Texas Tech's Blanchard speaks highly on impact of Rhule, Cooper and staff
Texas Tech director of player personnel James Blanchard is greatly appreciative of Matt Rhule and Evan Cooper.
BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON10 hrs7James Blanchard isn't on the Husker staff, but if you find out the Texas Tech director of player personnel is talking recruiting shop in a Twitter Spaces session, maybe listen in. A follower of Nebraska football might find some interest in what he says.
Because Blanchard is especially appreciative of Husker head coach Matt Rhule, who hired him in surprise fashion in 2019. He also speaks with the utmost respect of Evan Cooper and others like Omar Hales on Nebraska's staff.
His personal story is interesting enough no matter what team colors you wear on the weekend, but during an interview with Brian Spilbeler of TrackingFootball.com, Blanchard discussing the process of evaluating prospects might offer some insight into the new Husker recruiting way too.
Blanchard, as you quickly find out in the interview, is complimentary to the max of Rhule and Cooper and what he learned from them upon being hired at Baylor in 2019.
"Just changed my life. It just changed my life. He was the most detailed guy you could meet when it comes to that because he knows exactly what he's looking for, he knows exactly what it's looking like," Blanchard said of Rhule's approach to evaluating talent. "And then he was probably the most demanding guy I've ever been around. He's going to put extreme pressure on you. Like the first day in the building he said you don't do a good job I'm going to fire you. I'm like, 'Sheesh.'" Blanchard said that with a laugh, appreciative of it.
"But it helped me grow so much because he was going to be consistent every day. You weren't going to be able to run from it, you weren't going to be able to hide from it. ‘Hey, this is the standard. Either you're going to live up to it or you're not going to be around here long.' I'm the type of guy I love pressure like that, I thrive on it. It was great for me."
Blanchard was already a determined individual.
He dreamed of having the job he has now and loved scouting players but wasn't connected to anybody as recently as five years ago. He spoke during the Twitter space session of joining message boards for teams in the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, where he'd post on players not everyone knew about.
Many are just guessing when trying to be an amateur evaluator, but Blanchard had an eye for it. People began to figure that out. Things he posted on Baylor and Texas Longhorns boards were very well received.
And while Rhule and Cooper were at Baylor, Blanchard said some fans started tagging the coaches telling them to follow this guy because he knows about some underrated players.
"For whatever reason Matt Rhule listened to them," Blanchard said good-naturedly. "He followed me on there ... I would send them like three or four kids a day. He started offering some of them. We started building a rapport. He ended up trusting me – him and Evan Cooper."
One day there was a kid in Beaumont, Texas, Rhule and Cooper were after. Blanchard said he got a message from Cooper asking if he'd meet them there. Blanchard had something scheduled, but knew his plans immediately changed.
"I'm going to meet Matt Rhule."
What he didn't expect was a job offer that day.
"He pulls me to the side and he says, 'Look man, I love your passion for what you're doing. You've got an eye for this. I think you're talented. I'm going to take a chance on you and I'm going to hire you to work in the scouting department at Baylor. I was just taken aback. My wildest dream had come true. It really was like I was living a fairy tale,” Blanchard said.
In his new position Blanchard kept the same determination he always had – having already been doing his own top 100 on Texas players off his own detailed evaluations.
"I bugged the guy so much that he gave me an opportunity," Blanchard said. "I told myself, I told my loved ones, I told Matt Rhule that, 'Man, I wouldn't let it go to waste. I was going to run with it and become the best.'"
And what did he learn?
He said that Rhule's staff taught him how to break down film the right way and emphasized "movements and traits."
"Coach Rhule was just so detailed, and man, Coop was the same way. Just so detailed. So organized. Man, they had a tremendous process already in place. The verbiage, what we were looking for. They were just great teachers ... Before I got with them I was just real big on we've got to find the best football players possible. And I still look for that: we're looking for the best football players possible."
But that's just a piece of it.
Rhule and Cooper made something else evident to him about how they operate.
"We're going to recruit great football players, but we're going to take it up a notch. We're going to recruit great athletes. ... He was letting me know, like, these are the 100 meter times we're looking for, these are the 200 times we're looking for, this is the movements and traits, the kid doesn't have to be a finished product. We're going to find projectable guys."
Blanchard's words are on behalf of Texas Tech now, but remember, Rhule also even publicly said you can expect Nebraska and the Red Raiders will be after some of the same guys.
Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire came from Rhule's staff, after all. So Blanchard's words are interesting to note.
Like when he talks about a height-weight-speed formula to measure track times. It's not just about who's the fastest. A guy at 190 can lose the race to someone at 165 but have a more impressive time due to the weight he’s carrying.
And Blanchard points out how much emphasis he puts on the 60 meters as a good race to connect to football, and definitely the triple jump, which certainly is something Nebraska coaches admire in prospects.
"That's more football specific. Nobody is every running just a straight line in football," said Blanchard, adding that hurdles is another event he gives a lot of credence to with recruits.
Also, scheme fit. Some guys have skill sets that just fit schemes poorly, but maybe those skills play well in yours. That can be particularly useful to consider when portal hunting.
Beyond that Blanchard said he likes to build up the strengths he sees in recruits while others are sometimes busy locked in on a weakness here or there. Believing in the strengths that can be accentuated in a recruit can sometimes help you beat others to the punch while they are going back and forth on certain players.
As for Blanchard's career road, he followed Rhule from Baylor to the Carolina Panthers, then returned to Baylor in 2021 working for Dave Aranda. And then to Texas Tech for McGuire, who has his own momentum going down in Lubbock.
Rhule's belief in him clearly still means a lot. It also is an example of Rhule seeing how good someone can be at something even if they're coming at it from an unconventional route.
The way it worked was just right for Blanchard.
"I didn't have any bad habits or habits I had from someone else. ... I was like a freshman in college ... I was a blank piece of paper, a moldable piece of clay and they molded me."
Last edited:
