Brand Boost: How Graphics Play an Important Role in College Football Recruiting

These days, recruiting announcements—be them commitments or official visits—don’t come without artwork. Perhaps you’ve noticed flashy graphics of top prospects flooding your Twitter and Instagram timeline over the years. It’s a trend that’s become a regular part of your football recruiting programming in the age of social media.

But what exactly goes into these quirky digitized images and logos that recruits and schools plaster onto various social platforms? The posts are incessant as the early signing period begins Wednesday. Many athletic departments have full-time graphic designers with teams of artists who dedicate their entire year to creating illustrations to help recruits boost their brand. And from a team perspective, show other potential recruits who the program is going after. These designers work with the coaching and recruiting staffs to get to know the kids and find out their hobbies and off-field interests in order to personalize graphics that the prospect will then want to share.

It may seem silly and overdone from the outside, but graphics are another key component in the world of football recruiting and, sometimes, can give programs an edge.

“If you don’t have someone [on staff] then you’re really missing out,” says Cody Vincent, the assistant director of recruiting at Arkansas. His primary job responsibilities are to focus on graphic design and social media for the Razorbacks.

“Sometimes, though, it depends on the prospect—does this kid care at all that we’re sending him graphics?” Vincent says. “Sometimes the answer is no and we don’t worry about it. But I do think that it’s critical. Right now in college football, you have to have some type of presence on social media and someone that’s able to visually get your brand out there. It’s eye-catching. [Recruits] want to see themselves in your uniform and I think whoever is sending them the most graphics does mean something. I think it helps facilitate conversation, too. It gets recruits excited.”

Cody Vincent | Arkansas

An image might take Vincent and his team anywhere from 10 or 15 minutes to two or three hours to make. It depends on how high of a priority the recruit is to Arkansas. Last year, for example, the Razorbacks were battling with several elite programs to sign Hudson Henry, one of the top tight ends in the 2019 class from Little Rock, Ark. Vincent recalls that Henry wasn’t a big graphics guy, but they still needed to make an impression. After finding out that Henry was a huge fan of the show The Office, he turned the photo of Michael Scott holding a coffee mug that said, ‘World’s Best Boss’ into one of Henry on Scott’s body holding a mug that said, ‘World’s Best TE.’

“If we know a guy is a priority, then we will work a lot harder to come up with unique things we can send them,” Vincent says.

In the past, they’ve had illustrations with recruits as album covers and celebrating in confetti after winning a national championship. This year at Syracuse, every signee is a superhero from “Orange Comics.” Kicker James Williams from Athens (Ga.) Academy, has been transformed into “The Boot” with a glowing golden cleat on his right foot, and athlete Trebor Pena from Ocean Township (Oakhurst, N.J.) High School is now “The Torch” because of his “blazing speed.”

Plenty of schools keep coming up with their own ideations. SMU’s athletic department has billboards around Dallas that try to encourage local kids to consider the university. They feature a photo of a current player who is from the DFW-area with the words “Pony Up,” followed by that player’s hometown. Oklahoma on Wednesday launched its “Dare to be Different” campaign, which includes brand identities for each 2020 signee that they can use on their personal social media platforms. The Sooners also have augmented-reality murals and billboards popping up in important recruiting areas like Atlanta, L.A., Dallas and Oklahoma City that can be seen by using a special lens via the Oklahoma Football Instagram account.

While this is all eye-popping and fun for players, it’s a lot of work for the designers behind the scenes who have to prepare for all kinds of chaos during the signing period from kids flipping their commitments to losing out on prospects because of staff changes.

“We used to joke that we spent most of our time on graphics for guys who will never even come here,” Vincent says, half-laughing. “Unfortunately, the way it is at Arkansas right now, we’re not Alabama. We’re not going to get every four- and five-star [recruit], but we’re sure going to try. We’re in a unique situation because we have a new head coach [Sam Pittman]. But we’ve got a list of potential signees, so our marketing team is preparing for all situations that could arise.”

Signing day used to be simpler with coaches anxiously waiting by the fax machine. Now the battle extends to a world where how cool artwork is can have an impact on the quality of a recruiting class.