DALLAS -- When Joey McGuire stepped off his boosters' private jet in November 2021 for his first news conference as Texas Tech's head football coach, his wife Debbie was on one side, and James Blanchard was on the other.
That moment said everything about McGuire's trust in his right-hand man.
"I didn't even realize how important or big that was until months later," Blanchard said in a recent interview with The Dallas Morning News. "It was me and his wife. It's pretty freaking huge."
Blanchard, who serves as Texas Tech's general manager, was McGuire's first hire in Lubbock. Nearly four years later, he's the architect of the Red Raiders' roster reshaped into a Big 12 contender almost overnight.
Texas Tech's unprecedented spending spree turned heads across college football this offseason. Mega booster Cody Campbell -- a former Tech offensive lineman who made his fortune in oil and gas -- said his checkbook was wide open. With the looming changes around revenue sharing in a post-House settlement world, Blanchard took advantage while he could.
Tech poured more than $12 million into 21 transfers and $25 million into its entire roster, Blanchard said, surpassing the $20 million Ohio State spent en route to the 2024 national title. It garnered more excitement and anticipation around this year's team than there's been in Lubbock in years. College Football Playoff expectations are mounting, even though Texas Tech has never even won the Big 12.
Blanchard is the one pulling those strings. As GMs become more prevalent in college football, he's helped define the role -- largely because of his unique relationship with McGuire, giving him more autonomy than most.
"There's probably less than five times that he and I have disagreed about guys that we were recruiting. We were so like-minded, so I felt very comfortable," McGuire said. "He has the opportunity of really taking over the roster."
A year of aggressive moves and big risks will all start to play out for Texas Tech this Saturday, as the Red Raiders open their season against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Blanchard knows with the entire conference and nation watching -- and the revenue sharing changes already taking effect -- it's all or nothing.
"It feels like you've got a movie that you've been waiting all year to watch, and you find out it comes out in theaters next week," he said. "You're ready to go and see if it's as good as everybody says it is."
From couch-surfing to the GM's chair
Blanchard appreciates the paycheck he gets today and the checks cut by boosters to spend on some of the big-time recruits and transfers that he has brought in. But the most valuable check he ever received was for $2,000 leading up to Christmas in 2019.
He left his steady job making fire hydrants, his home, his wife and his three kids in Beaumont to chase a hobby into a career.
Blanchard had made highlight reels for recruits across the state for free and posted on recruiting boards, building a strong following. Baylor coach Matt Rhule found him on Twitter and offered him a job on his staff, but he'd have to take a $45,000 pay cut to do so.
"My first year at Baylor, I was homeless," Blanchard said. "That first year, I'm sending all the money that I make home outside of $500-600. I'm sleeping on our D-line coach's couch.
"I told my wife, 'Stay at the house in Beaumont. I'm going to go out here for 6, 7, 8 months and see if I'm good enough to make it.'"
The holidays rolled around, and Blanchard realized he couldn't afford gifts for his kids. McGuire, who was the defensive ends coach at Baylor that season, realized it as well.
"He gives me like $2,000 for Christmas, and he says, 'Make sure your kids have a good Christmas, Blanch.' At the time, I needed that more than anything in the world," Blanchard said. "I make good money now, and I appreciate where I'm at, but man, that $2,000 that he gave me when I was at my lowest meant a lot more at the time than a lot of these offers I've gotten since."
That one gesture forged a special bond between the two Baylor staffers. Blanchard left after the 2019 season to follow Rhule to the NFL. But he later rejoined the Baylor staff in January 2021 where he stayed until McGuire brought him to Lubbock.
His role at Texas Tech has evolved, but he now boils it down to three key responsibilities: "I'm a talent evaluator, contract negotiator and problem solver."
Early on, he focused on the talent-evaluating piece. He and his staff were -- and still are -- responsible for identifying every prospect that Tech offers a scholarship. It allows McGuire and his staff to prioritize player development.
McGuire wanted Blanchard to hold that massive responsibility to mirror an NFL model. Little did he know that role would more closely align with what NFL GMs do after the growth of collectives and the introduction of revenue sharing.
"I don't have to be in those meetings," McGuire said. "I don't have to be the bad guy. James is not emotional. He is very business, very black and white. I am not. I am very emotional. It would never be good for me to be in those meetings."
Their dynamic has worked, and it's why Blanchard has stayed, even as programs like Notre Dame tried to lure him away.
"I told him, 'Look man, you go to any other university, and that head coach cannot tell you 100% that he's the only guy that can say no to you. You know there is nobody in this building that's going to be able to trump you other than me. And how many times have you and I disagreed?'" McGuire said.
Big spending, bigger expectations
When you spend $25 million to build a football roster, expectations skyrocket. When you're pushing up against a deadline that's already arrived, the pressure to succeed becomes even greater.
In June, Judge Claudia Wilken approved a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement that, for the first time, allows universities to directly pay their athletes. The ruling also established a $20.5 million cap for all athletic programs -- a hard ceiling that general managers like Blanchard must now navigate.
The new rules took effect July 1. In the months leading up to that date, schools like Texas Tech raced to frontload payments through their booster collectives, knowing that once the deadline hit, the system would tighten.
At Tech, decision makers urged Blanchard to spend aggressively while the window was open, far surpassing the program's previous $1.5 million budget. Next year, they won't be able to outbid everyone, making it more important that they achieve something else to give them an edge when the checkbook can't.
"What are you going to recruit against us? We've never won the Big 12. So we need to go win the Big 12," McGuire said.
But Texas Tech hasn't even played for a Big 12 football championship in the league's 29 years of existence. It has not achieved a nine-win season since 2009 and has not won an outright conference title since 1955.
The window to break those trends is small but urgent.
"We came here to win championships," Blanchard said. "Anything less in any year is going to be a disappointment."
Every program in America talks about titles in August. But Tech's unprecedented investment has made outsiders believe the narrative, too.
At the center of it all is one of the most unique coach-GM partnerships in college football, a relationship that may ultimately decide whether Texas Tech breaks through or falls short again.
"It's like Jordan and Pippen -- Coach McGuire being Michael Jordan and me being Scottie Pippen," Blanchard said. "It's just a chemistry that we already have. Hopefully it brings us championships like the Chicago Bulls."
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