James Blanchard, head of Texas Tech football recruiting, signs 2-year extension

Texas Tech acted quickly this week to retain a valued charter member of Joey McGuire's football staff.

Tech announced Friday that James Blanchard, the Red Raiders' director of player personnel and overseer of the staff's recruiting operations, has agreed to a two-year contract extension through 2024.

Tech did not reveal the financial terms. Blanchard came with McGuire to Tech from Baylor last winter and was making $185,000 this year.

Texas A&M and Nebraska both tried to coax Blanchard away from the Tech staff in recent days, a source told the Avalanche-Journal.

Nebraska on Monday introduced Matt Rhule as its new head coach. Rhule is the man who got McGuire into college coaching in 2017 at Baylor and remains one of his closest confidants. Blanchard worked under Rhule at Baylor and with the Carolina Panthers before McGuire made Blanchard his first hire with the Red Raiders.

Tech finished the regular season 7-5 and 5-4 in the Big 12. The 5-4 mark was Tech's first winning record in conference play since 2009 and its best conference record by a first-year coach since David McWilliams led the Red Raiders to a 7-4 season with a 5-3 record in the Southwest Conference in 1986.

"After one full year in Lubbock, we couldn’t be more excited about the future of our football program,” McGuire said in Tech's announcement. "Our program will always revolve around identifying the right potential student-athletes and then developing them into Red Raiders, and James Blanchard is a key component of that success. We are thrilled he has agreed to this new contract extension."

Tech's current recruiting class is ranked No. 18 in the nation by Rivals and No. 22 by 247Sports. The signing period begins Dec. 21.

Last year's class, ranked No. 39 by Rivals and No. 43 by 247Sports, was Tech's best showing since 2012, according to Tech research.

Blanchard went to high school at West Orange-Stark and to college at Lamar.

Sports editor Carlos Silva Jr. contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: James Blanchard signs two-year extension as director of player personnel to stay with Texas Tech