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ORLANDO — Few creatures in the animal kingdom deliver a louder message than the sandhill crane. Its rattling bugle calls, often strung together and lasting several seconds at a time, can be heard 2½ miles away.
So perhaps it’s fitting, while simultaneously altogether bizarre, that videos and pictures of these birds — native to Central Florida — have sounded the football recruiting alarm at UCF for the last six months on X.
UCF’s content team strategically spaces out its sandhill crane material as a preliminary strike, hinting at an eventual, trademark “BOOM” tweet from head coach Gus Malzahn — the confirmation of a Knights commit, either from the high school ranks or the NCAA’s transfer portal.
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Think of it as social media’s version of Pavlovian conditioning. As Malzahn told 247Sports’ Josh Pate in April, “If you see one of those, there’s fixing to be good news.” If a crane pops up on UCF Football’s Twitter feed, fans can expect a player to pick the Knights later that day.
It’s a trend that has caught on with UCF’s tech-savvy fanbase. Each crane post generates tens of thousands of views, and hundreds of likes. And while it sounds like a calculated, strategic plan, those in the know are the first to admit that the response has been both stunning and overwhelming.
Florida sandhill cranes, such as this one from Orange Lake Overlook in McIntosh, have become a symbol of prosperity for UCF’s football recruiting.
“It’s been fun. I love reading the quote tweets, too. Recruiting is one of those wacky things to where everybody has their Bat-Signal, but how can you make things your own? We think about that all the time here,” said Eric DeSalvo, UCF’s associate athletic director for #content.
“I’ve been a huge believer that…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/gus-malzahn-ucf-knights-football-090629025.html
Author : Daytona Beach News-Journal
Publish date : 2024-06-27 09:06:29
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