How good is Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby? 'His efficiency is through the roof'
The Arizona State and Cincinnati football programs have many commonalities.
Both teams are coming off 3-9 seasons and were picked to finish at the bottom of the Big 12 in 2024. Both coaches - Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham and Cincinnati's Scott Satterfield - are in their second year at the helm. And both teams entered the season with unproven, untested and overlooked quarterbacks.
While Arizona State redshirt freshman QB Sam Leavitt has helped lead the Sun Devils to a 5-1 start with his dual-threat capabilities, Cincinnati redshirt sophomore QB Brendan Sorsby has posted some big numbers for the 4-2 Bearcats.
And he certainly has Dillingham's attention.
"The quarterback is playing arguably as good as any quarterback in our league right now," said Dillingham when asked about Sorsby during his Monday press conference. "His efficiency is through the roof. He's locating the ball. He's big so they can run him in the red zone, they can run him on third downs."
The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Sorsby, who transferred from Indiana in the offseason, has passed for 1,722 yards and 13 touchdowns in six games. He is completing 66.2 percent of his passes and averaging 8.6 yards per attempt.
All of those numbers are in the top four in the Big 12. His most impressive game might have been the Bearcats' 44-41 loss to Texas Tech. With Cincinnati's top two running backs injured, Sorsby had to carry the load - and he did just that. He passed for 426 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 52 yards. He put the Bearcats in position for a game-tying field goal on the final play, but Nathan Hawks’ kick was wide right.
In Cincinnati's other loss, a 27-26 heartbreaker to Pitt, Sorsby was 22-of-38 for 298 yards and three touchdowns.
"This team has two losses by four points total. Otherwise they'd be undefeated and a top 15 team in the country if you flip four points in their season," said Dillingham. "Coach Satterfield does a really good offensively. He's always done a really god job offensively."
A three-star recruit out of Lake Dallas High School in Texas, Sorsby signed with Indiana and spent the 2022 season as a redshirt. In 2023 he started seven games for the Hoosiers and passed for 1,587 yards with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also carried the ball 112 times for 276 yards and four touchdowns. When Indiana coach Tom Allen was fired in late November, Sorsby entered the transfer portal.
During his press conference leading up to last week's 19-13 win over UCF, Sorsby talked about NFL quarterbacks he tries to model his game after.
"Obviously, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, those three guys. I really try to study their game," Sorsby said. "Obviously, I'm a Cowboys fan so I like to watch Dak (Prescott), he can spin it around a little bit. So really just watching those guys and trying to take bits and pieces from their games."
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Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.