Texas Tech has repeatedly found itself in the college football spotlight lately, whether it’s been the Brendan Sorsby saga, verbal spars with Texas coach Steve Sarkisian or aggressive player acquisition.
On Monday, Paramount+ announced it has greenlit a docuseries chronicling the Red Raiders’ offseason. The docuseries began production in January and is supposed to offer “unprecedented” access, according to a news release. Four episodes are expected to begin airing before the start of the 2026 season.
“This has proven to be a landscape-altering offseason and we’ve been lucky to have a front-row seat,” Greg Groggel of Skydance Sports, which is producing the series, said in the release. “This series will present fans and viewers with an unprecedented window into everything that is defining college football today.”
The series is directed by Micah Brown, who also directed the Connor Stalions documentary on Netflix.
Texas Tech is coming off its first Big 12 championship, and it signed its highest-rated recruiting class ever and a top-five transfer portal class as billionaire booster Cody Campbell continues to transform the program.
But no story involving the Red Raiders generated more headlines and conversation than Sorsby’s gambling saga and the legal proceedings that accompanied it. Sorsby transferred to Texas Tech from Cincinnati in January and received a lucrative NIL deal, then announced in April he was entering treatment for a gambling addiction.
Sorsby wagered more than $90,000, and his gambling was flagged by law enforcement. He placed bets on Indiana’s football program while he was a member of the team in 2022. The NCAA ruled Sorsby ineligible for the season, but he filed a lawsuit and was granted a temporary injunction that would have allowed him to play this season.
Texas Tech went all in to defend its new quarterback amid substantial public relations backlash. Sorsby decided to drop his fight with the NCAA over his eligibility, announcing plans on June 15 to enter the NFL’s Supplemental Draft. Last week, the NFL announced it would not hold a supplemental draft and rebuked Sorsby’s actions in the process.
How much of that tale will be told, or who has editorial control of the docuseries, remains to be seen. But the Red Raiders have become a spotlight program over the past few years as Campbell, who also chairs the university’s board of regents, has invested more and more in the team and been heavily involved in pushes for congressional action around college sports rules. Texas Tech reached the College Football Playoff for the first time last season and has been a central figure in discussions about player compensation, scheduling and the transfer portal.
Speaking to fans at an offseason event, Sarkisian didn’t specifically refer to Texas Tech by name but said: “There’s a team in our state in another conference with a schedule that I would argue, if I played with our twos and threes, we could go undefeated, and they’ll probably make the CFP this year.”
Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire later proposed Texas play Texas Tech in the season opener.
One of the other key offseason storylines, especially in the wake of Sorsby’s absence, is the quarterback situation. Will Hammond is Texas Tech’s best player at the position and will probably assume the starting role at some point but is coming off an ACL tear he suffered last October. His recovery and rehabilitation will be a significant development for the Red Raiders.
