Cobb County high school star Murphy picks Clemson

POWDER SPRINGS — A few years ago, Myles Murphy did not even know he wanted to play football.

Baseball was his sport of choice.

Fast-forward to Friday, and the Hillgrove junior is committed to play football for Clemson, the defending national champion.

Murphy chose the Tigers over Auburn in a ceremony during halftime of Hillgrove’s spring scrimmage against Marietta.

The 6-foot-8, 260-pound strongside defensive end is the No. 8 overall prospect in the class of 2020, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. But when he was in middle school, Murphy prioritized baseball while also playing football for the middle school team and serving as the varsity football team’s ballboy.

“He would talk on the sideline and you’d think he’d be a football player,” Hillgrove coach Phillip Ironside said.

INDIANAPOLIS — McLaren’s return to the Indianapolis 500 neared a total collapse after Fernando Alonso failed to lock himself into the field on the first day of qualifying.

The two-day qualifying process guaranteed a spot in the May 26 race for the fastest 30 cars in Saturday qualifying. It took Alonso four attempts just to crack the benchmark, but he was knocked out by Graham Rahal, the final driver to make his run as the pistol was fired to signal the end of the session.

The two-time Formula One world champion watched Rahal knock him into Sunday’s last-gasp group, hopped from his car and briskly walked down pit lane. He stopped briefly to sign a handful “He was like, ‘Nah. I’m probably just going to play baseball. My mom wants me to play baseball.’ And here he is. Everybody is oohing and

500 of autographs but seemed frustrated with McLaren’s weeklong struggle at Indy.

“We didn’t have the speed,” the Spaniard said. “If we don’t make it, it is because we don’t deserve it.”

McLaren returned to the Indy 500 this year for the first time since the 1970s as an expected rehearsal for a fulltime IndyCar entrant. Alonso needs only to win the Indy 500 to complete motorsports’ version of the Triple Crown, but no one expected the proud McLaren organization to struggle so much on each day the track has been open.

The car had an electrical problem during last month’s testing and was plagued with similar issues on opening day. The alternator and wiring loom needed to be replaced, then Alonso crashed and hit ahhing over him.”

Murphy has not played baseball for Hillgrove since his freshman year, but he has not completely forgotten the wall three times Wednesday. McLaren missed nearly two days on track trying to ready a backup car, which finally got out Friday. And it was slow.

And it was still slow when qualifying began Saturday.

“(It’s) kind of a frantic situation trying to get the car comfortable for him and he’s doing all he can do,” said driver coach Johnny Rutherford, a two-time Indy 500 winner for McLaren.

Alonso’s first run was spoiled by a cut tire, his next two just weren’t up to an acceptable speed. He finally cracked the top-30 on his fourth run but knew it might not hold, so he waited inside his car in case he got a final shot to avoid the “Last Row Shootout” on Sunday. Six drivers will get one qualifying attempt for the final about the sport.

“It was very hard giving it up,” Murphy said. “I actually went to the batting cages probably two weeks ago. I’ll three spots in the field.

“At the moment, all we can try to do is the four laps, clean, no mistakes, flat on the floor,” Alonso said. “Then, if it’s enough to be in the top three of six, we’ll take it and we’ll try to go race. If it is not enough, if we are the fourth, fifth or sixth, it is what we deserve. There were three cars quicker than us and there’s nothing we (will be able to) do more than that.”

If Alonso and McLaren don’t make the race, it would be one of the biggest failures in Indy 500 history. Roger Penske missed the show with Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi in 1995, a year after dominating the race. Reigning CART champion Bobby Rahal missed it in 1993, and two-time Indy winner Rodger Ward never got up to speed 1965 to make the field. still throw a few pitches and hit.”

Murphy did not start to believe in his football abilities until he received an offer from Georgia entering his sophomore year, Ironside said. Other schools began to recruit Murphy as well.

“He’s very humble,” Ironside said. “He’s been very courteous. Whatever school — good, bad, small, big — that’s recruited him, he’s been very courteous to them. Some kids can’t do that.”

Clemson was the school that ultimately earned Murphy’s respect, and it was not just because of its football program. He also liked Clemson’s engineering program.

“I’ve always been interested in building structures, stadiums — cool stuff like that,” Murphy said. “I want to go into civil or architectural engineering.”

Murphy developed a close relationship with Clemson defensive end coach Lemanski Hall. Murphy said he called Hall with his decision 10 minutes before former Clemson defensive end Clelin Ferrell was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the NFL draft last month.

“(Hall) was at home, and when I told him, he was jumping up and down on the couch,” Murphy said. “It was a special moment.”

Murphy then called coach Dabo Swinney and defensive coordinator Brett Venables with the news.

The culture that Swinney created impressed Murphy’s father, Willard.

“One of things that stood out to me is (Swinney) has never brought in a junior college transfer,” Willard said. “Not many coaches can say that. They offer slow and then, when they bring people in, they groom them and keep them their four years and coach them up.”

Murphy said he will graduate from Hillgrove in December and enroll early at Clemson.