By Mark Pszonak
One of the biggest surprises of the winter transfer window was Maalik Murphy’s move from Duke to Oregon State. Murphy had just finished a successful first season in Durham after transferring in from Texas, so a move out of the P4 caught many people off-guard. Yesterday, he discussed the move for the first time:
Spoke with new Oregon State QB Maalik Murphy for the first time today, and he touched on what led to his departure from Duke after one season. pic.twitter.com/ghx7iXNZ4z
— Dylan Jacobs (@DylJacobs) March 4, 2025
“100% it wasn’t my choice to leave” only makes the situation more interesting. During his one season with Duke, Murphy passed for 2,933 yards, 26 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while leading the Blue Devils to an 9-3 record. He announced his intentions to enter the portal as the window opened and missed the Gator Bowl loss to Ole Miss.
After the initial surprise of his announcement, it became even more confusing when he signed with Oregon State. Not that the Beavers have a bad program, but considering Murphy had just had a breakout season at the P4 level, a move to Oregon State, where they had to bandage together a 2025 schedule after dealing with the repercussions from the PAC-12 breakup, is just odd.
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Now that it seems as though his departure was Duke’s decision, why would the Blue Devils do this? It is possible that they already had a replacement they preferred in mind. Darian Mensah entered the portal on December 8th and committed to Duke on December 11th. It was also later revealed that the Blue Devils had paid Mensah $8 million in NIL funding to sign. How likely is it that all of this came together in three days?
If Duke chose Mensah over Murphy, then it is just another sign of how the transfer portal world works nowadays. Feel free to use the word “tampering” but in reality it is just the way business is done without any real concerns of ramifications.
