The Recruiting Guy

UA's personalized graphics a hit with recruits

An Arkansas Razorback helmet at Chad Morris introductory press conference Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017.
An Arkansas Razorback helmet at Chad Morris introductory press conference Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017.

Today's high school athletes have grown up in the social media era and college programs market themselves with graphics on Twitter, and the Arkansas football program is one of the best in the nation in doing so.

Prospects have raved about the graphics produced by and graphic designers Cody Vincent, the Razorbacks' assistant director of recruiting, and Jake Nevill since the arrival of Coach Chad Morris and his staff.

"Coach Morris always says best is the standard," Vincent said. "I take that literally in what we do, too. We want our graphics to be literally the best graphics the prospects are getting."

Recruits and fans aren't the only ones noticing Vincent and Nevill's work. A Florida State recruiting writer even voiced his approval on Twitter, saying "Arkansas' graphic department is lit."

"That made me laugh because a recruiting writer for other schools is even noticing," Vincent said.

Since his first day on the job at Arkansas on Dec. 10, Vincent estimates he and Nevill have produced more than 2,700 personalized recruit graphics, an average of 19.2 per day.

Their most recent was a well-received graphic that played off this week's NFL Draft. The personalized graphics showed each prospect's name on a table with a Razorbacks helmet and other items in the green room while awaiting the call from their future NFL team.

Another popular graphic among prospects showed recruits in a personalized Razorbacks uniform signing autographs for young Hogs fans inside the stadium.

Arkansas receiver target TQ Jackson of Jefferson, Texas, tweeted his graphic and added "The Next Arkansas Legend?" and added "#WPS." Defensive end Marcus Hicks of Wichita (Kan.) Northwest added. "What an awesome edit from Arkansas" to his tweeted graphic.

"The autograph one we're trying to sell our fan base," Vincent said. "There's no other Power Five college football team with no professional football team here. It's you. That was the message we sent out to the kids when we sent them the graphic itself."

Vincent direct messages the bulk graphics to usually more than 100 prospects on Twitter. The Hogs know they have a hit on their hands when numerous recruits tweet out the graphics.

"When you start to see them get posted over and over again, that's the best part because you can do a hundred of these and none of them get posted," Vincent said.

Another wildly popular graphic with recruits was a Morris quote: "Don't be a guy, be the guy."

The April 12 graphic was tweeted out by recruited offensive lineman Triston Miller, who made an official visit to Fayetteville last weekend.

"A lot of kids want to go where everyone else is going," Miller said. "I've never been that kid. When you have a chance to be the guy, be the guy."

The graphics serve several purposes in promoting the Razorbacks.

"It could be something we may want to sell to the recruits or maybe something Coach Morris says like 'Don't be a guy, be the guy,' " Vincent said.

How good are the Arkansas graphics? A 4-star prospect committed to another SEC school said he saw the autograph graphic and reached out to Arkansas receivers graduate assistant Kelvin Bolden and requested the graphic be personalized for him.

"He literally requested the graphic and actually posted it," Vincent said. "To me, that was huge."

Vincent has put the prospect on the list of recruits who receive graphics.

"If it takes sending a kid a personalized graphic every now and then to keep Arkansas in the back of his mind, maybe in December or February of next year we'll still be there," Vincent said.

Planning for the graphics are done a month in advance. Individual graphics are produced for special occasions, including birthdays.

"If we notice so anything about a specific prospect, we can put in a graphic just for him, then we'll do that," Vincent said.

The Razorbacks honored the Samoan heritage of two major Hogs targets, offensive lineman Stacey Wilkins and defensive end Mataio Soli, with a graphic showing the two together with the flag of American Samoa in the background.

Email Richard Davenport at [email protected]

Sports on 04/29/2018

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