By Dave Krider

MaxPreps.com

Aaron Murray plays football with such unabashed joy that “It’s literally like watching a little kid play in his back yard,” according to Katherine Smith of the Tampa Tribune. “He plays the game like a man, but he is just having a ball out there.”

Murray is one of the nation’s elite senior quarterbacks and is putting up dazzling numbers this fall – mostly playing just the first half – while leading Plant (Tampa, Fla.) to a 3-1 record. The 6-foot-1, 205-pounder already has thrown for 1,225 yards and 19 touchdowns with just two interceptions. He has played four quarters only once and just two quarters in each of his last two outings.

Tom Lemming, national recruiting analyst for CBS College Sports Television, says Murray “can throw and run as well as anybody in the country. He is confident and a precision passer who can run himself out of trouble.”

The most amazing example of how much Murray loves his sport materialized when he came home following his first start at quarterback as a junior. He had just been sacked nine times by powerful Seffner Armwood and his parents were thinking up ways to console him.

“He walks in the door grinning from ear to ear,” his mother, Lauren, recalled, still somewhat amazed. “That was so much fun!” he told everybody.

Looking back, Murray told MaxPreps, “Armwood has probably one of the best defenses in the country. They are fast and physical. It was fun just to be able to get out there and play quarterback and really get my feet wet.” He did concede that due to the beating he absorbed, “I was stuck in the ice box (dealing with the bruises and soreness) all weekend.

“I love the contact. I love being with my teammates. It is the true definition of a team sport, all working together. It’s more like a family this year. I go to battle with them each Friday.”

Murray’s passionate love affair with football is somewhat surprising because he comes from a baseball family. His father, Dennis, and older brother, Josh, both were drafted and played minor league baseball.

As a youngster, Aaron did play baseball, but he also played basketball and soccer. Football obviously was in his blood from the day he was born, however.  His mother recalls, “His (baseball) coach used to get really mad because Aaron always was in the dugout with a football. He was a great baseball player. I actually wouldn’t let him play football (until he was nine), but he just wore me down.

“I thought he would get killed out there, but he says he’s having fun. He says it’s fun to scramble and get away. He likes chess and anticipation. He’s smart and that’s what helps me. Why am I so upset? He’s having a great time.”

Murray says simply, “Baseball is too slow and too boring. It’s not as exciting as football.”

He played Pop Warner football for the local Carrollwood Cardinals from ages 9-13. “I had a pretty good arm, so they stuck me at quarterback and I also played defensive end,” he noted. “My dad was the offensive coordinator and we pretty much were the only team that passed the ball.”

As a freshman, he enrolled at Tampa Jesuit where he spent most of the year on the bench. The good news was that he was being tutored by former NFL quarterback Steve DeBerg. He transferred to Plant for his sophomore year, calling it “a good move in the end and I’m happy with it.”

At Plant the young signal caller came under the coaching of Robert Weiner, who first had met him as a fifth grader at his summer camp. “I knew he was going to be pretty special,” Weiner said. “He was one of the best there, even though they were mostly seventh and eighth graders. For a fifth grader, he had a strong arm already, was very accurate and competitive – a leader.”

Unfortunately for Murray, the Panthers already had a superb senior quarterback, Robert Marve, now the starter at the University of Miami. All Marve did that year was lead Plant to a 15-0 record and the Class 4A state championship. Oh, yes, he also broke Tim Tebow’s state record with 48 touchdown passes (Tebow had 47).

Weiner still found a place for Murray as a starting safety. And he was leading the team in tackles heading into the third game when he tore his labrum on a high hit. Not knowing Murray was hurt, Weiner put him in at quarterback. Tripping on his own shoelaces as he attempted his first varsity pass, he was able to launch it all of two yards as he tumbled to the turf. A player scooped it up off the bounce, however, and converted it into a 32-yard gain because referees thought he caught it in the air. Murray apparently was born with a “magic touch.”

Though he was sidelined for the rest of his sophomore year, Murray learned a lot from watching the super-talented Marve and charted plays for the team. He also worked tirelessly to rehab his shoulder. Weiner sees that period as a very important springboard to Murray’s spectacular junior campaign during which he completed 62 percent of his passes for 4,038 yards and broke Marve’s state record with 51 touchdown passes. He threw only seven interceptions.

“It was pretty cool – I never envisioned that,” he said humbly of the state-record 51 scoring passes.

His leadership ability never was better displayed than against Tampa Chamberlain. Plant held a 20-17 lead when Chamberlain’s kicker booted a spectacular 50-yard field goal –against the wind – to tie the score with 2:30 remaining. With 85 yards to go, Murray directed the final drive, breaking a 30-yard run on fourth-and-one at mid-field, then firing the winning 20-yard touchdown pass.

Already an established star, Murray went into the past summer with just three returning starters on each side of the ball. Easing the situation somewhat, however, was the transfer of four top receivers from other schools. They obviously clicked because the Panthers had a great summer. Their biggest win was the Nike 7-on-7 Tournament in Portland, Ore., during which they routed Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) and Gatorade National Player of the Year Matt Barkley in the semifinals.

Individually, Murray was named MVP at the prestigious Elite 11 Quarterback Camp – a camp where he had served as one of three ballboys the previous year. “That’s when I realized he was very, very good, incredibly talented and skilled,” said Katherine Smith, who covered the camp for the Tampa Tribune. “But his greatest quality is that he is unbelievably humble. He doesn’t like to talk about himself. He sets team goals – not individual goals.”

This fall the Panthers are throwing about 85 percent of the time. Despite their youth and inexperience, they have been lethal through the air. Murray fired seven touchdown passes in the first half against Middleton. Then, for an encore he tied the state record with eight scoring strikes – to seven different receivers – in the first half the following week against Sarasota Riverview. He also set a state record with 385 yards in that half.

“Our receivers coach (T.J. Lane) has worked our receivers to death,” Murray said. The results, of course, speak for themselves.

However, Murray still is the center of all this aerial success. Coach Weiner runs a very sophisticated spread offense and Murray has mastered it in a big way.

Weiner points out, “We run multiple formations and we use a full-field read on the quarterback. It’s pretty complicated, but Aaron got it down so quickly and thoroughly that he doesn’t need me any more,” he laughed. “He probably checks off (at the line of scrimmage) 15 to 20 percent of the time. Over the last two-year period, he’s 95 percent on checking off to the right play.

“We’ve stopped huddling. I read the defense and call out a play to Aaron. We have our own language. He has his own language to his teammates. We have a whole dummy system, too. We can make dummy calls similar to plays that we run.”

Despite his many game-day heroics, Murray most impressed Weiner during a recent practice. He described, “Aaron sat in the pocket, took one slide up and one over and threw it 70 yards. It was the most majestic spiral you’ve ever seen (and went for an 85-yard touchdown). If there’s a better player in the country, somebody has got to show me the film.”

Murray carries his athletic brilliance into the classroom, too. He has a 4.8 GPA on a 4.0 scale and a lofty 1200 SAT score. He is a member of the Student Advisory Committee and helps out with Best Buddies. He enjoys water sports. 

He has committed to the University of Georgia where he will enroll following graduation in December. He concedes that reaching the NFL “really is the dream, but we’ll see – whatever it takes. Hopefully, it will be an option.”

Before graduation, however, he hopes to lead the Panthers to the Class 4A state championship and finally beat old tormentor Armwood in the playoffs.

Somewhere along the line, Murray might even have to play the entire four quarters. Just the thought prompts coach Weiner to warn future opponents, “That would be a scary thing.”