Joey McGuire’s recruiting operation built to last at Texas Tech
By Sam Khan Jr.
2h ago
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A cursory glance at the national team recruiting rankings — with Texas Tech sitting at No. 2 behind only Notre Dame — may require a double-take.
Texas Tech? At No. 2?
It’s true, even if that ranking is a bit skewed by the sheer number of commitments new coach Joey McGuire and his staff have racked up in the 2023 class. Nobody will confuse the Red Raiders, a team that has appeared in only three bowl games in the last eight years, with a traditional recruiting juggernaut.
There are plenty of qualifiers to consider in assessing the Red Raiders’ lofty ranking: Their 20 commits are by far the most of any school in the country currently and the average recruit rating — 87.74 per the 247Sports Composite — is more akin to a top-25 class, not a top-five haul. And, it’s May, nearly seven months until the early signing period arrives.
But take a closer look at the Red Raiders’ class and it’s evident that McGuire and his staff are truly breaking the mold in Lubbock, Texas. They have more recruits ranked in the national top 500 (eight) than any Texas Tech signing class in the last 10 years. In the previous seven cycles, no Tech class had more than three top-500 recruits.
Only one Texas Tech class in the last decade, the 2015 group under Kliff Kingsbury, had as many or more four-star prospects in it (five) than the Red Raiders do now (four). And the Red Raiders seem to be beating other schools to the punch, offering prospects sooner and getting them committed faster.
So how are they doing it? The Athletic spoke with several key figures both at Texas Tech and across the state to see what’s behind the Red Raiders’ unprecedented recruiting success.
A ‘priceless’ head start
In getting ahead on the 2023 class, McGuire possessed one built-in advantage that his in-state counterparts didn’t: He didn’t have a football team to coach.Typically, coaching changes occur near the end of the season. Texas Tech fired Matt Wells on Oct. 25, despite a 5-3 record and the Red Raiders only one win away from bowl eligibility for the first time in five years, with an entire month of games left. Athletic director Kirby Hocutt installed then-offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie as the interim, and Hocutt hired McGuire away from Baylor two weeks later, on Nov. 8.
McGuire, formerly Baylor’s associate head coach and outside linebackers coach, told Dave Aranda that he needed only one person on the flight to Lubbock with him on Day 1: scouting director James Blanchard, who is now Tech’s director of player personnel.
Blanchard, who McGuire says is “as good as anybody in the country at evaluating talent,” would have full control over the recruiting department. “The only person who can tell you ‘No,’ in that building is me,’” McGuire told him.
With five weeks remaining until the start of the early signing period, there was plenty of time for McGuire, Blanchard and then-scouting director Cody Bellaire to scour the state for talent, instead of a two-week (or less) rush to wrap up the 2022 class had he been hired in December.
McGuire met with Texas Tech players individually but otherwise stayed out of Cumbie’s way in November, holing up in tiny offices with Blanchard and Bellaire inside Jones AT&T Stadium, just a few doors down from Hocutt. For weeks, the trio arrived at the office between 7 and 8 a.m. and stayed until 10 and 11 p.m., centered around a whiteboard with a list of prospects, watching film, evaluating and calling recruits.
“It was priceless,” Blanchard said of the head start.
Texas Tech recruiting, 2014-2023
| CLASS | NAT'L RANK | AVG PLAYER RATING | 4-STARS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2 | 87.74 | 4 |
| 2022 | 43 | 86.48 | 1 |
| 2021 | 74 | 86.44 | 1 |
| 2020 | 48 | 85.16 | 1 |
| 2019 | 62 | 84.26 | 0 |
| 2018 | 72 | 83.76 | 1 |
| 2017 | 49 | 84.84 | 1 |
| 2016 | 44 | 84.00 | 2 |
| 2015 | 32 | 85.79 | 5 |
| 2014 | 40 | 84.08 | 0 |
“We (were) all synced up on what a Texas Tech football player looks like,” said Bellaire, who left Tech in April to join On3Sports as a scouting assistant.
It took only six days for McGuire to land his first 2023 commit: Isaiah Crawford, a four-star edge rusher and former Baylor commit whom McGuire recruited at his previous stop. A bonus: Crawford hails from Post, Texas, just 40 minutes southeast of Lubbock.
By the end of November, Tech had four 2023 commits. By 2022 signing day, the Red Raiders had five.
Speed Rhules
So what does a Texas Tech recruit look like in the Joey McGuire era? Look no further than Baylor’s 2022 draft class.McGuire, Blanchard and Brian Nance — who succeeded Bellaire as Tech’s scouting director last month — all share one trait: They worked at Baylor under Matt Rhule. McGuire was on Rhule’s charter staff in 2017 while Blanchard and Nance joined the recruiting department in 2019, Rhule’s final season before taking over the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. Blanchard spent a year in Carolina with Rhule before returning to Baylor in 2021. Bellaire also spent a year at Baylor with McGuire on Aranda’s staff in 2020.
In recruiting, they evaluate the way Rhule did: erring on the side of elite physical traits, particularly speed and length.
“If he has the movement and the athletic traits, then we can teach him to be a good football player,” Blanchard said. “There’s no ceiling on how much football I can teach him. But there is a ceiling on athletic talent. Me and you are never gonna run a 4.3 in the 40.
“He’s already a freak. Let’s make him into a football player.”
Baylor had six players drafted in April. All of them had impressive metrics. Cornerback Kalon Barnes had the fastest 40-yard dash (4.23 seconds) of all NFL Scouting Combine participants. Tyquan Thornton was the fastest among receivers (4.28). Safety JT Woods (4.43) was third-best among safeties. Safety Jalen Pitre and linebacker Terrel Bernard had the third-best 3-cone times at their respective positions. Running back Trestan Ebner clocked a 4.43-second 40.
McGuire wants the Red Raiders to light up the combine in the same way in a few years. So the recruiting staff adheres to a strict set of measurables when evaluating recruits.
“A lot of people start the (evaluation) process looking at film,” Blanchard said. “I start the process looking at track times.”
In Texas, a deeply competitive state in high school track, those are easy to find. Tech wants receivers and cornerbacks who run the 100-meter dash in 10.9 seconds or faster, safeties who run 11.1 or faster and linebackers who are 11.5 or faster. In the 200, it’s 22.2 seconds or faster for receivers and corners, 22.5 seconds or faster for safeties and under 23 seconds for linebackers.
Track times vary by age. If it’s a sophomore receiver or corner, faster than 11.5 seconds in the 100 is acceptable or under 23 seconds in the 200. Blanchard also has specific baselines for the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles and the long jump and triple jump. The staff also leans on data from Under Armour and Nike combines because it’s a collection of talented players all on the same laser, under the same conditions.
“If you have a bad time, you’re not going to get an offer from Texas Tech,” Blanchard said. “We’re building this roster in a specific way, with a specific athlete. If you don’t fit the criteria, there’s not much wiggle room.”
The Red Raiders want offensive and defensive linemen with at least 33-inch arms. “The longer the arms, the more I can … get up on people and make first contact,” Blanchard said. “The guy who makes first contact usually wins more than 50 percent of the battles.”
And linemen need to be able to jump. Blanchard wants to see a 24-inch vertical or better in offensive or defensive linemen. “I won’t offer a kid if I don’t see a video of you dunking (a basketball),” he said. “That means you have explosion in your lower body, coordination.”
What players put on film under the Friday night lights matters greatly, too. But if the debate is between a player with OK film and great athletic traits vs. one with great film and not as much speed or length, the former will win out every time because McGuire trusts his coaching and strength staff to develop the players.
“We want guys who can really run,” McGuire said. “The 2018 (Baylor recruiting class) was the fastest class in the nation. That’s what we’re looking for.”
Plenty of staffs use similar metrics, but McGuire and Blanchard believe that some coaches don’t trust themselves and can’t stomach taking a risk on a two-, three- or no-star recruit who fits the athletic profile but doesn’t have great tape. Others might sacrifice on a measurable in favor of ready-made players, which Texas high schools produce in droves given the top-flight development in the football-crazed state. Tech won’t. Power programs like Alabama and Ohio State don’t have to take such risks, but recruiting elite athletes at Texas Tech requires finding every possible edge.
“It’s gonna take time,” Blanchard said. “You’re not going to get an immediate return on your investment.”
Woods is a perfect example. Coming out of Cibolo (Texas) Steele High, Blanchard said Woods’ film wasn’t overly impressive. But his track times (10.64 seconds in the 100, 13.8 in the 110 hurdles), were. He had offers from only six FBS schools and one Power 5 program, Baylor.
After two years of development, Woods became a full-time starter in his third year and led the Bears in interceptions in his junior and senior seasons. The only other in-state programs to offer Woods out of high school were Houston, Texas State and Stephen F. Austin, but the Los Angeles Rams chose Woods in the second round of the draft last month.
“The Baylor draft,” Bellaire said, “that’s what it’s going to look like in Lubbock in three years.”
First is best
McGuire is the first to admit that what he’s looking for in players isn’t all that different from everybody else. Every program in the country wants big, fast, long players, and the competition is fierce.So what is different about the Red Raiders’ approach in this 2023 class? In many cases, it’s their willingness to be the first to offer a prospect.
Of the 20 commits in Tech’s 2023 class, McGuire’s staff was the first to offer 10 of them. For one other commit, Corpus Christi, Texas, offensive lineman Dylan Shaw, Tech was the first Power 5 program to offer. It’s how the Red Raiders landed a commitment from four-star cornerback Calvin Simpson-Hunt, the third-highest rated prospect in their class.
Waxahachie (Texas) High receivers coach Darius Terrell, who is the school’s recruiting coordinator, said he hounded colleges about Simpson-Hunt since he arrived at the school last June.
“Tech was one of the first schools to actually listen,” he said.
Blanchard loved Simpson-Hunt’s traits and his tape. He ran an 11.01-second 100-meter dash and 22.1 in the 200 as a sophomore. Though a shade under 6-feet, Simpson-Hunt has a 6-foot-4 wingspan. He is one of the younger players in his classification.
Texas Tech hosted Simpson-Hunt on a visit in November. Terrell asked him — given that the Red Raiders seemed to be the only program serious about him at the time — if he could envision himself playing there. Simpson-Hunt said, “Yes.” Suspecting Simpson-Hunt’s recruitment would eventually blossom, Terrell suggested committing if McGuire and staff were comfortable with him continuing to take visits. He did and they were.
Joey McGuire understands talent acquisition is a crucial part of the job: “I love recruiting.”
Since then, Simpson-Hunt posted impressive numbers on the track as a junior, improving his 100 time to 10.67 seconds and his 200 time to 21.77, and offers have rolled in. Possessing only a Texas Tech offer at the time of his Nov. 22 commitment, Simpson-Hunt now has 25, including Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas. Terrell said Simpson-Hunt will officially visit Notre Dame and Ohio State in June.
Regarding the Longhorns and Sooners, Terrell said, “I’ve been blowing them up about Calvin since December. They just offered (a few) weeks ago and they wonder why he’s not going to take an official there.
“You can’t take shortcuts in this deal.”
Soon after McGuire arrived, the Red Raiders handed out scholarship offers like candy. Those marathon whiteboard days in November were about getting ahead of the curve on as many prospects as possible.
“You gotta be early,” Bellaire said. “If Texas or A&M beat you to the punch (in offering a prospect) … you are out.”
To increase efficiency, McGuire does something Bellaire said he hadn’t experienced at other places he’s worked, like Baylor, Texas A&M or LSU: McGuire gives his personnel staff full autonomy to offer prospects, without needing his prior approval. Blanchard will still poke his head in McGuire’s office or fire off a text to him to keep him abreast before offering, but he has the “green light,” Bellaire said, to offer.
“They know what a Texas Tech Red Raider looks like and what we want,” McGuire said.
Traditionally, scholarship offers in recruiting follow a pattern: Once a prospect is identified, a position coach, coordinator and eventually a head coach must give their approval before the player is offered. As roster management became more complex and fluid in the transfer portal era, many head coaches now entrust their coordinators or position coaches to handle those offers.
At Texas Tech, Bellaire called it “a player personnel guy’s dream.”
McGuire implicitly trusts his staff. Blanchard and Nance both worked with McGuire before and know what type of players he seeks. Recruiting assistant Sean Kenney spent multiple years at Alabama and saw what elite players look like.
“Those guys are relentless,” McGuire said. “They watch film constantly. … That’s what they do all day long.”
Blanchard said Nance watches just as much film as he does and that “everyone is going to know who Brian Nance is in a few years.” Kenney keeps everyone organized and even Jake Pittman, one of the staff’s student interns, has been a big help.
Pittman assisted the staff on a project this offseason where they took NFL or soon-to-be NFL receivers’ film from their high school junior season and compared it to 2023 receivers Texas Tech is recruiting. The breakdown included catchable targets, drop rates, 50/50 ball win rates and more.
That analysis only reinforced the staff’s evaluation of 2023 commits Demarion Crest-Daniels and Tyrone West, both of whom Tech was first to offer. Crest-Daniels’ 50/50 win rate and catch rate are better than just about any receiver prospect (or pro) that Tech has compared it to, and West’s low catchable target number helped contextualize statistics that didn’t jump off the page, even though his track times did.
The Red Raiders’ philosophy is simple: If they miss, it’ll be on the side of speed and length.
“If you give me the two-star or three-star football player, but he’s a five-star athlete, if he loves football, by his third year in college, he’ll be the same football player as the four-star guy,” Blanchard said.
Texas ties
When Hocutt hired McGuire, his connection to Texas high school coaches was one of his biggest assets.McGuire coached 14 years and won three state championships at Cedar Hill High, just south of Dallas. His strong reputation throughout the state and in the Texas High School Coaches Association, which is well-respected, was one of the main reasons Rhule hired him at Baylor.
When constructing his first staff, it’s no surprise that McGuire leaned on Texas high school ties. Three of his full-time assistants are former Texas high school coaches: receivers coach Emmett Jones, defensive line coach Zarnell Fitch and special teams coordinator/running backs coach Kenny Perry.
Others have recruited the state before or have ties to it. Offensive coordinator Zach Kittley is from Lubbock and is a Texas Tech grad. Defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter, inside linebackers coach Josh Bookbinder, tight ends coach Josh Cochran, offensive line coach Stephen Hamby and secondary coach Marcel Yates have all worked in the state at some point.
Those connections are invaluable in recruiting, especially when doing a background check on a prospect.
“Their relationships are just so deep there,” Bellaire said. “They dive deeper for KP, Emmett and Fitch than they would for some other guy (elsewhere) asking for info. Those relationships are rock solid.”
Said Blanchard: “These Texas (high school coaches) take it so seriously, that they won’t (rubber) stamp somebody who doesn’t have great character. They’re not going to lie to Joey.”
Those relationships can pay off when a high school coach gives someone on the Tech staff a heads up on a player.
McGuire suspects that some coaches appreciate his staff’s willingness to give feedback on recruits, regardless of Tech’s interest, and that the Red Raiders don’t mind chasing players who are unranked. Of Tech’s 20 commits, 14 did not have a 247Sports Composite ranking when they committed.
Freeport (Texas) Brazosport High coach Mark Kanipes reached out to the staff in the winter about one of his players, 2023 athlete Randon Fontenette. He had no offers at the time, but after evaluating him and his ability, Tech was one of three schools to offer him, along with Utah and UTSA, on Feb. 4. Kanipes called the Tech staff “friendly” and “easy to talk to.”
McGuire himself has leaned on his connections heavily. Lubbock Coronado High coach D.J. Mann said McGuire is the only college coach to write his cell phone number down on the whiteboard in his Coronado office. “‘If y’all need something, just let me know,” McGuire told him.
“He’s such a people person,” Mann said. “I think the way that he makes individuals feel when talks to them, when he meets them, that sparks a different type of energy. His attitude make people want to root for him.”
Said Terrell: “I have yet to come across a coach that doesn’t have great things to say about Coach McGuire and the way he goes about his business.”
That translates to the visit experience, too. When prospects arrive on campus, coaches have done their homework, knowing names, tidbits and preferences for players and their families.
Regarding Simpson-Hunt, Terrell, a former Longhorn tight end, said, “They know things about him without me having to tell them. It just makes you feel special. It reminds me a lot of how Mack (Brown) used to do it at Texas.”
Around the time the Tech job opened, Mann said he talked to McGuire about one of his players, 2023 linebacker John Curry. His traits fit McGuire’s desired profile, and Curry’s parents were Tech athletes. After evaluating, McGuire told Mann that if he got the job, he’d offer Curry a scholarship at Tech.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Mann said.
The day McGuire was introduced as Tech’s head coach, he offered Curry, who committed three weeks later.
Prioritizing West Texas
One of the long-held narratives among coaches about the Texas Tech job is that it’s difficult to recruit to the school based on geography. It’s roughly a five-hour drive from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, six hours from Austin and eight hours from Houston.Bellaire said McGuire’s ears will turn red at the suggestion. He doesn’t want to hear it.
As part of his strategy, McGuire and his staff have prioritized their backyard: West Texas.
It’s a humongous swath of land to cover. The distance from Lubbock to El Paso, the westernmost part of the state, is roughly 350 miles. Amarillo is roughly 125 miles north, Odessa about 140 miles south. And there’s a lot of ground to cover in between, with nowhere near the population density of those big-city recruiting hotbeds.
Still, the Red Raiders treat West Texas like its own state. There’s a 2023 “West Texas Top 10” recruiting board, and those prospects are to be contacted by multiple coaches on a regular basis. To divvy up the territory, every full-time assistant is assigned one of five West Texas regions to recruit: Abilene, Amarillo, El Paso, Odessa/Midland and, of course, Lubbock.
“You can’t let West Texas kids that are Power 5 players go somewhere else,” McGuire said. “They’ve grown up wanting to be Red Raiders.”
Mann, a Lubbock native, called the job the staff has done spanning the region “phenomenal.” The idea is to keep players like Abram Smith, an Abilene product who set the Baylor single-season rushing record this year, or Major Everhart, a three-star Amarillo product who signed with TCU in February, from getting to Tech’s Big 12 rivals.
“I’m gonna lose my shit if there is an NFL-caliber athlete in West Texas that we don’t know about,” Blanchard said.
So far, McGuire has delivered on his promise to recruit the region. Seven of the Red Raiders’ 20 commits come from one of those five West Texas focal points.
So how long can Texas Tech keep this up? Given the long runway until signing day and the fickle nature of recruiting, it’s probably unrealistic to expect all 20 commits to stick until December, particularly with blueblood programs on the heels of prospects like Simpson-Hunt.
McGuire will lean on his current staff to maintain those strong relationships and the current commits to keep the group tight-knit.
“There’s some really strong personalities,” McGuire said. “I think we have a really good way we organize talking to these guys and staying in contact. I love recruiting so I’m texting them every week, a couple of days a week, if not more.”
Ideally, he’d like another defensive back and maybe two more defensive linemen in the class. Like every program, there are a handful of players on their board, regardless of position, who they’ll take if they can land them.
Even a top-25 class would be a significant accomplishment if that’s where Tech winds up. In the post-Mike Leach era, the Red Raiders have finished in the top 40 of the national recruiting rankings only four times. The highest-rated Texas Tech class in the modern era is 19th in 2011. The last time Tech finished in the top 40 was 2015, when the Red Raiders’ haul ranked 32nd.
Regardless of what happens, the early recruiting success has restored optimism around Texas Tech football.
“In two years, they’ll play for the Big 12 championship,” Mann said. “Give it a couple years. They’ve got to get a little bigger on the D-line, but they’ll play in the Big 12 championship.”
