As the (quarterback) world turns

They come, they go for Duke football

The college football transfer portal moves fast. It officially opened Monday. By the end of the day Maalik Murphy was in the portal, first bus out of Durham, thank you very much.

The next day Manny Diaz said nice things about Murphy and told the media that Grayson Loftis and Henry Beilin would compete for the starting nod in the upcoming Gator Bowl.

Then Loftis announced that he was in the portal. Tuesday night Darian Mensah was spotted in Cameron, taking in Duke’s game against Incarnate Word.

Mensah quarterbacked Tulane this season and they were pretty good and he was pretty good--more on that later. He entered the portal Monday and by Tuesday night he was all in with “Darian Mensah, sit with us.” He did. The Crazies love him already.

He committed shortly afterwards. Murphy has already visited Auburn. He’ll land on his feet.

To borrow a phrase from the great Richard Thompson, did he jump or was he pushed?

We live in a world in which people post stuff on premium sports sites, behind paywalls and then other people repeat the information in non-paywalled forums, which means it’s no longer paywalled but something more in the way of public domain.

As someone who provides some of my content from behind a paywall, I’m not really comfortable with this.

Let’s just say that there’s a narrative out there that Duke may have had a “it’s not you, it’s me” conversation with Murphy.

What’s not to like about Murphy? An NFL arm, a record-setting season at Duke, quarterbacking the Devils to a 9-3 regular-season record that few thought possible back in August.

It’s wasn’t all perfect. Arm strength is NFL level, touch more of a work in progress.

But most of the criticism surrounding Murphy was prompted by his unwillingness and/or inability to run the ball.

Some data points.

Running quarterbacks are not cutting edge in 2024 college football. On the contrary, Murphy was an outlier.

Let’s just look at Duke. Prior to Murphy we have to go back to Sean Renfree to find a Duke quarterback who couldn’t run.

After Renfree, David Cutcliffe told the media that he would never again recruit a quarterback who couldn’t run.

He kept his word.

Anthony Boone, Brandon Connette, Thomas Sirk, Daniel Jones, Quentin Harris, Jordan Moore, Riley Leonard. We can all dial in our favorite moments, the Connette package, Sirk ending a four-overtime game at Blacksburg, Jones sprinting away from the UNC defense, Leonard seemingly turning every pass rush into a 15-yard scramble.

Even Chase Brice and Gunnar Holmberg could keep a play alive with their feet or run a credible run-pass option.

Do you remember Holmberg rushing for seven touchdowns in 2021? Really happened.

Anyway.