HOUSTON — In his first public appearance since transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby won a temporary injunction to play in 2026 amid a sports gambling controversy, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire called it “a stretch” that Sorsby would be ready for a September return to the field, citing his recovery from addiction and the lingering legal and procedural uncertainties.
McGuire, speaking to roughly 140 Tech fans and alumni at the Touchdown Club of Houston, was one of three key school figures who publicly commented Wednesday on the ongoing Sorsby saga. Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt released a lengthy statement defending the program’s approach to Sorsby’s status, and school board chair and billionaire booster Cody Campbell made a podcast appearance commenting on the firestorm that was ignited Monday when a Lubbock County district court judge overruled the NCAA’s permanent suspension of Sorsby, who admitted to placing bets on college sports, including on Indiana football when he was a member of the team in 2022.
“Brendan Sorsby is recovering from an addiction,” McGuire said. “I’ve sat down with this young man multiple times, and the things that he is going through and what he’s been through, is serious. I have a number of people in my family that were addicted to different stuff, and so I’ve seen what addiction does to people. And so for us even saying to the point — before we get to the legal part — that he can be ready Week 3 against Houston is still a stretch, because guess what, he’s still recovering.”
McGuire and Hocutt struck a similar tone in their public comments on Wednesday, two days after the injunction ruling arrived. “Brendan Sorsby has not played a single down of football as a Red Raider,” Hocutt said, in a statement released minutes before McGuire took the mic in Houston. “He will miss the first two games of the 2026 season under the terms of the court’s ruling. What happens after that will depend, in no small part, on how his recovery continues to progress.
“We’re taking it one day at a time as he is,” Hocutt continued. “We’ll evaluate his recovery, compliance and readiness as we go. We are watching closely, we are deeply committed to his progress and well-being and we are not operating on blind faith.”
— Kirby Hocutt (@kirbyhocutt) June 10, 2026
Campbell, who has been involved in efforts to reform college sports through congressional legislation, took a much more defiant tone.
“This kid did not impact the integrity of a single game,” Campbell said on the “Don’t @ Me With Dan Dakich” show. “He didn’t bet on a single game he played in. He didn’t hurt anybody. There are kids that will suit up this fall who have actually hurt people and done bad things, and nobody’s talking about boycotting them or not playing them. Nobody’s on their moral high horse saying they’re so good and Texas Tech is so evil. I don’t have any patience for that. …
“There are kids that are playing that have gotten DUIs, that have beaten up women, kids that have committed horrible acts. Nobody boycotted Penn State when that horrible situation happened there.”
Campbell also responded to criticism directed at Texas Tech, decisions not to schedule the Red Raiders and potential boycotts or Big 12 action, chalking it up to jealousy.
“It’s because the college football world doesn’t think that Texas Tech should be as good as we are. We’ve been a disruptor, just like Indiana has, so we’ve been a target,” Campbell said. “The volume has gone up and a lot has been directed at me, Coach McGuire, and our university, but that’s not fair.
“If this had happened at LSU, people would say, ‘Ah, it’s LSU. They’re always going to do what they do.’ But it happened at Texas Tech, and people don’t want to compete with us. Of course ADs in the Big 12 are saying crazy things that they don’t want to play us. They don’t want to play us because they know he’s good and they don’t want us to be as competitive. They want to have a better chance at winning the conference. So they’re inherently conflicted in their opinion.”
When it comes to potentially playing Sorsby, Campbell said, “As it stands right now, the kid is eligible, so we don’t have a whole lot of choice but to play him. Not only on legal grounds, but ethically and morally. We told him we were going to back him up and support him, and Texas Tech does what it says it’s going to do and keeps the promises it makes.”
Campbell also threatened legal action if teams that have Tech on their schedule opted not to play the Red Raiders.
“I love when the Big Ten or the K-State AD comes out and says we’ve all gotten together and we’ve talked about how we’re not going to play Tech, because guess what? That’s collusion. That’s an antitrust violation. So have fun with that one, guys. You can’t do that.”
When asked whether lawsuits would follow if Tech were banned from College Football Playoff, which is not controlled by the NCAA, Campbell said, “100 percent.”
While Campbell popped off, McGuire and Hocutt both pointed out that Texas Tech was not a party to Sorsby’s lawsuit.
“None of this is OK,” McGuire said. “We were not a part of this lawsuit in any way. We did not pay for his lawyer. This was not Texas Tech taking the NCAA to court. What we did was support our player that is an addict. And that has been done at Texas Tech as long as Texas Tech has been a university, supporting their student-athletes and their students.”
McGuire again emphasized that “I don’t have to make my starting lineup right now. There’s a lot of stuff that has to go through this process. We’re not taking it lightly. We’re not trying to throw it in anybody’s face, either.”
Hocutt stressed the support that Tech has and continues to give Sorsby in his recovery, while acknowledging the frustration that has emanated from every corner of the college sports world following the injunction.
“Let me be direct about what Texas Tech’s position actually is: We are glad Brendan is still part of our community, because that is where we can extend him the best possible support in his ongoing recovery,” Hocutt said. “Clinical care, device monitoring, financial oversight, outpatient therapy — that infrastructure exists because we take our responsibility to this young man seriously. We spent Monday after the judge’s ruling getting those systems stood up for him, not thinking about X’s and O’s.
“Pulling him out of a structured environment, away from his team and his support system, does not protect anyone. It might be a cleaner headline, but it wouldn’t be the right one. And it wouldn’t be true to the institutional values that guide us every day.”
McGuire referenced the “amount of technology” on Sorsby’s devices to monitor him and that “he has a person that’s over every single penny.” McGuire said Sorsby is with the team and was in meetings on Wednesday.
“To my colleagues: I understand the frustration. This situation is hard, it is new, and there is no perfect answer,” Hocutt said. “The system we’re operating within is binary, but the situation is not. We are open to ongoing conversations about how to best handle these issues as an industry going forward. We will continue to be transparent in our decision-making. Most importantly, we will keep doing what we have always done, put our students first.”
McGuire indicated that Sorsby is contrite about it all and said that the quarterback could speak publicly soon.
“He’s the first person to tell you, it’s his fault. He chose to do this,” McGuire said. “But if you know anything about addiction, there’s a point where you choose it and then all of a sudden, you don’t choose it anymore. It’s not something that you can do by yourself to get past where you’re at. So I wasn’t going to turn my back on him.
“This is so early. We’re still working through a lot of stuff and so is he. And at some point soon, I would expect that Red Raiders will hear from Brendan Sorsby, because I think it’s really important and he thinks it’s really important to get everybody to understand exactly where he’s at.”