Clemson's Digital-Video Team Remains at the Top of Its Game in Yet Another CFP Championship Run New staffers, new gear, new platforms, same mission in Clemson's visual-storytelling effort 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, the team remains the standard-bearer of video success in a social-media age.
Clemson's team of 11 staffers and students produced digital and social content at the CFP National Championship Game: (top row from left) Jonathan Gantt, David Platt, Dawson Powers, Carly Gough, Jack Birchfield, and Whitley Ruffin; (bottom row from left) Madison Williams, Tyson Hutchins, Taryn Carroll, Alex Mueller, and Nik Conklin
New students, new host cities, and new opponents always help bring freshness to the proceedings, but Clemson's digital-video and design teams have continually found success as 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, creative solutions, 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 football 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 has been a steady and spectacular climb to the top for the Tigers digital-media team, aided by important hires, an expanded student staff, and an investment in the tools to make all the talent sing.
We may joke that these media wizards in orange are here every year, but the truth is that there is a healthy turnover in staff year in and year out, whether full-time staffers or, especially, students. So how does Gantt keep his group prepared to deliver the high-quality work expected at an event 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, having recently joined the Tigers 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, says Hutchins, 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. Now to have had that background and that affinity for the way things had been done and following that process, 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.
He is taking over the role of senior director of creative solutions from Nik Conklin, for whom this CFP National Championship Game was his final event with the Tigers. At Clemson since 2014, Conklin played a transformational role that strongly steered the modern era of social video not just at Clemson but across the industry.
Specializing in video at this CFP, Conklin and Hutchins were joined by Associate Director, Creative Solutions, Carly Gough and student videographers Jack Birchfield and Alex Mueller. The remainder of the creative team comprised designers, publishers, and photographers, including Associate Directors, Creative Solutions, Taryn Carroll and Whitley Ruffin; Coordinator, 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. A Sony PXW-FS7, Sony A7S III, and Canon EOS C300 were each 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 IV's combined with a mix of 50mm prime and 24-70mm zoom lenses.
The blend of brands is a result of the digital-media team's continuing integration with Clemson's linear video-department colleagues working in the first year of the ESPN-supported ACC Network. Gantt says his team has been making subtle but noticeable increases in Canon products to align with video-department needs.
TikTok Joins the Scene
In terms of content, Clemson's digital-media team continues to excel on the major platforms: YouTube, Twitter, Instag
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
Clemson's Digital-Video Team Remains at the Top of Its Game in Yet Another CFP Championship Run New staffers, new gear, new platforms, same mission in Clemson's visual-storytelling effort By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
