Murphy's Moment
By Christy Cabrera Chirinos
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – In the box score, it’s merely five words tucked into one simple line.
It won’t be remembered as the game-winning play. And to many outside the Hurricanes’ locker room, it was the footnote of a September football game Miami won in commanding fashion.
But for a former walk-on who’d long dreamed of wearing orange and green, it was an unforgettable moment that came after years of demanding work both on and off the field and even some tough soul-searching about whether he had a future in the sport he loved.
“It was awesome and I think my reaction was everything you could see on my face,” running back Jimmy Murphy said of the four-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown he scored in the Hurricanes’ 63-0 win over Bethune-Cookman last Saturday. “If I could go back and relieve that moment, I wouldn’t take anything back. I wouldn’t change anything. I’d just want to be in the moment with my guys again. It was just so special, you know?”
Some of those who know Murphy best understood exactly what that touchdown meant, his teammates joining him in a raucous celebration during which Murphy was carried around the Miami sideline while the Hurricanes’ new Touchdown Rings glistened on his fingers.
Manny Diaz, the coach who extended Murphy’s scholarship in January, pulled him in for a hug.
And in Avon, Connecticut – Murphy’s hometown – his father and youth football coach exchanged a phone call that ultimately resulted in happy tears.
“It was just unbelievable,” Joseph Murphy said. “His Pee Wee coach called me and told me that he’d scored and I was totally surprised. His coach was crying, telling me they were carrying him off the field and onto the sideline. It was just pure, pure joy that was a long time coming, for sure. He’s one heck of a football player and it was great he had the chance to show his coaches and the Miami community that he’s a good football player.”
Within the Hurricanes’ football program, the questions about whether Murphy could hold his own on a roster filled with highly recruited blue-chip players were answered years ago.
The 5-foot-7, 195-pound redshirt senior proved during a 2016 tryout he could play, with former Hurricanes coach Mark Richt later adding him and three other walk-ons to the roster.
After spending 2017 on the practice squad, Murphy worked his way onto the field last year, appearing in seven games and making his first start on special teams against Boston College.
By year’s end, after notching four tackles, he was named one of the Hurricanes’ five captains.
Still, Murphy had no idea what to expect when Richt retired last December.
Would Miami’s new coach want to keep him on the roster? Would he be willing to extend the scholarship Richt had quietly awarded him months earlier? Was Murphy going to find himself on the outside looking in, just as he had been earlier in his career at Wagner when a scholarship never materialized and he was forced to withdraw from school and work with his father building roads back home?
His questions were answered not long after Diaz was named Miami’s new coach. The former defensive coordinator shared in his first team meeting with his players that not only was Murphy going to remain a Hurricane, he was going to stay on scholarship. As his teammates cheered around him, Murphy breathed a sigh of relief.
His football future at Miami was secured and he was determined to make sure no one who’d believed in him to that point was not disappointed.
“There were always those guys that had my back, so it was like, I can’t not give them credit. They’ve been such a big part of my life,” Murphy said. “Coach Richt, Coach Diaz, these guys are changing my life. They’re doing so much and the only thing I try to do is give back and match what they’ve done for me. That’s it.”
The Hurricanes say Murphy already done that – and more.
As one might expect, he’s one of the first ones in for workouts and practices. And he’s as intense in film study as he is on the field, teammates say.
“Jimmy’s the heartbeat of the team. He’s a guy that comes in with everything, all the time” said safety Amari Carter, one of Murphy’s closest friends. “Whether it’s the weight room, on the field, in film study, he’s 100 percent dialed in. He’s one of those guys that, if you’re with him, he’s going to make you a better person and a better player. That’s what he does, from the scout team to the offense, he makes everyone around him better. He gives all his effort and that’s what he wants in return. He wants us to do our best, 100 percent correct. He wants everyone to be the best they can be. That’s what he means to us. He’s just a great person, in general.”
Said Diaz, “There’s not a guy on our team that doesn’t love Jimmy Murphy. And if you ever come to our games and watch him run out on kickoffs, the guy is unbelievable. We knew that, even through training camp, that he was going to score a touchdown in a game. And that will not be the last touchdown he scores this year. He is a guy that everybody on the team has the utmost respect for and to see him get in the end zone and even the way he scored, it was no surprise to anybody.”
Murphy insists life hasn’t changed too much since that memorable 4-yard run.
He’s still got to go to calculus class, even if now classmates are asking him for a selfie or two. And after practice, he’s still putting in extra work, on Wednesday going through additional drills with Carter while most of their teammates headed into the locker room.
And Murphy is still wondering about what awaits him at season’s end. Will he continue playing football and see what happens for him during Miami’s annual Pro Day or will he turn his focus to preparing for medical school and a career in sports medicine?
It’s uncertain what the next few months hold, but Murphy does know this: on Saturday, the Hurricanes will host Central Michigan at Hard Rock Stadium and whatever he’s asked to do then, he’ll do.
For the player who used to fall asleep while looking at the Miami “U” that hung above his bed, that’s more than enough.
“I know my time is numbered here and I’ve only got so many more months, but if I could say this to anybody that’s coming here: you are the luckiest person in the world putting on that ‘U’ every day and getting to walk through where some of the most famous players ever walked through here,” Murphy said. “It’s just unbelievable. It’s an accomplishment itself. It’s so special here. It really is. … To be given the opportunity to be here, it’s just a blessing.”
