The one part of Brendan Sorsby’s situation that Texas Tech is missing
Some players are worth the risk, the headaches, the negative PR, and the trouble, like Cam Newton.
Brendan Sorsby is a good college quarterback, and he’s not Cam. Sorsby the player is not worth what Texas Tech is doing to put him on the field.
All football teams exist in a perpetual state of desperation for quarterbacks, but what Texas Tech is doing for Sorsby suggests the Red Raiders are a thrice-divorced 58-year-old woman who will do anything to say she has a boyfriend, even if the relationship will last six months.
On Monday, the latest round of threats, meetings and lawyerly-lawyer speak was tossed about between Tech and the Big 12 Conference, and an increasing number of state attorney generals who are looking for some of that sweet Ken Paxton publicity pie.
Under pressure from Big 12 Conference school administrators, as well as those in similar positions outside the league, commissioner Brett Yormark is making sure to put the Red Raiders on an island that is surrounded by sharks, snakes, alligators and, worse, elected politicians. The Big 12 is now enlisting the services of the federal court to prevent Sorsby from playing.
Last week, Sorsby was granted an injunction against the NCAA’s ruling to ban him because he bet on Indiana games when he was with the Hoosiers. The reaction to the Fort Worth judge’s decision to allow Sorsby to play has unified everyone against Texas Tech.
The Big 12 is now asking a federal court to allow it to enforce its own rules, which would essentially prohibit Tech from playing Sorsby.
Texas Tech’s decision all about talent
The only reason Texas Tech is “wrapping its arms” around a man who has been in Lubbock for six months is because Brendan Sorsby is good at football. He was the top-rated quarterback in the transfer portal after the season, and the Red Raiders reportedly paid him $5 million to transfer from Cincinnati to Texas Tech.
He’s listed at 6-foot-3, 235 pounds ... which means he’s probably closer to 6-foot-1. He’s played four seasons of college football, 35 games, and attempted 594 career passes. That’s a long resume of major college football.
He’s a nice passer, and a decent runner. You could do a lot worse.
According to two NFL scouts, had he declared for the NFL Draft after the 2025 season, he was projected second round pick. Maybe a third. There are concerns about his height.
The thought was, under previous circumstances, that he would be a quarterback who would drop once the draft started. Not to the bottom of the class, but somewhere closer to the middle than the top.
He needed a fantastic 2026 season to secure his status as a first round pick. Now, with all of this new information readily available about his betting habits creating the always ominous but vague “character concerns,” his status as a draft pick is a giant “Who knows?”
Concerns about Brendan Sorsby the quarterback
Tech believes he’s a first round NFL Draft pick. They may be the only ones.
In his two seasons as the starting QB at Cincinnati, the Bearcats were 12-12. The team finished the 2024 season on a four-game losing streak, and did not play in a bowl; it finished the ‘25 season on a six-game losing streak, five of which Sorsby was the starter.
At Indiana in 2023, the Hoosiers were 2-8 in games which he appeared, including a season-ending three-game losing streak.
He’s never appeared in a postseason game.
There is a lot of tape on Sorsby, much of it good. He has a lot of pretty numbers; what there is not a lot of is winning.
Brendan Sorsby is no Cam Newton
Texas Tech is not the first school to “support this young man” because he’s good at football.
In 2010, Auburn won the recruiting sweepstakes to sign prized junior college quarterback Cam Newton. There were rumors and allegations that Auburn handed Newton a nice check to sign him, something the NCAA investigated but never did prove.
When he came to Auburn, he was the former five-star quarterback who had been kicked out of Florida by then head coach Urban Meyer. Newton reportedly stole a computer, and there were allegations of academic misconduct.
Newton was 6-foot-5, 245 pounds and had the ability to beat teams, including Alabama, by himself. In his one season at Auburn, he won the Heisman Trophy, and led the Tigers to a perfect record and the national title; he was the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, eventually won the NFL MVP award, and led the Panthers to an appearance in the Super Bowl.
Whatever he cost Auburn, or headaches his presence may have created for the university, it was more than worth it. Because he was Cam Newton.
Brendan Sorsby is a nice college player, and he’s not worth what the Red Raiders are doing to justify his spot on their roster.
