Faulty narratives have become a thing in college football, it seems. A few months back, we saw how Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns fell prey to it. A report went viral that the Longhorns planned to invest $35 and $40 million on their 2025 football roster. Later on, Sarkisian had to address the false narrative and claimed, “What’s frustrating about that was it was a little bit of irresponsible reporting.” 

This time it’s not Sarkisian but his in-state rival, Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Again, it’s about the NIL. As per the reports, McGuire’s program will be paying athletes roughly $55 million. The figure had already sparked enough confusion and curiosity among the college football fans. But Texas Tech’s general manager, James Blanchard, finally broke his silence on how their efforts have been portrayed in a negative light. 

According to a recent report by Brandon Marcello of CBS Sports, adopting this $55 million payout model would probably put McGuire’s Texas Tech as the highest-paying college athletics program in the country. And obviously, this did not sit well with others. Failing to lock in targets who eventually landed at Texas Tech, personnel staffers from other schools cooked up a false narrative stating that McGuire and Co. went well above “market value” to woo the players. That’s when Blanchard tried to put their blinds down. In an interview with The Athletic, he shared, “We can’t say, ‘Someone offered this player $500,000, so we’re going to match.’ That’s not gonna work.”

There is no option of giving up in the recruiting race, and McGuire’s Texas Tech stands as the blueprint for consistent efforts. Blanchard continued, “You’ve got to put your ego and pride to the side and say, ‘If one of the top five schools in the country offered $500,000 for us to be equal, we have to offer $675,000. Some people may say that’s over the market value. No, I got the f—–g player.” McGuire and Blanchard’s initial plan was to stick to signing 10 to 12 transfers from the portal. But they soon decided to squeeze as much as they could and ended up locking 21 players, out of which six were ranked at the top of their board at their respective positions. And what has been their plan of action in this recruiting drive?

McGuire and Co. knew that if they wanted a player badly, not letting him leave without a commitment was the bare minimum to do. Already, they had a big weapon, their biggest flex, the sparkling $242 million football facility. Blanchard called it “a football resort.” The fact that if the programs wanted a player, they would go to any lengths was doubled down by McGuire’s Chairman, Cody Campbell. He shared, “Market value is what somebody’s willing to pay for them. So that’s just mostly from people who are upset because they get outbid. … I think other places just didn’t have the resources or weren’t organized enough.”

With this, they got rid of their major issue of the struggle to achieve the blue-blood status given their storied history. McGuire did not leave any stones unturned in wooing the players. Part of the funding comes from the Matador Club, an NIL collective that has been supporting them for the last three years. It was then folded into the Red Raider Club. While McGuire and Blanchard are busy glorifying their efforts, someone rained on their parade.  

How the $28 million gamble is turning up the heat for Joey McGuire

The 2025 season is the absolute litmus test for the Red Raiders fam. It’s either them bringing home the Natty or bust in Lubbock. McGuire and Co. have been further pushed to the danger zone after signing one of the highest-paid rosters in college football. As per On3’s reports, the Red Raiders signed a 2025 roster that costs north of $28 million. On one end, there is such a gaudy investment, earning the No. 2 portal class in the country. On the other hand, McGuire got to pull up his program from the abyss.

Last season, the Red Raiders scored the worst in the Big 12 when it came to their defense, as they allowed 305.3 passing yards per game. So, fans got good enough reasons to strip them off. They have forgotten what a nine-win season tastes like. In 2024, they ended the season with 8-5, 7-6 in 2023, and 8-5 in 2022. And their conference title drought? They last won in 1994.

These hateful comments did reach McGuire. And he could no longer keep calm and broke his silence to protect his team from further mud-slinging. On the What’s Next! with Joey McGuire podcast, the head coach shared, “No, nobody would be surprised that you had the number one portal class. You know, nobody, if you go on one site, LSU has the number one portal class. Nobody’s surprised with that, right?” But no matter how much he tries to portray that everything is sorted, he is running on borrowed time.

Jim Dunaway raised a wake-up call for McGuire on The Next Round podcast. He did not mince his words and stated, “My buddy Van instantly says Joey McGuire easily could lose his job because they are giving him everything. And how attractive is that job to maybe somebody, a higher profile than a Texas high school coach is basically what he is.” Time for McGuire to turn the tables in their favor.