Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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FOOTBALL RECRUITING a future Division I athlete on his ap- pointed rounds. NCAA restrictions and technology have rendered the massive media guides obsolete, but also sharpened the competition between top programs vying for the attention of elite recruits. Recruiting departments now deliver their messages through mailboxes, in- boxes, Twitter feeds, Facebook mes- sages and Instagrams. They rely more than ever on eye-popping design to try to stand out in the crowd. "If there's one thing that has been the fastest mover in recruiting, it's graphic arts right now," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said this sum- mer. "If you're not at the front end of that right now in recruiting, you're about three steps behind everybody." Kelly said the keeping up with the Joneses attitude with graphic design has fully taken hold in his mind dur- ing the last six months. That piece of the recruiting pitch puzzle has been gaining momentum at different places throughout the country for the past several years. First-year Penn State head coach James Franklin was an early adopter of the marketing approach to recruit- ing while at Vanderbilt from 2011-13. He promoted a hip, young image that helped turn a Commodores team that went 2-10 the year before he arrived into back-to-back bowl winners in the SEC. The Georgia coaching staff sent recruits hand-drawn sketches of the players wearing Bulldog uniforms this spring. Former Florida assistant Joker Phillips attracted attention by posting a series of viral Photoshop-altered im- ages to his Twitter account. Notre Dame was keeping tabs. This year, the Irish joined the long list of other schools that have created buzz on the recruiting trail by turning to graphic arts to connect to a new vi- sual-thinking, brand-conscious gen- eration of prospects. "It definitely catches the athletes' eyes," said Josh Barajas, a four-star linebacker from Andrean High School in Merrillville, Ind. Barajas originally committed to play for Franklin at Penn State, but flipped to Notre Dame this June. He said the most interesting mail he got during the recruiting process was a doctored image of his face wearing a college team's uniform. "It's not a huge part, but it's a big part," he said. "Everybody wants that stuff. It's a plus. They want to be a little flashy." Recruiting analysts believe that the new trend of flashy visuals is only one piece of the large puzzle when it comes to landing recruits. Building relationships, good facilities and win- ning games trump any catchy promo- tional material, just like no advertis- ing campaign will save a lackluster product. "It's necessary because so many schools are doing it," 247Sports direc- tor of recruiting Steve Wiltfong said. "Recruiting is a game of inches. Any- thing you can do to help gain an inch, you have to do it." Industry veteran Tom Lemming agreed that this trend has followed the same steep, copycat trajectory of many other novel approaches to recruiting