The South Carolina New and Creative Media team is known for its weekly Battle Armor videos and hype videos 鈥� but its content output could be affected by a hiring freeze.
Current University of Maryland creative director for football Alex Grant, formerly a video producer for football and other sports at South Carolina, described the office as a 鈥渂ig open room with a big conference table鈥� with dividers so that 鈥渆verybody has their own little section.鈥�
The layout of the office keeps the morale of the team high. Football graphic designer Jayson Jeffers said they 鈥渉ave a really good office culture.鈥� Grant said they "vibe off of each other's energy鈥� and having that chemistry in the office helped out creatively. Being so close to his coworkers 鈥渕eant the world鈥� to Grant, and moving to remote working and Zoom meetings because of the pandemic was difficult.鈥�
鈥淲orking from home, it was just boring,鈥� Jeffers said.
Aside from taking the team out of the same room during the day, the department had to deal with a lack of sports.
鈥淚t was kind of a strange time, just trying to figure out things that we could still be doing,鈥� Jacob Reeves, designer of New and Creative Media, said.
After the cancellation of the NCAA men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 basketball tournaments, Grant said the media team coasted on videos recapping the 麻豆小蝌蚪传媒 for a month or two before finding itself at a place where they needed 鈥渢o be able to turn the page, but we can't necessarily turn the page 'cause we still don't know what the next step looks like.鈥�
Reeves said this obstacle of less content pushed the team.
鈥淏eing able to challenge ourselves creatively to try and still communicate with recruits, the fans, everything, despite the circumstances, has been an interesting learning experience,鈥� Reeves said.
Perhaps an even bigger obstacle is the hiring freeze. Due to COVID-19, associate director for New and Creative Media Justin King can鈥檛 make any new hires. Fans might not have noticed until the week of the Vanderbilt game, when the fan-favorite Battle Armor video was never released.
鈥淎ppreciate the enthusiasm around the Battle Armor video! Team is down multiple members + a busy week - had to make a tough choice," . "Until we are through the (completely justified) hiring freeze, I can鈥檛 promise there will be one every week, but I can promise I鈥檒l do my best."
Grant said the hiring freeze wasn鈥檛 something anyone on the media team wanted to happen, but 鈥渆veryone understood why it happened.鈥� He said it affects the 鈥渘atural progression of things,鈥� where people "have the opportunity to go and pursue other opportunities."
"Under normal circumstances, that's not a problem because you can bring in other people; you can go and seek other talent. But that's where the hiring freeze kind of affected the department, where Justin wasn't necessarily in a position to be able to replace the talent that was in the room,鈥� Grant said.
Grant, Jeffers, Reeves and football graphic design intern Zachary Kilgore said the way King handled the hiring freeze is a testament to the foundation he's built for the department.
鈥淚 think that's what Justin is building, from a creative standpoint, at South Carolina. Justin is very well on his way to being the Nick Saban of the creative industry in college athletics,鈥� Grant said.
Kilgore said King has a 鈥渞eally good eye for talent.鈥�
鈥淚f you're going to build the best creative team in the nation, which we have, multiple times, you're going to have to deal with losing people,鈥� Kilgore said.
According to Reeves, not only did King build the program 鈥渇rom the ground up,鈥� but he has also developed his team as creatives and as people.
Even though they have faced challenges, King and his team have continued to persevere.
鈥淓veryone, everywhere has similar challenges 鈥� it鈥檚 not the obstacles we face, it鈥檚 about how we respond,鈥� King said in an email.