Just how good is Brendan Sorsby? What opposing coaches think about the controversial QB

Texas Tech paid a fortune to make a run at a national title last year. The money mega-booster Cody Campbell and company spent for their suddenly elite defensive line, led by David Bailey, proved to be a shrewd investment. The Red Raiders led the nation in run defense and won the Big 12 for the first time, earning a spot in the College Football Playoff. The problem? They didn’t opt to upgrade from quarterback Behren Morton and got shut out 23-0 by fellow name, image and likeness heavyweight Oregon in the Playoff.

The Red Raiders decided this winter they would go all in on a quarterback this time, spending around $5 million to land Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby, the No. 4 player in The Athletic’s transfer quarterback rankings. When Sorsby left Indiana after the 2023 season, sources told The Athletic, he got $650,000 from Cincinnati. A year ago, the Bearcats were able to retain the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Texan for about $1.5 million. But after the 2025 season, he had become arguably the hottest commodity in the portal.

But after spring ball in Lubbock, it was revealed that Brendan Sorsby placed more than 9,000 bets, totaling more than $90,000, during his college career, including on Indiana football in 2022 while he was a member of the team.

Now, weeks after the center of the gambling investigation that put his college future in serious jeopardy, a Texas state court granted a temporary injunction order in his lawsuit against the NCAA to allow Sorsby to play this fall.

So what kind of impact can an eligible Sorsby have on Texas Tech? The Athletic spoke to several sources in the Big 12, who were granted anonymity to candidly discuss an opposing player, about the guy who was considered by multiple teams to be the top quarterback in the portal.

“He’s a big kid that can do it all,” said one Power 4 QB coach. “He can run. He can throw. He’s accurate. He makes all the off-platform throws. He’s a frickin’ competitor. He’s not soft. He does not turn the ball over and he does not miss open guys. He had 36 total TDs and only six turnovers. He is about as good as you can be at all the stuff that you can’t coach — the off-platform throws, the tight-window throws.”

Sorsby, who was once ranked as the No. 101 QB in the 2022 recruiting class by 247Sports, had an eye-popping 20-to-1 TD to INT ratio over the first two months of the 2025 season, but in four games in November, that ratio sunk to 7-to-4, and the Bearcats, 7-1 entering the month, lost all four games.

A source at Cincinnati said he felt a lot of the Bearcats’ struggles had to do with a big jump in the caliber of competition. UC, which didn’t face any ranked teams in its first eight games, faced three Top 25 teams in the final month, and the fourth was Arizona, which finished 9-4.

On the road at No. 14 Utah, the Bearcats were forced to throw the ball after getting down in the game, a bad formula against the Utes. Against Arizona, the Bears had a bunch of big drops by their receivers. Against No. 11 BYU, they missed three field goals, a wide receiver fumbled going into the end zone and they got stopped on a fourth-and-1 at the 5-yard line. In the fourth game, at No. 25 TCU, Sorsby threw for 282 yards with three TDs and no picks.

Still, his record of 1-11 in November games over the past three seasons is something some defensive coaches noted.

“He is super talented. He has all the arm strength, can run, really good size,” one defensive coordinator told The Athletic recently. “He’s really fast — and he is willing to run. I do think he has underachieved. He could be so much better if he worked at the leadership part of the position, bringing guys up with him. Like, when things were going well, they were going well. And when they weren’t, they couldn’t really bounce back from that. I don’t know if he’s one of those innate leaders.”

The Red Raiders, expected to contend for the Big 12 championship with or without Sorsby, do have to replace the nucleus of their defense that finished fourth in the nation in tackles for loss. They lost four standout players that went in the top 70 picks of the 2026 NFL Draft in Bailey (the second overall pick), linebacker Jacob Rodriguez (43rd), defensive tackle Lee Hunter (49th) and edge rusher Romello Height (70th). As part of a top-five transfer class, they did add a pair of top transfer edge rushers in Trey White from San Diego State and Adam Trick from Miami (Ohio), plus a touted defensive tackle in Mateen Ibirogba from Wake Forest. Freshman edge rusher LaDamion Guyton, a five-star recruit, also should help. But it’s a stretch to think this defense will be as salty as last year’s group was.

The big question is can Sorsby — if the NCAA can’t get this injunction overturned upon appeal — take his game to another level in Lubbock? One Big 12 personnel director was skeptical that was going to happen when Sorsby first signed with Tech.

On Monday, an hour after the injunction came down, he was even more skeptical.

“If you think that he’s going to plug-and-play into this of whatever level of NFL talent you think that he’s capable of, I think that is sorely underestimating the mental toll this is probably taking on him,” the personnel director said. “He is 0-8 in November the last two years. We watched every game that he’s played for the last two seasons. He is toolsy, but it’s never been to the point, outside of maybe the game they played against Tech two years ago, where you felt this is the best dude on the field.

“I get it: He can run and he’s got a good arm, but you watch the tape, there’s just some bad things, some strange losses and some clunker performances. Just a lot of it. And if you think about whatever he’s gone through the last year, and the scrutiny he’s already gone through, and now the scrutiny that he’s going to receive and he’s gonna come out and perform at a higher level? Man, that’s a hard scenario to see.”