Cowboys taking the world by design
OSU has made a huge digital push in recruiting with two full-time graphic designers and the development of a “Coach Gundy” app. Why they feel it’s important and the dividends it might pay.
STILLWATER — Mike Gundy is not afraid to apply football lessons from his children. Two recent examples. 1. It’s shortly after Christmas and 11-yearold Gage is sitting and staring intently at the intricate designs on a pair of black Jordan-brand shoes. “Why is your face so close to them,” Gundy asked, to which Gage replied, “These are awesome.”
2. It’s a summer afternoon on Interstate 25 northbound and the family is headed from Colorado to Wyoming for a trip to Yellowstone. When Gage and 14-year-old Gunnar ran out of cell internet service, “you would have thought they lost their life,” Gundy said.
The football translation: Oklahoma State’s head coach has bought into the needs of a different generation, and in turn, the football program has taken bold steps toward bolstering its digital imprint. Since January, the Cowboys have hired two full-time graphic designers — Joe Johnson and Forrest Buckner — who work directly with recruiting. OSU also unveiled a new “Coach Gundy” mobile application Thursday, available on iPhone and Android, which provides an inside look at several facets of the program.
“It would be a waste of oxygen for me to talk about how important technology is,” Gundy said. “If we don’t try and stay ahead of the game in that part of the world, then we’re really lessening our chances to be successful in recruiting quality student athletes that need to come here and graduate and perform on the football field, because that’s the world they live in.”
The digital turning point in Stillwater can be traced before the 2011 season, right about the time Chris Deal was hired to oversee CoachGundy. com. Back then, much of the program’s online outreach was website based while mostly graduate assistants and student workers fiddled with Photoshop to produce weekly recruiting materials.
“We had a need for branding and marketing our program,” Deal said. “We have won a lot of football games here. We’re proud of who we are. We wanted to be able to portray that in our graphics and our recruiting efforts.”
Deal’s current title is director of creative services. While his role still includes website duties, it has expanded into recruiting, media relations and football operations. He sifted through resumes from nearly 100 applications for each of the graphic designer positions, searching for “creative and outside-the-box mentalities.” Deal found just that in Johnson, a former Georgia-based freelancer, and Buckner, a former Auburn athletics employee. The result has been an array of highly recruit-specific edits that have gained plenty of traction on social media.
“They’ve embraced the Oklahoma State look and feel,” Deal said. “They’re excited about it.”
Deal also worked daily over the past two months on the development of the Coach Gundy mobile application. OSU partnered with Oklahoma City-based tech firm BFAC — whose clients include the National Guard, Buffalo Wild Wings and Dell Computers — to provide the software. Deal then customized the template where two or three clicks gives users access to OSU-produced videos, practice reports, game notes and other multimedia features.
“I wanted it to be something fans could utilize and recruits could utilize to stay connected with the program,” Deal said. “That was one of the things that coach was really adamant about. It needs to have a personal touch, but it needs to be relevant.”
Running backs coach Marcus Arroyo is among the most active social media users on the Cowboys’ staff. In the eight months since OSU began pushing the digital envelope, he says the recruiting dividends have already rolled in. He also makes a point to get feedback from prospects each time they receive a new edit.
“You’re either forgettable or memorable,” Arroyo said. “If we can make that impression digitally, then why wouldn’t we?”