FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said it has been business as usual in the football operation through the turmoil surrounding the Brendan Sorsby gambling saga.
The 54-year-old Texas native credited the school's leadership and boosters when asked at Big 12 media days on Tuesday how he has managed an offseason he couldn't have imagined in his younger coaching days.
“We’ve all been in this together,” McGuire said. “I have good mentors, and I have a very strong football team. If you would walk into that building from right now, or even January, any point of this saga, the football side of it, you wouldn’t think that anything was wrong, different.”
McGuire again defended the school's support of Sorsby, including the plan to let him play even after the Cincinnati transfer admitted he placed bets on Indiana games when he was a freshman with the Hoosiers.
Sorsby played the past two seasons with the Bearcats before joining the Red Raiders on a lucrative deal for his name, image and likeness.
The QB ultimately abandoned a legal effort to regain his eligibility after the NCAA suspended him for gambling, and has said he will wait until next year to enter the NFL draft.
Texas Tech stood behind Sorsby when he went to rehab over his gambling and after he sued the NCAA to regain his eligibility.
“I’m not going to ever change that I’m going have my players’ backs,” McGuire said. “It’s really easy to tell a mom or a dad that you’re going to be there to help their son grow into the man they’re supposed to be, and then all of a sudden, whenever adversity hits, or something like the situation we had, that you turn your back on them.”
McGuire said he talked to Sorsby in the past couple of days, and Sorsby is working out in the Dallas area, where played in high school. McGuire said he expects Sorsby to make occasional trips to Lubbock and that he will have access to the school's athletic facilities.
“My biggest thing why I want to be there is because I have addicts in my family,” the coach said. “Some of them are no longer with us. But the biggest thing for me right now is he continues to get help so there’s no relapse and he can be the person and the player that he’s meant to be.”
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Dirk van Ulden said:
Kkleinbaum said:
Go Kaitlyn!
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