For a college football coach, who’s a better sounding board when something goes wrong than another coach who’s had the same experience? So two weeks ago, when the door closed on Brendan Sorsby returning to the Texas Tech football team, Joey McGuire phoned a friend and trusted colleague in former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops.
“I was telling him, ‘I think we’re really good on defense. I think we’ve got three of the best backs in the country. We’re better in the offensive line, ” McGuire said. “He said, ‘Then you’ve got to find a quarterback that doesn’t screw it up.’ He goes, ‘You’ve got to find a guy and put him in position where he does things that best fit him.’ “
In August 2006, Stoops dismissed starting quarterback Rhett Bomar from the Sooners’ team after an NCAA rules violation. OU turned to Paul Thompson — at that point, a senior with 428 career passing yards — and won the Big 12 championship. Thompson, who’d switched to receiver before returning to QB, threw for 2,667 yards and 22 touchdowns.
Stoops knows the predicament.
Now the Red Raiders get to live it. Since Sorsby was busted for violating NCAA gambling rules, Tech offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich and his staff have been studying tape of Will Hammond at his best. They’d probably be doing that anyway, but now they really need to.
“Will and Sorsby, they can make all the throws,” McGuire said last week. “Sorsby definitely threw the ball better on the run. That was one of his strengths, one of his big strengths. It’s not like Will doesn’t. But the biggest thing with Will, he doesn’t have a lot of banked game throws to say, ‘Hey, this is what Sorsby did great.’
“We have been studying what Will is really comfortable with. That’s what we have to do. Mack, early in the season, has really got to dig into, ‘This is our offense, but what is Will really comfortable doing?’ “
Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire more optimistic about Will Hammond recovery timeline
Complicating matters is the uncertainty of when Hammond will be ready to take snaps in games. He’s rehabbing from the season-ending knee-ligament tear he suffered last October and the subsequent surgery. Best-case scenario, McGuire initially said, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound sophomore from Hutto would return in week three, which now turns out to be the Big 12 opener against Houston.
Lately, based on information relayed from medical staff, McGuire’s turned more optimistic.
“I wouldn’t be shocked that he doesn’t take the snaps game one,” McGuire said last week.
The Red Raiders have always had high regard for Hammond. He was a national top-250 recruit coming out of high school. While biding his time behind Behren Morton, Hammond flashed future greatness. There was the big second half two years ago in a 35-34 loss at TCU. Last year, Hammond had a whale of a fourth quarter in a 34-10 victory at Utah and led a drive for a go-ahead touchdown with two minutes left in a 26-22 loss at Arizona State.
Indeed, if not for Hammond’s knee injury, the Red Raiders probably would not have pursued Sorsby in the portal.
“They’re very comparable,” McGuire said. “The biggest thing is experience. I mean, Will’s started, I think, three games.”
How Kirk Francis, Lloyd Jones III fit into Texas Tech football QB plan
Tech starts preseason practice Aug. 5, and McGuire expects Hammond to be cleared about Aug. 21. Should Hammond not be game-ready the first or second week, the Red Raiders’ options would be new transfer Kirk Francis and Lloyd Jones III.
In 18 games over three seasons for Tulsa, Francis passed for 3,045 yards and 18 touchdowns. Jones made his college debut in the 2025 regular-season finale at West Virginia. McGuire reiterated last week that Francis is ahead of Jones based on the junior’s experience, but the redshirt freshman is making strides.
“Lloyd had a really good spring,” McGuire said. “He’s having a great summer. We needed him to after the Sorsby situation, just to have a true third guy, so I’m really excited about how well he’s doing.
“I think Lloyd, it’s going to end up being 2A and 2B, I really think, the way he’s coming on. You saw flashes of what he could do against West Virginia. He does a really good job throwing the deep ball; he’s big and can run.”
Eventually, Hammond will return not only to starting but also to being a dual threat. In 12 games the past two years, Hammond has run for 348 yards and 7 touchdowns.
Tech coaches didn’t want Sorsby to major in running the football, but he was adept at it, with more than 1,300 yards rushing and 22 rushing TDs the past three years.
“I would compare Will closer to Sorsby than Behren,” McGuire said, “because Will is a little bit more mobile. Now, in saying that, we don’t want to put Will in a situation where he has to run, and so our plan was not to run Sorsby until we had to run Sorsby, and then some of it would just naturally happen because he was scrambling and everything like that.”
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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: How Bob Stoops helped Joey McGuire view Texas Tech football QB pivot
Reporting by Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal | USA TODAY Network
