College football coaches are not allowed to discuss recruits until they sign, per NCAA rules, so when they do get new commits, coaches often have sneaky and trademark ways to announce it. Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin, for instance, always tweets "YESSIR!"
YESSIR!
— Kevin Sumlin (@CoachSumlin) June 15, 2013
That's fine, according to the NCAA, but per Arkansas compliance, the NCAA has decided that using recruits' nicknames in tweets is not permissible.
NCAA Ed. Column from 7/18/15 covers that coaches/institutional staff members can't subtweet recruits using nicknames pic.twitter.com/OzGql3aK3E
— RazorbackRules (@RazorbackRules) February 24, 2016
There are some obvious examples from assistant coaches at Texas, who seem to really enjoy animal nicknames.
Here's assistant Christopher Vaughn discussing star linebacker Jeffrey McCullough, who goes by "The Shark."
Shout out to that "Dude"!!! pic.twitter.com/kqVNfnme6z
— Christopher M Vaughn (@CoachVaughn_DBU) September 24, 2015
And here's cornerback Eric Cuffee:
Need those Hand "Cuffs", in ATX pic.twitter.com/nuxYQZK6f9
— Christopher M Vaughn (@CoachVaughn_DBU) September 24, 2015
Vaughn likes to draw nicknames, too. This is linebacker Dontavious Jackson.
— Christopher M Vaughn (@CoachVaughn_DBU) October 1, 2015
Texas is by no means the only school that does this. Last year, Purdue basketball got a lot of attention for celebrating Caleb "Biggie" Swanigan's commitment with a picture of Notorious B.I.G.
#ThinkB1GTuesday pic.twitter.com/4Nxu1YONgy
— Purdue Basketball (@BoilerBall) May 19, 2015