Texas Tech, Blanchard never gave up on multi-sport star Justin Horne
The Texas Tech coaches are on the verge of signing the Red Raiders' highest ranked recruiting class in over a decade, and they continued adding to it with a longtime linebacker target out of Louisiana, Justin "Sensei" Horne.
The District 9-5A Defensive MVP took his official visit to Texas Tech over the weekend, announced his decommitment from Louisiana on Sunday night before publicly pledging to the Red Raiders on Monday afternoon. Horne plans to officially end his recruitment and sign with Texas Tech on Wednesday December 21st, at the beginning of the early signing period.
The visit over the weekend was Horne's first to Lubbock, and he saw all he needed to in order to make up his mind for the scarlet and black.
"The coaches, I loved the energy from them. I made sure to ask the players if this is how they were on the daily. If they got that energy on the daily I could do that. They were nice, spiritual people.
The campus is beautiful. As soon as I walked on I knew I didn't wanna see nothing else other than Texas Tech every day. The campus was real nice.
I loved the locker room. That was one of my favorites, I loved to see the locker room, the weight room and the indoor track. They're all beautiful because I'll be running track there too.
The players, they were all welcoming. They introduced themselves and made sure to get to know us and stuff. It was real nice and a real good experience all around. I just love the place in general, it wasn't too much and it wasn't like too less like the whole area."
While several coaches helped recruit Horne to Texas Tech, it all began with an offer from Director of Player Personnel James Blanchard. Even when it looked like Horne wasn't going to be a part of the Red Raider class earlier this fall Blanchard kept communication with Horne daily, and when the spot opened up things took a turn in Texas Tech's favor.
"Back in the summer I had to get my official visit canceled because somebody committed already, so I had a non-committable offer. So once somebody got their offer removed or they decommitted, it was one or the other I'm not sure, once that happened it was a different position and coach McGuire immediately told coach Blanchard that that spot is open.
Since like August/September, coach Blanchard's been texting my phone, calling my phone every single day trying to get me down there, trying to get me interested in Tech and trying to make sure that they had me locked in and stuff. He never gave up on me, he refused to give up."
Another coach who was vital in Horne's recruitment is his future position coach, linebacker coach Josh Bookbinder. Earlier in December Bookbinder went to Horne's home for an in-home visit, and the two got to continue growing their bond over the weekend.
"Coach Bookbinder is amazing. I love his spirit, everything that he did this week. From what I see he's a great coach and I can't wait to work with him. I haven't texted him every single day like coach Blanchard and stuff but coach Bookbinder has also been there a lot of times texting and calling me also."
Horne says the staff, including head coach Joey McGuire, couldn't have been more elated when on Sunday morning, before boarding the plane back home, he told them he wanted to commit.
"Man, so I'm just gonna break it down, the whole thing. So he (McGuire) thought I was just gonna pick another day to tell him, or tell him that I wasn't gonna do it. We were all in a little meeting. It was him (McGuire), my parents, coach Nance, coach Bookbinder, coach Blanchard and one more coach. It was us in there and like the room went dead. Then I told them that I made the decision to sign on Wednesday to Tech, and coach Blanchard started screaming, almost ran into the wall. Everybody started partying and screaming and stuff. Everybody was happy, even coach McGuire jumped up happy and stuff."
Now a Red Raider, Horne is beginning to familiarize himself some more with the other members of Texas Tech's 2023 class.
"I already knew Marquez (Stevenson), his nickname is Macho. I just met Miquel (Dingle Jr) today, the linebacker that's gonna be with me. I just met him today on the phone, so we talked, had a nice conversation and stuff. Me and Macho run track together in Louisiana so we know each other."
Horne's John Curtis squad won the Louisiana Division I select championship on December 10th, which he says was a feeling he'd never felt before. Look for Horne to bring that winning culture with him to Lubbock.
"It was amazing. I've never felt something like that before. It was our first time winning state, like all of us. It was our first time winning state as a team. It was great because nobody believed in us from the beginning of the season until the end of the season. Once we got to championship season people thought we were gonna lose, which was understandable because it was a hard side. That was a hard side to get out of. We had to go through either Catholic-B.R. or Edna Karr, it wind up being Catholic and we beat 'em. Once we got to state we knew what we had to do, which was finish the job and we partied until we couldn't party no more."
Horne had an incredible senior season, putting up 144 tackles, 17 tackles-for-loss and 6 sacks. He was named First Team All-District linebacker along with the aforementioned Defensive MVP award. Horne says Tech fans will soon find out why the coaches put so much effort in to make him a part of this class.
"They're gonna learn who Sensei is, and they're gonna start to see why Texas Tech recruited me."
Along with being a standout on the gridiron, Horne is also the best hurdler in Louisiana. He holds the state record in the 60m hurdles at 7.93 seconds. In May 2022 he won the state championship in the 110m hurdles with a time of 14.06 seconds.