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Auburn Football Stepping Up Social Media Game in Recruiting

The Tigers are getting more involved with recent social media trends.

By Walt Austin
John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

I don't know if this is a product of having a coach on staff who is much more into social media than the rest of the staff or if it's just Auburn realizing that this is the kind of thing kids dig nowadays.

Whatever it is, Auburn has really stepped up in the social media department over the past day or two. Keith Niebuhr of 247Sports was the first to point out this "photo edit" sent to 4* Athlete Tray Bishop.

I'm sure that looks very familiar to Auburn fans from the Bo Knows campaigns with Bo Jackson. The Tigers weren't just going serious, though. In an attempt to catch the eye of graduate transfer Tyler Catalina from Rhode Island, this photo edit was made of Catalina and current offensive line coach Herb Hand using the poster from the movie "Step Brothers":

Finally, Coach Hand was the first to push the official hashtag for the 2017 class. In recent years, schools have taken to using these to identify their recruits as a group. It has all sorts of uses. Fans have tweeted about it (note: DON'T TWEET RECRUITS) to express excitement for the recruiting class. One of the biggest things is to give a sense of identity to the class on social media among recruits. At least that's one way I interpret it. For Auburn, it has been announced as #AmbUsh17.

I know plenty of folks don't like the AU inclusion in words like the old AUdacity slogan of Terry Bowden. However, this one just highlights two letters in the word, so it's not near as bad. It is also quite appropriate when you read Coach Hand's explanation:

You can look it up for yourself if you're curious. An "ambush" is a collective noun used to describe a group of Tigers. I can't help but wonder how long they searched to find something like this.

I don't know if having Coach Hand on the Plains was the catalyst for these or not, but he's well-known for his social media mastery, and it wouldn't surprise me if he's a big part of Auburn stepping up their game in this department. Recruits love these types of things, so it should definitely help. Auburn has needed more of a social media presence in recruiting.

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