Notre Dame Football: Media Team hits Homerun with Signing Day content

The early period of national signing week in college football began on Wednesday. The Notre Dame football staff received 18 letters of intent and their media team published some awesome videos to accompany that news.

This past Wednesday, December 18th, college football staffs around the country, including Notre Dame waited to received signed letters of intent from the recruits they pursued over the previous years.

Some of the bigger programs also had their media teams preparing content to share on social media platforms throughout the day.

Some national signing day content can be a bit quirky. For instance, here is an example of the videos Baylor Football put out.

https://twitter.com/BUFootball/status/1207291032959934464

Other content just seems to do a perfect job of encapsulating what is a truly special occasion.

The Fighting Irish media team has put out some great videos and graphics over the past few years. The videos they shared on this national signing day was arguably their best to date.

A video was published for each player that committed on Wednesday. All of the videos start with text stating the narrator(s) and their relation to the player. The narrator of each video was one or both of the player’s parents.

The text fades and the video begins with the player, in normal clothes, walking down the stairs from the Notre Dame locker room towards the iconic “Play Like A Champion Today” sign.

As they walk down the stairs, the narrator(s) begin talking. They speak in statements that all begin with “I knew it when.”

The statements range from personality traits, values, and anecdotes to life milestones, academic achievements, and athletic accomplishments.

As soon as the player in the video reaches the bottom of the stairs and touches the sign, they switch to wearing a full Notre Dame uniform. Then, a slideshow of photos of them from childhood to high school begins to play.

While this is all happening in the video, the player’s parent(s) are still reciting the “I knew it when” statements.

After the slideshow of photos concludes, we return to the hallway that leads out to the main tunnel on the north end of Notre Dame Stadium.

The player continues their walk through the hallway and their attire switches again. This time to a graduation gown and cap. As the player reaches the end of the hallway, they switch back to a full uniform.

Before the player exits the hallway, they pause and turn around to face the camera. This coincides with the same statement in every video. The narrator(s) says, “I knew you were bound… for greatness.”

There is so much to love about these videos. It all starts with involving the players’ parents. College football coaches often say that they do not just recruit the player, they recruit the whole family. It is only right that those families are also featured in these national signing day videos.

This is such a momentous occasion for these young men and their families. It is so awesome to hear each of their parents talk about times when they saw their child’s potential and how proud they are of them.

Each video has a uniform structure with the “I knew it when” statements. However, each video is still unique. We get to see a brief insight into the lives of each of these players.

Finally, the video itself. The player walks the path from the locker room to the field and transitions from normal clothing to a graduation gown to a football uniform and pads. This shows their journey from a recruit to a Notre Dame graduate.

Notre Dame is extremely proud (and rightfully so) of the graduation rate of their student-athletes. They have been at the top of the NCAA in student-athlete graduation rate for thirteen years.

I tried to give as detailed a description of the video as I could, but that still does not do it justice. So, here are just a few of the videos. You can find the rest on the Notre Dame Football twitter page (@NDFootball).

Congrats to all of the commits and to the Notre Dame staff for landing a solid class.

We can’t wait to see these guys on the field.