Editor’s note: This article is part of our GM Spotlight series, introducing readers to general managers who occupy a relatively new and increasingly important job for college football teams.

A decade ago, James Blanchard was posting on college football message boards to get high school recruits noticed by Texas programs. Now he’s the general manager of a top-10 Texas Tech team gunning to win its first Big 12 championship and make the College Football Playoff.

Blanchard, the architect of the “open checkbook” transfer portal class that cost eight figures as part of a $25 million overall roster budget, has become one of the most prominent GMs in the sport. The journey took a relentless drive, a lot of sacrifice and a little bit of luck.

In the mid-2010s, he was cutting highlight tapes and promoting Southeast Texas recruits to help them earn scholarships. He developed enough of a reputation in fan forums and social media that when Matt Rhule arrived at Baylor, some fans on Twitter suggested to him that he add Blanchard to his staff.

Rhule and then-Baylor director of player personnel Evan Cooper noticed and initiated a relationship with Blanchard. They liked the players he sent them. One day when Rhule was in Beaumont to see a recruit, he invited Blanchard to lunch and offered him a job in the scouting department.

“It was a dream come true,” Blanchard said.

The problem? Blanchard had just bought a home for his wife and kids, and the Baylor job would pay him $50,000 less than what he was making outside of football.

Determined to chase a dream, Blanchard gambled and took it anyway. He sent most of the money back home to his family and spent some nights in Waco sleeping in his Chrysler 300 or on the couch in Baylor defensive line coach Frank Okam’s office.

The initial payoff came three years later when Rhule took a job with the Carolina Panthers and hired Blanchard as a pro scout. But Blanchard was lured back to Baylor after a season when Dave Aranda doubled his salary. Throughout his time at Baylor, Blanchard connected with Joey McGuire, then an assistant coach with the Bears. They saw eye-to-eye on player evaluations. When McGuire landed the Texas Tech job in November 2021, Blanchard was his first hire, landing in Lubbock with McGuire on mega booster Cody Campbell’s jet.

McGuire promised Blanchard full control of personnel, which was unconventional in college football. Texas Tech turned in consecutive top-30 recruiting classes for the first time in a decade. This offseason, with the help of massive resources spearheaded by Campbell, signed a transfer class that has the No. 6 Red Raiders in the thick of the conference and Playoff race.

Of his path, Blanchard said “It’s a ’30 for 30′ movie.”

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You’ve spoken often about the influence Matt Rhule and Evan Cooper had on you at Baylor in shaping your personnel philosophy. What about them made the biggest impression on you?

Just the structure of everything. Matt Rhule was one of the first ones (to have a GM) … Coop didn’t have the title of general manager, but Coop was like our general manager. The position coaches and coordinators had say on who would come in the building, who we would offer and who we would take commitments from, but Coop had the final say so outside of coach Rhule. If Coop told coach Rhule, ‘We need to take this guy, I know what everybody else is saying, but trust me, dawg, take him,’ then the guy was coming to Baylor.

What was your NFL experience like in Carolina with Rhule?

I would do scouting reports on the other teams we played, our potential free agent targets, scout our own roster, then would assist with setting up the draft board. It was like a master’s degree crash course in how to build teams. Learned from two great guys there, Marty Hurney (then the Panthers’ GM) and Pat Stewart (then the Panthers’ director of player personnel).

They just taught me how to have a more refined eye, how to be more detailed in describing what I was talking about, what to look for at a higher level and then just roster configuration. Marty was gracious enough to always have an open-door policy. My office was right next to our salary cap guy, Samir (Suleiman), and he would let me just sit in and listen to things. And at the time, I’m just listening to him because I’m thinking I want to be an NFL GM. Had no idea that knowing and listening to some of those conversations would help me thrive as a college football GM.

What do you look for in the portal that applies what you learned from the NFL?

The big thing is production over potential and body types. Movement skills, body types and do they fit into your scheme? There’s a lot of good players out there, but some of these guys don’t fit into people’s schemes. At some point, you’re just collecting players and it’s like, you have no idea how this guy’s going to fit into your building.

After returning to Baylor, you went with Joey McGuire to Texas Tech. What made you ultimately decide to go with him?

Joey is just a great human, first and foremost — him and (his wife) Debbie, the things they do and how they treat people. When I first got to Baylor and took a big pay cut, that December, I didn’t have enough money to get everything (for my wife and kids) for Christmas. And I was really stressed out about it, the lifestyle change, that I had put my wife in this situation while I chased this crazy dream. She was still in college, so I’m trying to pay for her college and the mortgage while dealing with this $50,000 pay cut.

And I don’t know how, but Joey McGuire (found out) and comes into my office one day and says, “Hey, here’s some money for Christmas,” and he handed me an envelope with like two grand in it. And I’m like, “Hey, coach, I can’t pay you back because I’m broke as s— right now.”  And he said, “You ain’t gotta pay me back. One day you’re gonna be on your feet and just make sure you take care of somebody else.” That two grand is how I paid for my kid’s Christmas that year. And that meant the world to me.

So whenever he got to calling me and texting me that (the Texas Tech job) might be a reality, “I need you to come with me,” shoot, it was a no-brainer.

When you got to Texas Tech, you guys went heavy on measurables and track times in recruiting your first few classes. Is that still the case?

100 percent.

Are you still as aggressive with early scholarship offers as you were then? 

No, we’ve slowed down a little bit. Junior and senior evaluations are way more important now that you’re allocating big money to some of these young men. This might be the slowest I’ve ever been (to offer). Going forward, we might take smaller high school classes, so we’ll see.

What prompted the shift to heavily utilizing the transfer portal?

Just doing research and seeing how effective it is. In 2023, Florida State and (GM Darrick Yray) were one of the first ones to crack the code in the portal. That portal class they put together (was impressive). … Then in 2024, Colorado did it at a high level. Deion (Sanders) went and got some real ballplayers to put around Shedeur and they went from four wins to nine wins. Ohio State, one of the meccas, they went out and signed 10-12 NFL-caliber guys (in the portal) and had a great College Football Playoff run.

After looking at that, I said, “OK, if we do this in the portal the right way, we can dominate the Big 12.” Because I feel like a lot of people were still iffy about (using the portal that way). And with the help of (director of player personnel) Brian Nance, (scouting director) Sean Kenney and (assistant scouting director) Wesley Harwell, we were able to put it on display in a big way.

Texas Tech is 10-1 and in good position for a Big 12 title run and College Football Playoff berth. Safe to say that there aren’t any regrets about it?

None. We should have done more.

Everyone’s so competitive in this space and most schools don’t want to say what their roster budget is or how much they paid a guy. Why have you guys been comfortable being so open about what you were doing?

I think because we saw early, once all those guys got on campus, that we hit not only on the player, but the person. Hitting on both was so critically important to us. … And it was apparent to everybody that, “Oh s—, this is about to be really good.” Coach McGuire, Cody Campbell and everybody felt comfortable. I think deep down inside, everybody knew how good we could be.

What do you say to people who say, “Oh they spent $7 million on the defensive line” or “They spent too much on their portal class?”

I would say that we have the best D-line in college football. … I think all these teams out here, they spend tons of money year-in, year-out on high school recruiting classes and that’s fine. But I think we’ve shown the world a little bit that we did it better than everybody in the portal historically. I think people are going to look back and say, “This is the greatest single portal class in the history of college football.” And we did it at such a high level that, this one portal class, probably outweighs — at every school except maybe two or three — five years of high school recruiting that they did. And it took us less time and less money than it took over those five years.

So where do you go from here? Because I would imagine other schools may try to replicate your strategy.

I just think we’re better right now. People will try to replicate it, but you’ve got to be all-in. Our coaching staff is all-in. If I go to (defensive coordinator) Shiel Wood and I say “We’ve got to get this Lee Hunter guy, I’m telling you to trust me on it,” he’s going to trust me. Just like I’m going to trust him if he (feels strongly). The synergy in the building with the culture, the players, the coaches, Joey McGuire has it running on all cylinders.

How much will a baseline championship roster cost in the next year or two?

About $20-$30 million. And that’s dictated by how close you are to blue blood status and recent success. The further away you are, the higher your number has to be. Now that Texas Tech is winning, a guy that we might be able to get for $600,000, if you’re a program that hasn’t won at a high level, you might have to pay $800,000 to get that guy. What do you have to pay somebody to go to an unproven concept?

How much of that hinges upon programs’ ability to operate beyond the revenue-sharing cap?

If you don’t have legit NIL opportunities going on, then your program is going to fall behind. You’ve got to have the NIL opportunities to compete at the top. Now if that’s not your goal, then don’t worry about it. But if your goal is to compete with the top echelon, to be one of the top 10 programs in the country, then yeah, you’re going to have to have those third party NIL deals. It’s non-negotiable.

Does Texas Tech intend to remain a market leader in what it takes to acquire talent?

I believe so. I don’t think we’re going anywhere anytime soon. I think we are going to be aggressive and innovative. I wouldn’t count Red Raider nation out.

Can Texas Tech win a national championship in the next five years?

One thousand percent. We’ve got a shot to win it this year. If we don’t, the proof of concept is there. Over the next five years, I think you’re going to see Texas Tech fight, scratch and claw like hell to kick that door in. I wouldn’t bet against this community, this university, this administration, this coaching staff, our donors and board of regents. This isn’t a one-hit wonder. We’re about to go on a run, and this is Year 1 of it.

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