Clemson's Digital Video Team Remains at the Top of Its Game During Yet Another CFP Championship Game Run New staffers, new gear, new platforms, same mission in Clemson's visual storytelling quest By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, January 17, 2020 - 12:54 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Every successful culture has a simple, but deeply engrained mission. The wildly successful digital media team at Clemson Athletics is no different.
With appearances in four championship games (and five semifinals) in the six-year history of the College Football Playoff, it would be easy for this group to allow themselves to grow stale. Instead, they remain the standard-bearers of video success in a social media age.
Clemson brought a team of 11 staff and students to produce digital and social content at the CFP National Championship Game in New Orleans. Top (left to right): Jonathan Gantt, David Platt, Dawson Powers, Carly Gough, Jack Birchfield, and Whitley Ruffin. Bottom (left to right): Madison Williams, Tyson Hutchins, Taryn Carroll, Alex Mueller, and Nik Conklin.
New students, new host cities, and new opponents always help bring a level of freshness to the football proceedings, but Clemson's digital video and design team have continually found success as the pioneers of social video by staying true to one North Star.
The main principles have always been to answer the question what it's like to be a Clemson Tiger?' says Jonathan Gantt, associate athletics director of creative solutions for Clemson. To focus on content that helps recruit student athletes to Clemson. That remains the same. How we package it is always different.
Changes In Personnel and Gear Through the Years
Since the team's 2014 appearance in the Orange Bowl where it topped Ohio State and Gantt was largely running around the stadium producing content by himself - it's been a steady and spectacular climb to the top for the Tigers digital media team, accompanied by important hires, and expanded student staff, and an investment in the tools to make all of the talent sing.
While we joke that these media wizards in orange are here every year, the truth of the matter is that there is a healthy turnover in staff year in and year out, whether it's in the form of full time staff or, especially, students. So how does Gantt keep his group prepared to deliver the high quality work that's expected from it at an even like the CFP? Consistency.
We're trying to put our best foot forward from Game One, says Gantt, who has been with Clemson since 2013. I had a lot of the new employees come up to me leading up to this and ask, okay, so what do we do that's different? I say, nothing. You keep doing the same thing that you've been doing for 20 weeks now. It's a nice thing to be able to rely on it for those people who are nervous or maybe a little bit anxious about going through something for the first time and feeling like they don't know what to do. No, you've been doing it week in and week out and the only way we can mess up is if we don't execute the same way that we have been. So there's a lot more people around, there's a lot more people paying attention, but ultimately the content plan and the way that we execute is exactly the same as it has been from Week One.
Want to know what makes Clemson special?
Watch
: https://t.co/CUnsUJvpgS
: https://t.co/Zz6DKZp3ol
: https://t.co/rwlAWtbxtQ
Because at Clemson, it s different.#ALLIN pic.twitter.com/pYwMBIfADA
Clemson Football (@ClemsonFB) January 8, 2020
This year's group is again a loaded one, with Tyson Hutchins, a super-talented content creator that the Tigers recently added to the staff after a successful run at Brigham Young University's athletics department. Clemson's semifinal appearance in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl was his first day on the job.
For me, Clemson was always the gold standard of social for the way it was shot, the way it was executed, the way it was produced and published, says Hutchins. Now to have had that background and that affinity for the way things had been done and following that process, it's I frankly have to pinch myself sometimes. Now I am part of this machine that has been such an example for everyone in the industry. I feel extremely fortunate, to say the least.
Hutchins is taking over the role of Senior Director of Creative Solutions from Nik Conklin, who worked his final event with the Tigers at this CFP National Championship Game. At Clemson since 2014, Conklin played a transformational work that strongly steered the modern era of social video not just at Clemson, but industry wide.
Specializing in video at this CFP, Conklin and Hutchins were joined by Associate Director of Creative Solutions Carly Gough and student videographers Jack Birchfield and Alex Mueller. The remainder of the creative team is filled out by designers, publishers, and photographers. That included Taryn Carroll and Whitley Ruffin (who are both Associate Directors of Creative Solutions), Coordinator of Creative Media Madison Williams, and photographers David Platt and Dawson Powers.
In terms of video gear, the squad was shooting primarily with devices from Sony and Canon. There's a Sony PXW-FS7, a Sony A7S III, and a Canon EOS C300, all paired with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM lenses. The crew was also outfitted with a number of Canon EOS 5D Mark IVs combined with a mix of 50mm prime and 24-70mm zoom lenses.
The blend is really a result of Clemson's digital media continuing to more deeply integrate with its linear video department colleagues that are working in their first year of the ESPN-supported ACC Network. Gantt says that
North America Stories
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
Experimental HIV vaccine achieves a long-sought goal In a first for the field, all non-human primates given a new series of vaccines generated antibodies capabl...
28/05/2026
FOX Sports' MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy ...
28/05/2026
One of the most memorable postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...
28/05/2026
NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most-decorated and most-watched pro...
28/05/2026
The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...
28/05/2026
Hosted by ESPN Senior Writer Ryan McGee, the ceremony honored winners from athletic departments, conference offices, professional networks, production companies...
28/05/2026
Major rights-holders rolled out their 2026 college football slates today, offering a first look at marquee windows, kickoff partners, and conference distributio...
28/05/2026
The 4 Nations Face-Off, an international competition that launched in February 2...
28/05/2026
Soccer is a truly global sport, and, to match the U.S. viewing audience's in...
28/05/2026
The NFL Today, CBS Sports' top-of-the-line NFL studio show, has a storied hi...
28/05/2026
Prime Video is no stranger to innovation, and, within the realm of live streamin...
28/05/2026
The crack of the bat, the pop of the glove, and the cheer of the crowd: those are three prime examples of the glorious sounds fans hear on televised baseball ga...
28/05/2026
Every year, March Madness captivates the entire sports world. Nonstop action, un...
28/05/2026
NBA on NBC was an integral part to live sports production in the 1990s, and, when the league made these media rights available, NBC Sports saw an opportunity to...
28/05/2026
UmpCam is a technological wrinkle that has given fans unprecedented views of wha...
28/05/2026
T-Mobile and the United States Golf Association (USGA) announced a multi-year partnership, making T-Mobile the Official 5G Network Partner of the U.S. Women'...
28/05/2026
By Gina McIntyre
(L-R) Sara Dosa and Andri Sn r Magnason attend the Time and Water premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at Library Center Theatre ...
Clemson's Digital Video Team Remains at the Top of Its Game During Yet Another CFP Championship Game Run New staffers, new gear, new platforms, same mission in Clemson's visual storytelling quest By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
