Aranda brings James Blanchard back at Baylor to lead recruiting evaluations

The big moves continued for Baylor Head Coach Dave Aranda and Associate AD for Player Personnel Vince Guinta on Thursday as Baylor staff was able to bring James Blanchard back to Waco after a quick stint in the scouting department with the Carolina Panthers of the NFL in 2020.

Blanchard followed former Baylor head coach Matt Rhule to Carolina and spent the 2020 season with the team. 

Blanchard joined Rhule’s staff and helped recruit primarily for the 2020 and 2021 classes as he helped build Baylor a solid foundation for the future. Blanchard’s strengths are ability to scout, find talent and ignite initial relationships with prospects early in their recruitment. 

Blanchard spent less than a calendar year with the Panthers before Aranda reached out and ask what was needed to make the return to Texas. With the recent changes in the scouting department, including the separation from three recruiting staff members, there was flexibility to entice Blanchard.

Blanchard received great experience at the NFL level but the opportunity with Aranda and the ability come back to the college game while being able to scout high school prospects is a great fit for Blanchard.

Some of his top finds off the top of my head in the 2020 and 2021 classes were Victor Obi‍, AJ McCarty‍, Mose Jeffery‍, Chateau Reed‍, Brooks Miller‍, Taye McWilliams‍, James Sylvester‍, Tate Williams‍, Connor Heffernan‍, Tevin Williams‍, Javon Gipson‍, Elijah Bean‍ and Tyrone Brown‍.

Blanchard has already built some key relationships in the 2022 class which should give Baylor the chance to have one of, if not the best class, in school history in the event the Bears can have show improvement on the field.

With this hiring, one thing is for sure, with the purge of multiple recruiting staff members this offseason it was clearly an area Aranda wanted to address this off-season, and has done so with the addition. Look for more additions to the recruiting staff to be made in the near future.