This story originally posted Oct. 18, 2020. The Cardinals play in Dallas this weekend.
Highlights are not hard to find.
The combination of Google and YouTube create plenty of opportunity for those who didn't see it firsthand to get a taste of Kyler Murray's epic, record-setting high school playing days. To peek at the quarterback weaving in and out of defenses, winging touchdown bombs, all captured in that grainy glory, is to get a sense of what eventually made him the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL.
Those details are best found there, too, because those who watched him live don't have a single play that resonates. Ask them, and they simply note there are too many to count, too many times when Murray created something out of nothing.
Yet there was one for Jalen Guyton that sticks. It wasn't Murray's most spectacular play, but it came in a spectacular comeback when Murray and Guyton were juniors, rallying from a 15-point second-half deficit in the state semifinals against rival DeSoto. Murray scampered 24 yards for the game-clinching touchdown with just seconds remaining, slowing down right before he crossed the goal line, savoring the moment.
"The touchdown he scored at the end was so Kyler Murray," said Guyton, a wide receiver now playing for the Los Angeles Chargers. "In a game that competitive, for him to be able to have the last laugh, 'I'm just going to keep the ball and make it happen.' It was so him.
" 'Wow, is Kyler Murray finally going to lose?' Mmmm, no, he is not."
He never did. With Murray arriving at Allen before his sophomore season, the Eagles won 43 games in a row, 42 of them with him as starter. (Murray sat out one game with an injury).
As Murray returns to Dallas for the first time as professional to play against the Cowboys on Monday night, his mythical high school career is embedded in Texas high school football lore. For a state that can treat prep football as pseudo-religion, he was a god.
Texas has produced plenty of great players. Of recent vintage alone, there was Drew Brees. Vince Young. Matthew Stafford was legendary as a schoolboy player. Running backs like Earl Campbell and Cedric Benson. But the best Texas has ever produced? Murray's resumé catches the eye.
"I think he's more than in the conversation," said Matt Wixon, who spent 18 years as a Dallas Morning News high school sports columnist and covered Murray's career. "I think the majority of people put him No. 1."
With the sustained success at the highest level of competition in a state known for churning out excellence, Murray's prep greatness could even extend further. Murray even has the guy whom he displaced at quarterback – Oliver Pierce, a senior when Murray was a sophomore – backing his legend.
"Maybe I'm biased," Pierce said, "but he's got to be the best high school player of all-time, and I don't even think it's that close."