-rounder like Daniel Jones was playing for David Cutcliffe. Remember how fun Sean Renfree and Thad Lewis were before him? Simply put, when Duke is halfway decent at football, the college football world pays attention.

Overall, I really like this budding partnership between Diaz and Murphy at Duke. You would have never guessed that they would be linking up this time a month ago, but it certainly has our intrigue. What we have here is a former defensive coordinator ready to lead his own team again joining forces with a former backup quarterback ready to lead his own Power Five program out of the tunnel on Saturdays.

It would not be the least bit shocking if Duke were to be something like an 8-4 team next season.