KEN SUGIURA, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Colleges campaign in Georgia with billboards

Tennessee, Auburn push image try to attract recruits, too

Joey Harrington’s 10-story billboard in New York did not help him win the Heisman Trophy, as was its intent.

But the billboard, put up in 2001 across from Madison Square Garden when the former Falcons quarterback was a senior at Oregon, accomplished perhaps a broader purpose for the Ducks, his college team. It got the attention of plenty of oversize teenage boys.

“It said to every player that came to Oregon, if you get yourself to the point where you’re in the race for a national award, if you put yourself in the Heisman race, we’ll put your face in New York,” Harrington said. “It definitely sent a message.”

Tennessee is sending a similar message to high school football recruits in metro Atlanta. The school has put up two billboards with Heisman Trophy candidate Eric Berry, a safety from Creekside High School, along with new coach Lane Kiffin.

In a similar vein, Auburn also has encroached on Georgia and Georgia Tech’s turf, renting out more than 20 billboards that promote the school and football team in metro Atlanta.

The signs feature a Tigers helmet, the school’s familiar Tiger eyes and two messages — “Fearless and True,” from the school fight song, and “Choose Auburn.”

“We were brainstorming with the staff, and some of our coaches, particularly the football coaches, started talking about, ‘How can we get the Auburn brand out there and generate interest in Auburn for our fans?’ ” said Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs. The campaign is “just trying to keep Auburn on people’s minds.”

Tennessee’s billboard features the Web site address for the school’s ticket office. However, given that the school has already sold 72,000 season tickets and is trying to sell only another 1,000, according to Tennessee ticket office director Joe Arnone, ticket sales seems only to be a convenient vehicle to get Berry and Kiffin in front of Atlanta eyeballs.

“Every high school player, every parent of one of those players thinks, ‘That could be my son one day,’ [or] ‘That could be me,’ ” said Richard Southall, director of the University of North Carolina’s College Sport Research Institute.

Chris Fuller, Tennessee’s associate athletics director for sales and marketing, has said the intent is to extend the Volunteers brand and promote Berry.

Jacobs said that Auburn considered putting a football player on its billboards. However, the target of the campaign goes beyond football fans or players, he said.

“We want everyone that sees the sign to ask, ‘How can Auburn possibly help me?’ ” Jacobs said. The intended audience, he added, “certainly [includes] prospective student-athletes, as well.”

Georgia Tech athletics director Dan Radakovich professed little concern over either campaign. Tech has used billboards in the past to help sell tickets but is not currently. It does have its own video billboard that is visible from I-75 / 85.

“They’re doing what they need to do, and obviously, this is a major market and population center and urban area,” he said. “For them, they look at it as something where they can utilize their dollars best.”

Tennessee also has out-of-state billboards in Florida. Atlanta is the only out-of-state market where Auburn has bought billboard space. After going up in July, the billboards are to stay up for at least six months.

How effective the billboards are remains to be seen. But the fact that they are being seen is the point.

Said Harrington, “I think in college football, when you’re trying to recruit 16- and 17-year-olds — impressionable 16- and 17-year-olds — the more you can get talked about, the better.”