The Texas Tech Red Raiders are certainly not out of the picture when it comes to the Big 12 or the College Football Playoff.
They brought in Brendan Sorsby via the transfer portal from Cincinnati because they believed he could put them over the top, but they aren’t out of options now that he and Tech have decided to skip the legal battle.
Sorsby will try to play NFL football thanks to his entrance into the NFL supplemental draft.
In the meantime, Tech is going to pivot quickly to a player who was their “Plan B” only because of the fact that he was coming off a massive injury.
That player is quarterback Will Hammond, a former top quarterback prospect who was initially tabbed as the heir apparent to Behren Morton in Lubbock.
Hammond started two games last season for Tech in place of the injured Morton, but he suffered an injury himself in a 42-0 win over Oklahoma State. It wasn’t just a small tweak, either. He tore the ACL in his right knee, which took him out for the rest of the 2025 season.
Hammond has been rehabbing since, and reports out of Lubbock are that he’s looking good.
Will Hammond may be able to play in Week 1 for Texas Tech
He was cleared to throw before spring break, and he’s now cleared to participate in 7-on-7 summer workouts.
“He looks great,” head coach Joey McGuire said, according to Grace Raynor and Sam Khan Jr. of The Athletic. “I asked him (after the first week of workouts), and he said, ‘I feel electric, coach.’”
That’s the type of on-the-record comment from a head coach that you would expect, but a team source anonymously told The Athletic that Hammond could be on track to start the season for the Red Raiders.
He recently hit 20.5 miles per hour while running full speed in a straight line, and he has no limitations on his throwing.
“I’m pretty hopeful that he’ll be back for Week 1,” the source told The Athletic.
If this is truly the case, Texas Tech should be just as competitive as it was expected to be with Sorsby at quarterback. Hammond doesn’t have the experience that Sorsby had, but he’s flashed elite potential.
In eight appearances in 2025, he threw for 680 yards and seven touchdowns with three interceptions. Against Big 12 foe Utah in late September after Morton went down, Hammond completed 13-of-16 passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-10 Texas Tech win.
“If he plays 80 percent of what he played in that game, we’ll win the Big 12,” the team source told The Athletic. “He made clutch throws, threw a great deep ball, ran the football, moved well in the pocket, made off-platform throws. He was on fire.”
