After Texas Tech lost a key Big 12 game at home to Colorado on Nov. 9, Cody Campbell -- one of the school's biggest boosters and co-founder of Tech's name, image and likeness collective -- was frustrated.
Among myriad issues Tech had in the 41-27 loss, Campbell took exception to the officiating and fired off a critical comment about it on X. A Tech fan replied to Campbell's post with some colorful language and a request: "Buy us an oline (sic)"
Campbell's response: "I will."
Less than two weeks after the winter transfer portal window opened, Campbell and the school's collective, the Matador Club, have made good on that promise and then some. The Red Raiders have acquired three offensive linemen and have stockpiled 16 transfers to build the nation's No. 1 transfer portal class, according to 247Sports and On3. Both services rank eight of the Red Raiders' transfers among the country's top 100 portal prospects.
Every day since Dec. 11 -- and often multiple times per day -- coach Joey McGuire has posted a GIF of pro wrestler Ric Flair dancing to celebrate each commitment. Texas Tech's hot streak is unique considering the program's profile: The Red Raiders just wrapped up their first eight-win regular season since 2009 and haven't won a conference title in this century.
So how is Texas Tech pulling this off? With an aggressive, organized personnel strategy, alignment among the coaching staff, administration and the collective, and the deep pockets of the Matador Club, which is led by Campbell and co-founder John Sellers, Tech graduates and former players under the late Mike Leach.
"I will be surprised and upset if we don't have the No. 1 portal class," Campbell said this week.
It might seem like Texas Tech has come out of nowhere, but the Red Raiders have been strategic and intentional while keeping pace in the evolving NIL landscape.
In July 2022, the Matador Club announced it would offer annual $25,000 NIL deals to more than 100 Tech football players, including walk-ons.
In the 2023-24 academic year, the Matador Club raised and spent around $11 million, Campbell told The Athletic this week. That's not just for football: The collective signed NIL deals with all the athletes on the men's and women's basketball teams, along with the softball, baseball, track and golf teams.
Campbell declined to say what this year's budget is -- NIL deals typically are kept private by the parties -- or how much is earmarked for the football team's transfer portal exploits, but Tech's December success makes it clear: Everything's trending upward.
With the Matador Club's backing, Texas Tech is beating out SEC and Big Ten programs for transfers. A coach at a Big Ten school and a personnel director at an SEC school each told The Athletic that they dropped out of a recruitment of a non-skill position portal target this month once Tech's offer to the player reached the high six figures.
This is not the first time the Red Raiders have splashed the pot. In July, with the help of the Matador Club, they signed Stanford softball transfer NiJaree Canady to a one-year deal worth just north of $1 million.
But to Campbell, it's about more than just the money. He attributes Tech's portal success to four factors:
Blanchard, who runs the Red Raiders' personnel and scouting department, said he and Campbell speak multiple times per week. McGuire and Campbell have been close since the coach was hired in November 2021. Blanchard called the process of working with the Matador Club "seamless."
The collective keeps a close eye on the trends in the NIL market, so it knows what the going rate for players is. When Texas Tech hosts a portal target for an official visit, if the player says he will commit, the collective can get the player's agent the contract within an hour, Campbell said.
Campbell and Blanchard say they have developed a reputation in the market for being reliable with their transactions.
"We're one of the few schools out there who have never missed a payment," Blanchard said. "We've got a 100 percent on-time (payment) record, and we've never broken a contract."
Campbell said that's because the Matador Club is run like a business. Campbell and Sellers are co-CEOs and co-founders of Double Eagle Energy Holdings, a multibillion-dollar upstream oil-and-gas company that operates in Texas' Permian Basin. The Matador Club's financials are handled in the back office of Double Eagle with the same care and attention to detail as the company's billion-dollar property acquisitions.
"It's as buttoned up an organization as there is," Blanchard said. "People are on call to make sure contracts are done all throughout the hours of the night."
Said Campbell: "There is no delay. It's not like, 'How are we going to pay for this?' We've got the money. We have a really good contracting system. We have people who can assemble the contracts quickly and do it all digitally.
"This is what we do every day. We go out and acquire properties and we do deals. ... And so we set up the Matador Club the same exact way. A lot of times the most efficient, the most nimble group wins, and that's what we've aimed to do here."
And when Tech has landed a transfer commitment, the Matador Club is often first to announce it on social media, with a short video similar to how schools announce high school signees.
The Matador Club has around 4,000 donors, Campbell said, many of whom "have written really, really big checks." And the members of the collective's staff, which includes about 15 people, all volunteer their time. There's also a six-member board.
"We're doing it purely out of love for the school," Campbell said.
On the football side, months of planning went into Texas Tech's portal strategy, which is typical for Power 4 programs. Blanchard, director of player personnel Brian Nance, scouting director Sean Kenney and assistant scouting director Wesley Harwell began watching film of potential targets in January, making three-game cutups of potential targets who started at other programs.
Blanchard identified offensive line and defensive line as the primary needs, and the staff watched every FBS starter at those positions, regardless of whether they would enter the portal. They also scouted the top FCS linemen, and Blanchard used a network of 20 NFL scouts -- some of whom have passed through Lubbock, others Blanchard got to know during his time with the Carolina Panthers -- to get draft grades on some of them.
Former Illinois State offensive tackle Hunter Zambrano was one of Tech's first targets. He played only two games last year because of a hip injury, but Tech was intrigued by his 2023 film, and NFL scouts gave him a sixth- or seventh-round grade if he had entered the 2024 draft, Blanchard said.
"I'm gonna give the most consideration to the people with the most information," Blanchard said of tapping NFL scouts' expertise. "These guys have more information than anybody."
The staff ranked its 100 top offensive and defensive linemen, then cross-checked game tape from this season once it became available. For well-stocked personnel departments, it's standard practice ahead of the December portal window.
"A lot of it was a waste of time because 80 percent of these guys don't get in the portal," Blanchard said. "But the 20 percent that do, you've already got it done ... and your plan of attack is that much further ahead."
When players have visited campus, Tech has used traditional recruiting strategies: pristine facilities and personal relationships. The school opened its $242 million south end zone renovation at Jones AT&T Stadium, which includes all the coaches' offices, meeting rooms, a new game day locker room, suites and a club area. The Womble Football Center, the team's daily operations headquarters, was also part of that pricey face-lift, paid for by Tech donors.
"It's a top-five facility in the country," Blanchard said. "They're like, 'My God, I can't believe this is right here in Lubbock and I haven't known about it.'"
McGuire, a charismatic former Texas high school coach, and Blanchard can close recruits when getting them on campus because "they're authentic people," Campbell said.
Campbell fully believes in them, even when the team has struggled. That's part of what got him so fired up this year. Even after back-to-back losses to Baylor and TCU, Campbell focused on the big picture, which suggests Tech is trending in the right direction. This year will be Tech's fourth consecutive bowl appearance, a first since the Leach era. The Red Raiders' 23 wins in the last three seasons are better than any three-season stretch by the program in more than a decade.
So when the Red Raiders have stubbed their toe and fans get fired up or question the coaching staff, Campbell bristles. The fourth-generation Tech grad, whose great-grandfather was part of the school's first graduating class, cares deeply.
"I feel really strongly that our program is in a better place than it's been in a long time, and that the trajectory of the program could not be any better," Campbell said.
But he knows the team is not yet good enough to make mistakes or not play its best and still win. That's why he meant what he said in November and the Matador Club is doing its part to help Texas Tech achieve its goal of winning a Big 12 championship and making the College Football Playoff. The Matador Club even began selling T-shirts with the collective's logo and Campbell's word: "I will."
Texas Tech football's official X account Wednesday posted two eagles (a nod to Double Eagle) and McGuire's photo-edited head on someone running from a gushing oil derrick. Nobody is playing coy about how the Red Raiders are getting it done. They want to compete and are ponying up to do it.
Blanchard, who said Campbell is "everything that's right about Texas Tech," believes this portal class could be the start of something special.
"I love what coach Dabo Swinney did at Clemson," Blanchard said. "That can happen here, and I think this portal class is going to be a big step in it happening here at Texas Tech."
If the Red Raiders fall short, it won't be for lack of trying.
"Texas Tech is the heart of West Texas, and that community is just a place that I love," Campbell said. "So I'm going to do everything that I can to make it into what I know that it can be."