Texas Tech must have more from Will Hammond if Red Raiders are going to beat Houston

Since the moment Will Hammond was named the Texas Tech football team's starting quarterback in the wake of the Brendan Sorsby mess, the prevailing thought was that the Red Raiders would go as far as the junior could carry them this fall. After two games of the 2026 season, we still don't have a great idea what Hammond is truly capable of, though.

What we do know is that Hammond will have to be more of a difference-maker in week three if his team is going to claim its first Big 12 win of the season by beating No. 22 Houston in Lubbock Friday night.

Thus far, Hammond has been solid but unspectacular. In two games, he's thrown for 243.5 yards per game and has two touchdown passes to one interception. He also has lost a fumble.

The best characteristic he's shown has been his accuracy. He's completed 76.7% of his passes. That's a ridiculous number. For instance, in his best college season, Texas Tech legend Graham Harrell completed just 71.8% of his passes in 2007.

However, Hammond's completion percentage may be a bit misleading. He's not taking big chances and pushing the ball down the field much. Rather, he's been content to check the ball down to running backs and underneath receivers.

That strategy is fine, but only to a point. There will come times when Hammond needs to make big-time throws to move the chains or put points on the board, and swing passes and hitch routes aren't going to be enough in those moments.

To understand how conservative Hammond has been as a passer, we need to look no further than the fact that through two games, running back J'Koby Williams leads Tech in receptions with ten. That is an indication that Hammond is not forcing the issue with his arm.

Hammond's 8.1 yards per attempt is a solid number. In fact, it is not far off the best season Patrick Mahomes ever had as a Red Raider (Mahomes averaged 8.5 yards per attempt in 2016). However, Hammond has been aided by a few big plays in which his receiver gained most of the yards on the play after the catch.

Against Oregon State, in a game that made many Tech fans frustrated at the lack of a vertical passing attack, Hammond averaged only 7.0 yards per attempt. That number won't lead to much success against good teams like Houston.

The two times he did take shots downfield in week two, though, resulted in a 15-yard defensive pass interference penalty and the game-winning touchdown pass to Coy Eakin. Those two plays alone are proof that good things often happen when the defense is stretched vertically.

What's more, Tech will likely have to ask Hammond to put the ball in the air more often moving forward. The Tech ground game is not clicking the way many expected it to, with Tech averaging only 3.8 yards per carry. What's more, this season, Houston has allowed only 22 total yards on the ground through two games.

While the opponents the Cougars have faced thus far (Oregon State and Southern) have not been built to run the ball, it is fair to question whether Tech will be able to rely on its spotty and inconsistent rushing attack to win this week's Big 12 opener. If not, Hammond will have to put the ball in the air more than the 30 times per game he's averaging thus far.

The good news is that Hammond is a talented player. Texas Tech fans have seen enough flashes of greatness from him in his young college career to know what he's capable of.

Now, he's had two games to knock some of the rust off after coming back from his torn knee ligament. Unfortunately for Tech, though, there's no more time for him to dip his toes into the water in 2026.

Perhaps the biggest game of the regular season is here, and Hammond now has to jump headfirst into the deep end of the pool and either sink or swim. Texas Tech needs to be firing on all cylinders this week. That means it is time for Hammond to be more than just a decent QB. He is going to have to be as great as many Texas Tech fans think he can be.

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