Offensive tackle Jacob Ponton and defensive tackle Mateen Ibirogba got tangled up and went to the turf during a recent Texas Tech football practice. The behemoths toppled, and because Will Hammond was in the vicinity, the Tech quarterback went down, too.
Quarterbacks aren’t supposed to get hit in practice, much less hit the ground.
“Not going to lie,” Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “I was holding my breath, but Will popped up and Mike (Ramirez), our head trainer, goes, ‘I didn’t have that on my bingo card, the first time Will would hit the ground is in this group.'”
For Hammond, it’s so far, so good in his comeback from a season-ending knee-ligament tear last October. The same mostly goes for Quinten Joyner, who was set to be Tech’s starting running back before he suffered a knee-ligament tear of his own in mid-August last year.
“I’m really happy where they’re at,” McGuire said on Tuesday, Aug. 11. “Starting with Will, he’s gotten to do a lot more than Q (Joyner) has leading up to camp — and we don’t hit Will, so there’s a little bit of difference there, but I’ve been really proud of what he’s doing. He’s moving really well, whenever he has to sprint out, whenever he has to scramble.”
Whereas Hammond has ascended to No. 1 quarterback status after the ill-fated spring of Sorsby, the picture’s changed in the other direction for Joyner. In Joyner’s absence, Cameron Dickey and J’Koby Williams reached full bloom during the 2025 season, Dickey being a semifinalist for the Doak Walker Award presented annually to the nation’s top running back and Williams being a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award that goes to the country’s most versatile player.
Dislodging them will be a challenge. Joyner, the most big-bodied of the three, is about 225 pounds at the moment. McGuire wouldn’t mind if he trimmed back to 220.
“He’s just getting back used to being in the pads again, the cuts, where you are getting hit,” McGuire said. “He’s not been taken to the ground yet, but he’s been hit some, so he’s handling that really well. I just think Will, because he’s gotten to do more football through the summer, that he’s a little bit farther along, but I feel good about both of them.”
Even though Sorsby was signed from the NCAA transfer portal to give the Red Raiders certainty at quarterback during Hammond’s rehab, Hammond was unabashed in his belief he was Tech’s best option all along.
Terrance Carter Jr. said that’s been evident in the first week of practice.
“Just how locked in he is, how he’s having fun out there on the field,” the Red Raiders’ tight end said. “I can say he has added a lot of swag to his game. When I first came in, Will wasn’t really talkative, didn’t really have all the accessories and stuff on. This year, I can say he has a chip on his shoulder, and him knowing that he’s 1-and-2 as a starter, it hurts him every day, and he wants to be better than that.”
When Behren Morton was sidelined the past two years, Hammond started the 2024 Liberty Bowl and 2025 regular-season games at Arizona State and at home against Oklahoma State. Tech lost to Arkansas 39-26 in the Liberty Bowl and at Arizona State 26-22. The Red Raiders beat Oklahoma State 42-0, the game in which Hammond suffered his season-ending injury.
In 12 career games, the junior from Hutto has passed for 1,151 yards and 9 touchdowns and run for 348 yards and 7 TDs.
Tuesday was the Red Raiders’ fifth practice and their first in full pads by NCAA rule. They’ll have their first intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: How Texas Tech football’s Will Hammond, Quinten Joyner look one week in
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
