BeaversEdge Oregon State Top 20 For 2026: No. 8 QB Maalik Murphy

In the weeks leading up to the start of fall camp, BeaversEdge.com will be counting down the Top 20 Oregon State football players on the 2026 roster. The rankings will be controversial, and no two people will agree on every single ranking, but that will be the fun of the rankings! Want to give your two cents on the rankings? Make sure you subscribe to BeaversEdge.com to join The Dam Board and weigh in on the conversation. We continue the top-20 at No. 8 with quarterback Maalik Murphy. Oregon State QB Maalik Murphy No. 6 6-foot-5, 239-pounds Rs-Senior Inglewood, Calif. Junipero Serra HS -> Texas -> Duke -> Oregon State 2025 Stats: 10 GP (8 starts) – 161-of-277 (58%) for 1,805 yards and nine touchdowns against eight interceptions Murphy’s 2025 Recap After helping lead Duke to a 9-3 record in 2024, the Blue Devils decided to go in a different direction at quarterback and Murphy hit the transfer portal with two seasons left to play. Murphy had kicked the tires with Oregon State the year prior before choosing Duke and a year later he landed with the Beavers. The acquisition of Murphy was hailed as a slam-dunk for the former staff, and the expecations were for Murphy to help the Beavers take the next step. Still, unfortunately for Oregon State, the season went in a vastly different direction. Murphy was the Beavers’ starter to begin the season, and despite the Beavers starting the season 0-3, he was putting up solid numbers; he just had a few too many turnovers. After the Cal, Fresno State, and Texas Tech losses, the Beavers boasted a passing offense that was Top-30 nationally, but Murphy just wasn’t able to separate his touchdown-to-interception ratio, having six touchdowns against five picks during those first three games, along with the Beavers having a bevy of special teams woes to boot. After having his worst game of the season against Oregon (5-of-18 for 68 yards), Murphy bounced back and delivered a turnover-free performance against Houston, throwing for 201 yards and a score but the Beavers fell in overtime. The following week he put up the second-highest yardage total of his career along with two scores against App State but had two interceptions and the Beavers suffered yet another loss. Murphy remained the Beavers’ starter for the Wake Forest game the following week, throwing for 130 yards and an interception, but gave way to Gabarri Johnson once that contest was in hand and then the Beavers went on to have a midseason coaching change. Interim coach Robb Akey started Murphy against Lafayette, but it was a near-split in snaps with Johnson finishing the contest. After Johnson was injured halfway through the Washington State contest the following week, Murphy finished off the game and playing 20 snaps and going 2-of-3 for 27 yards as the Beavers won. Murphy didn’t see action the following week in the loss to Sam Houston before playing his final game of the season in reserve against Tulsa where he played 24 snaps and threw for 54 yards. 2026 Outlook Entering fall camp 2026, per Oregon State head coach JaMarcus Shephard and OC Mitch Dahlen, the Beavers’ quarterback race is going to remain wide open throughout camp before deciding the later stages. Part of that is strategy on Shephard’s part, and part is wanting to push the three-man quarterback competition between Murphy, Braden Atkinson, and Brady Jones as long as possible. In our view, Murphy has the slight lead on the others based on what we saw during spring and the spring game and in terms of overall experience. Murphy certainly had his ups and downs last season, throwing for 1,805 yards (58%) with nine touchdowns and eight interceptions in 10 games, but how much of that was Murphy truly struggling vs the Beavers having offensive identity issues, a rotating offensive line, and so on? So that begs the next question: can this new offensive coaching staff and Dahlen, who has been known to be a quarterback whisperer, get Murphy back to the guy who led Duke to a 9-3 record and had a 26-12 TD-INT ratio in 2024? Of the Beavers’ quarterbacks, Murphy boasts the most impressive physical tools, has the experience over multiple years and multiple schools, but he still needs to prove he can beat out what I expect will be a furious rally from Atkinson and to an extent, Jones. Murphy has far from won this quarterback spot, but I’m a firm believer that he, like many players on the team last season, wasn’t put in the positions to best utilize their skillsets and talents and then had an avalanche of issues from there. If the new coaching staff is able to get Murphy back to the player he was, I believe he’ll likely be the Beavers’ guy under center. If he hasn’t been able to take that step, look for Atkinson and Jones to be right on his heels. Previously No. 9 Dylan Layne No. 10 Jacob Schuster No. 11 Raesjon Davis No. 12 Tevita Pome’e No. 13 Tygee Hill No. 14 Gabe Milbourn No. 15 Xavyion Noland No. 16 Eric Olsen No. 17 DC Temple No. 18 Eddie Freauff No. 19 Josiah Timoteo No. 20 Jacob Anderson Honorable Mentions + Just Missed JOIN BEAVERSEDGE for inside access on Oregon State Athletics & MORE! 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