Anyone who is driving throughout the Southeast for Christmas weekend might notice that there is a lot more Tennessee orange than usual. That’s on purpose!
The Volunteers are running a football-focused campaign on digital billboards throughout the region until Tuesday. They are showcasing the players who committed to the program during the Early Signing Period that began on Wednesday.
While the majority of billboards will run in the state of Tennessee, there will be others in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri, Texas, Virginia and even into Ohio. It’s a chance to spread the brand into other states that will perhaps generate wider interest for both the school and the football team.
One particular billboard is living rent-free in the head of Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer.
The Volunteers signed four-star wide receiver Braylon Staley. He is the second-ranked player in the state of South Carolina and the No. 17-ranked pass-catcher in the country.
Beamer and his staff worked tirelessly to flip Staley and keep him home. They failed.
To celebrate the signing, Tennessee went savage mode.
Staley is from Aiken/Johnston, South Carolina. He grew up about an hour west of Columbia.
Not long after his pen hit the paper on Wednesday, the Volunteers rolled out a billboard in his honor. Not in his hometown but in… Columbia!
It does not get much more savage than that. Tennessee sent a very clear message.
To make it even funnier, Beamer threw shade at Staley and the Vols during his press conference. He said that “we signed the best receiver in the state of South Carolina in Mazeo Bennett.”
Bennett is technically ranked behind Staley, but rankings are subjective and largely irrelevant. Still, for Beamer to go out of his way to say that — while a billboard promoting Staley’s commitment to a rival program — is why college football is the greatest sport.