{"id":261322,"date":"2026-04-22T16:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/261322\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:13:10","slug":"brendan-sorsbys-path-to-texas-tech-red-raiders-beat-out-nfl-blue-bloods-for-coveted-qb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/261322\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendan Sorsby’s path to Texas Tech: Red Raiders beat out NFL, blue bloods for coveted QB"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Oct. 25, Cincinnati<\/a> was 7-1 and a legitimate contender in the Big 12 championship race. <\/p>\n

By Jan. 2, Cincinnati played a bowl game without its star quarterback, Brendan Sorsby<\/a>, who had entered the transfer portal earlier that morning. <\/p>\n

It was a jarring November and December for the Bearcats, who saw Sorsby go from a likely NFL Draft<\/a> pick in black, white and red to the hottest quarterback in the 2026 transfer portal. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How Sam Leavitt became the No. 1 transfer portal QB — and why his recruitment got complicated<\/p>\n

\n Chris Hummer <\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Sorsby did explore the NFL Draft in early December. He had feedback from scouts that indicated he could be a Day 2 pick. But schools were coming hard after him as a potential portal solution. <\/p>\n

Texas Tech<\/a> made Sorsby a priority behind the scenes. After Will Hammond’s<\/a> October ACL injury, the Red Raiders knew they needed to land a top quarterback. They viewed Sorsby, a Texas native, as that guy. <\/p>\n

Quietly, Texas Tech had strong competition from a familiar program for Sorsby — Indiana<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Sorsby began his career in Bloomington, emerging as the Hoosiers’ starter as a redshirt freshman in 2023 under Tom Allen. But he opted to depart when Curt Cignetti arrived, transferring to Cincinnati. <\/p>\n

The Hoosiers, in search of a successor to Fernando Mendoza<\/a>, expressed strong interest in Sorsby. Ultimately, however, Indiana pivoted to another Big 12 passer, zeroing in on TCU’s Josh Hoover<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Other suitors\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Indiana bowed out of the race, two other suitors made aggressive pushes: LSU<\/a> and Miami<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Lane Kiffin and the Tigers identified Sorsby as the top passer in the portal market. Miami did the same, creating a three-way bidding process between the three biggest spenders in the QB market of the cycle. <\/p>\n

At one point early in the portal window, a source close to Sorsby described LSU as the leader in the race. As Texas Tech prepared for a playoff game, the Tigers aggressively pursued Sorsby behind the scenes. <\/p>\n

But by the time Sorsby began setting up visits, the Red Raiders got the first shot. <\/p>\n

Texas Tech didn’t shut things down during Sorsby’s visit, however, and he took the trip to Baton Rouge. That sent Texas Tech scrambling, lining up Sam Leavitt<\/a> and Harvard’s<\/a> Jaden Craig<\/a> as potential backup options. <\/p>\n

Ultimately, Texas Tech won the recruitment. Sorsby opted to stay home and remain in the Big 12 for his final season of eligibility. <\/p>\n

Sorsby’s process exemplified the chaotic and transactional nature of the transfer portal cycle. <\/p>\n

In mid-December, when it was only a possibility that Sorsby would leave Cincinnati, sources expected his final price to come in around $3.5 million. Instead, by the time programs submitted their final bids, sources indicated Sorsby received $5-plus million.<\/p>\n

It’s a hefty premium that underscores the leverage a top passer can create on the open market.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Oct. 25, Cincinnati was 7-1 and a legitimate contender in the Big 12 championship race. By Jan.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97760,14694,97761,97765,97757,97762,97758,261,97764,27,29,28,97763,415,97759],"class_list":["post-261322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-big-12-transfer-portal","tag-brendan-sorsby","tag-brendan-sorsby-nil-deal","tag-brendan-sorsby-tex","tag-brendan-sorsby-transfer","tag-cincinnati-bearcats-transfer-portal","tag-cincinnati-football-quarterback","tag-college-football","tag-college-football-qb-transfer-market","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-tech-football-quarterback","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-texas-tech-transfer-portal-qb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}