Texas Tech football GM James Blanchard turns down Notre Dame to stay with Red Raiders

The Texas Tech football team made another big move this offseason, this one centered around keeping one of their own in Lubbock.

Multiple outlets reported Friday morning that general manager James Blanchard has turned down an offer from Notre Dame to join the Fighting Irish in the same role. Texas Tech made it official shortly after by announcing a new three-year contract for Blanchard that runs through the 2027 season and comes with a pay raise.

Blanchard was the first hire Joey McGuire made when he became Texas Tech’s head coach back in 2021 after the pair worked together at Baylor.

“The success of our personnel department led by James Blanchard has obviously been noticed nationally with the significant interest he continues to generate annually,” McGuire said in the news release. “We’re excited James and his family have chosen to remain Red Raiders and continue the work we started not long ago in building a consistent program that can compete for Big 12 titles. We’re much closer today than when we first arrived and I look forward to continuing to work with James on further building out this roster.”

Texas Tech’s director of player personnel James Blanchard attends football practice, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, at the Sports Performance Center.

With Blanchard leading the way, Tech has signed back-to-back top 30 recruiting classes in the 2023 and 2024 cycles, the first time a Red Raider staff had achieved that in more than a decade. Texas Tech landed 17 players out of the transfer portal, achieving the top-ranked transfer class from On3 and the No. 3 class according to 247Sports.

Blanchard had previously garnered interest from the likes of Nebraska, Texas A&M and USC before the latest round of interest from the reigning national runner-up Notre Dame.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/texas-tech-football-gm-james-164310870.html

Author : Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Publish date : 2025-02-07 16:43:00

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