If any Duke football fans think that first-year starting quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] has already thrown a lot of touchdown passes in 2024, the school record books absolutely prove them right.
Murphy threw three touchdowns against the Connecticut Huskies on Saturday night, his second consecutive game with three scoring throws. He found the end zone twice against Elon in Week 1, giving him eight passing touchdowns through three games.
The Duke single-season passing touchdown record is 24, set by Anthony Dilweg in 1988. Murphy’s current pace would give him 32 touchdown passes by the end of the regular season. In fact, if he only throws two touchdown passes per game for the rest of the season, he would still break Dilweg’s mark with 26 for the year.
Two of his first three starts came against Elon and UConn, but he also took down a Power Four program on the road in Week 2. Northwestern finished 15th in the country in passing yards allowed last season, and the former Texas Longhorn ended up with 243 yards against the Wildcats.
Dilweg also owns the school’s single-season passing yards record with 3,824, but that one looks pretty safe. Murphy has thrown for 801 yards through three games, giving him a 12-game pace of 3,204 yards. Even with a bowl game, he’d only get to 3,471 yards, although that would leave him second on the all-time list.
Assuming the touchdown passes keep rolling, however, Murphy will carve his place in the school record books.