Joey McGuire has spent the last few months telling everyone he expects Will Hammond to be Texas Tech football’s starting quarterback sooner rather than later.
Hammond is coming off a torn ACL suffered in the Oct. 25, 2025, win over Oklahoma State. Earlier this offseason, McGuire said Hammond was expected to be cleared around Week 3 of the 2026 season, but it was a moot point as the Red Raiders had gotten Brendan Sorsby out of the transfer portal from Cincinnati. Now that Sorsby is gone in the wake of the gambling scandal that rocked Texas Tech, it’s once again Hammond’s team whenever he’s ready to go.
While there’s hope that Hammond will be able to assume his role as QB1 for the Sept. 5 game against Abilene Christian, odds are the Red Raiders (either through injury status or blowout fashion) will need to utilize Kirk Francis on the field through the first few weeks of the season.
Francis has been pegged as the No. 2 quarterback on the Texas Tech depth chart coming out of spring ball, the spot reaffirmed after Sorsby’s exit from the program. The 6-foot-2 junior wasn’t expected to be much of a factor this season, though his quiet addition to the team in the offseason could be more important than initially planned.
“Obviously I love them both,” center Sheridan Wilson said of Hammond and Francis. “Kirks’ a really cool dude, think he’s a good team player too. I’ve snapped to him several times. Just a great guy.”
Tight end Terrance Carter Jr. said Francis reminds him of Mitch Griffis, the Wake Forrest transfer who spent last year behind Hammond and starter Behren Morton in the quarterback rotation. Griffis was brought in to be a veteran presence on the roster to help the younger QBs without much expectation of playing time, similar to Francis.
McGuire has said that had Hammond not torn his ACL, he would’ve been the projected starter from the beginning of the offseason. Likewise, Texas Tech never would have gotten Sorsby out of the portal and the team would’ve brought in a different veteran quarterback to be Hammond’s backup.
“He’s just a real mellow dude,” A.J. Holmes said of Francis. “Like a real great person. He’ll talk to anybody on the team. That’s the first thing I saw. Then on the field, he’s just real calm and collected. He doesn’t panic at all. He’s got a great arm.”
Francis is a Tulsa, Oklahoma, native and spent the first three years of his career playing for the Golden Hurricane where he compiled 3,045 yards with 18 touchdowns over 18 games. Beginning his career as a walk-on, Francis started 10 games, seven of which came during the 2024 season.
Last season, Francis only got three games under his belt thanks to what head coach Tre Lamb described as a “pretty bad concussion.”
“He’s a dog, dude,” Coy Eakin said of Francis. “He was a great quarterback at Tulsa, just had some injuries happen, and then he comes here, he plays with confidence, he lets the ball go, he trusts his receivers. He’s a great add to the quarterback room. Nothing falls short in our quarterback room.”
Regardless of which quarterback winds up starting the first few games of the season until Hammond returns to form, the Red Raiders are backing whichever quarterback is taking the snaps from Wilson.
“Whichever one of them plays,” Carter said, “I’m confidence in either one, because they’re both high-level quarterbacks.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Who is Kirk Francis? Texas Tech football dishes on potential starting QB
Reporting by Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal | USA TODAY Network
