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Dontae Balfour eyes role with Texas Tech football secondary
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- Dontae Balfour eyes role with Texas Tech football secondary
When the NCAA transfer portal reopened in December, Dontae Balfour got an immediate sense for which team wanted him most.
Texas Tech football general manager James Blanchard wasted no time when the former UNC Charlotte cornerback went on the market. The Red Raiders were hunting talent to improve a secondary that ranked next-to-last in the FBS in pass defense last season.
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"You want to go somewhere where you're wanted," Balfour said last week, "and I feel like as soon as I entered the portal, they hit me up minutes later. You can tell they'd definitely been looking at me and they'd seen something."
Balfour, listed at 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, will be a fifth-year senior next season. He started 23 games the past two years at UNC Charlotte and spent two years before that at North Carolina .
More: Can Texas Tech football's D-line transfer class live up to billing?
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During portal time, Balfour said West Virginia and Houston also wanted him and he was talking to Ole Miss . Coming out of high school four years before in Starke, Florida, Balfour had attracted scholarship offers from Auburn, Oregon, Penn State and Tennessee, among others.
He knew the process.
"It was basically high school all over again," he said. "I knew I was getting into the portal. I just wanted two solid years of film and to show consistency back-to-back (seasons), despite my injury. It's a lot of chaos, but you've got to see through all the gray, to know what's real, what's genuine."
Texas Tech's Dontae Balfour goes through a drill during spring practice, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, at the Womble Football Center.
Two years ago at UNCC, Balfour made 54 tackles, fourth on the team, tied a school record with 11 pass breakups and had an interception. Last year, he was credited with 49 tackles, broke up 11 passes again and had two interceptions. He played several weeks with a padded cast after suffering a broken index finger in the second game.
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That came against North Carolina, his old school. Balfour played in only six games for the Tar Heels during his freshman and redshirt freshman years. He got some of the best training possible, though. Across the line of scrimmage in practice were future NFL quarterbacks Sam Hartman and Drake Maye and future NFL receivers Josh Downs and Antoine Green .
"All those boys that are in the league now pushed me as a young player," Balfour said. "It's very humbling, but I'm a humble person. It just shows how much you've got left to go. It's a process and everybody was that dude from where they came from. Bringing everybody together, it really shows who's dialed in, who's looking to get better rather than being complacent."
Balfour's one of four corners the Red Raiders brought aboard in January, the others Brice Pollock from Mississippi State, Amier Boyd from Texas-El Paso and Tarrion Grant from Purdue . The Red Raiders also return junior Maurion Horn, who started every game last season, and sophomore Macho Stevenson, who played in 12 games and started three.
"This just creates competition," Horn said. "Who runs away from competition? You've just got to face it. We're all going to compete. We're all going to play."
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Cornerbacks coach Darcel McBath said Balfour told him he wants to be coached hard. McBath said Balfour responds.
"What we do in our defense and our style of play, the way I coach is it a lot different than anything he's done," McBath said, "and he hasn't shied away from it. He hasn't made any excuses. He just gets to work."
Balfour said he's looking forward to "the big games and the big moments," being in the Big 12.
"But I'm dialed in for the process," he said, "and I'm very excited for what's coming up for the future."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Dontae Balfour eyes role with Texas Tech football secondary
