Brendan Sorsby’s being granted eligibility shook the college football world. Schools and athletic directors didn’t hold back their frustration, with several discussing boycotting Texas Tech. All the backlash finally ended with Sorsby entering the Supplemental draft, but Texas Tech and Joey McGuire are still dealing with the fallout.

“Brendan Sorsby was going to be able to rehabilitate himself going back in the same exact environment where he committed so many violations against a lot of NCAA rules,” former Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn said on the June 17 episode of 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe. “Like the three of us can sit down and say like, “Yeah, you can’t bet on your own team.’ Like we’ve all known that. It’s just one of those rules that you don’t break. You know the consequences from whatever age you’ve learned about betting.”

“But Texas Tech, Cody Campbell, Joey McGuire, Kirby Hocutt, and like all involved, they really damaged whatever equity they had built up within the college football world last year by going to great lengths to try to defend him in this,” Quinn said.

Right from the moment the NCAA initially deemed Sorsby ineligible following its gambling investigation, Texas Tech supported their transfer QB. The program even appealed the NCAA’s decision, but it was rejected. When the QB took the governing body to court, he again received support from the program. Sorsby’s lawyers argued that his betting was a result of his gambling addiction, and he shouldn’t receive a punitive action.

The backdrop of that defense came from Sorsby’s decision to enter into a 35-day residential treatment program after the NCAA notified the Red Raiders of the QB’s gambling history. Usually, college programs distance themselves from such scandals. However, Texas Tech continued to back him in the name of player welfare. For Quinn, that support is misguided.

“In one instance, protecting a player, rehabilitating a player, that’s fine. That’s one thing. He doesn’t need to be around football. If we’re really taking this gambling addiction seriously, having him go serve a 30-day stint in rehab and come out of it and throwing him right back into the same mess that got him there doesn’t seem like the best solution for this young person,” Quinn said.

Texas Tech nearly got what it wanted. The NCAA lost in court again, and Sorsby was set to play next season. The uproar from the Big 12 and other college programs caused the Red Raiders to reconsider their position. Ironically, in the end, Texas Tech was compelled to make Sorsby consider alternatives.

Texas Tech desperately needed Sorsby

While standing up for a player is the basic role of a head coach, the severity of this case raised many questions about Joey McGuire’s actions. Even during the Big 12 spring meetings last month, McGuire said that the program will continue to support the QB.

Behind that support was also desperation since Texas Tech’s success in the 2026 season would have relied heavily on their Cincinnati transfer. The QB room already had depth issues as Will Hammond was yet to fully recover from his ACL tear. Other than Sorsby, McGuire didn’t have a quality piece to fall back on.

To some extent, the Texas Tech head coach accepted that there should be consequences to what Sorsby did. However, he disagreed with the QB losing a whole year or his career because of that.

“I think the best place to get help is him being at Texas Tech and him being able to play. He believes there should be a penalty also, and he’s ready to serve that penalty, but we just don’t believe that it should be for the full year,” McGuire said at the Big 12 spring meetings.