Who leads in battle for Texas Tech football No. 2 QB?
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In a perfect world, Brendan Sorsby would start and finish every Texas Tech football game next season — or play at least until the outcome is in hand.
Then again, Texas Tech has had bad luck with quarterbacks’ health for the past decade. In 2024, Behren Morton became the first Tech QB to start every regular-season game since Patrick Mahomes in 2016 and the first to not miss a start because of injury since Nic Shimonek in 2017.
And Morton underwent shoulder surgery in December 2024, sidelining him for the Liberty Bowl.
It’s already established that Tech will start the 2026 season with a quarterback sidelined. Tech coach Joey McGuire said last week that, in a best-case scenario, Will Hammond will return in week three from the season-ending knee injury he suffered in October. Hammond, who has a good chance to be the Red Raiders‘ regular starter at some point in his career, will slot in at No. 2 when he’s back.
So one question to answer during spring practice and preseason workouts is whether Tulsa transfer Kirk Francis or redshirt freshman Lloyd Jones III will be Sorsby’s backup for the first month. During a Red Raider Club event last week in Amarillo, McGuire indicated Francis is starting out ahead based on his experience.
“Kirk’s played,” McGuire said, “so he’s processing stuff at a little bit different level just because he’s played college football.”
During a practice last week, McGuire said Francis took all the second-team snaps and Jones was scheduled to get some with the second team on Saturday, March 28, which was the fifth spring session. The Red Raiders were back on the field Tuesday, March 31, for their sixth workout.
Of the competition between Francis and Jones, McGuire said, “It’s almost a placeholder until Will gets back healthy.
“As far as when we get him back, game-wise, we won’t let him get ahead of schedule, but he’s ahead of schedule [in rehabilitation]. And I knew he would be. He’s a different dude. But it’s still going to be week three at best when you count out from when he had surgery.”
Francis is a 6-foot-2, 200-pound junior from Tulsa (Okla.) Metro Christian. He went to Tulsa as a walk-on and was placed on scholarship after his freshman season. He passed for 967 yards and 6 touchdowns in 2023, for 1,585 yards and 9 TDs in 2024, and for 493 yards and 3 TDs last season.
Francis’ resume is similar to that of Mitch Griffis, who the Red Raiders added from the NCAA transfer portal after the 2024 season. Griffis was the No. 3 behind Morton and Hammond.
Jones, a 6-4, 215-pound redshirt freshman from Hitchcock, suffered a season-ending knee injury in his senior year in high school and was medically released to return for the second half of last season. He played for the first time in the regular-season finale at West Virginia and threw two touchdown passes to Micah Hudson — career firsts for both.
McGuire said Hammond “looks phenomenal” in his recovery from the torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered in the Red Raiders’ Oct. 25 victory over Oklahoma State. Any setback in rehab, though, would push his return date back to week five or week six of the 2026 season, McGuire said; thus, the reason they went into the transfer portal for Sorsby, a second-team all-Big 12 honoree last year for Cincinnati.
“We won’t let him (Hammond) get ahead of schedule, like fully released, because we want to make sure he’s ready to come back,” McGuire said. “But he’s throwing. He doesn’t do a lot of movement when he’s throwing. He is running. … He looks really good.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Looking at who leads in battle for Texas Tech football No. 2 QB
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