SMU Football Breaks Out Bubble Guns, Ball Pit For Recruiting Photoshoot That Will Go Down Amongst The Greats

SMU football has come a long way from the death penalty in 1987. The Mustangs were once considered the villains while they were throwing around money and cars to top recruits.

Now, 35 years later, SMU is breaking out the bubble guns and ball pits instead. That isn't to say that Dallas' college football program isn't embracing its role in the NIL space — it is.

But when it comes to college football recruiting in 2023, there is a large component of the process that is completely different than it was a decade ago. Social media has changed everything.

While Twitter, Instagram and TikTok continue to rise in terms of their popularity, recruiting includes a significant element of clout. Every school across the country is making a push to hire the best videographers, photographers and designers to take their graphics, edits and shoots to the next level.

The social media era of recruiting has led to a lot of good. There have been a lot of really awesome recruiting assets to come from the age of recruiting.

Take Notre Dame’s cathedral shoot, a recruit dunking on his own dad, a five-star quarterback taking pictures in a G-Wagon, and Lane Kiffin taking extremely icy pictures with recruits in his Aston Martin for example. The social media push has also led to a lot of bad moments, like Dabo Swinney sitting on a recruit’s lap, Brian Kelly grinding on high schoolers, and a Florida recruit nearly tearing his ACL.

SMU's recent visit shoot is on the "awesome" side.

Southern Methodist hosted quite a few of their top targets on campus over the weekend and went with a poolside, summer vibe for their player visit photoshoot. They had recruits kicked back in the beach chair next to with a water gun, pinwheel and bubble gun next to a cooler and some cornhole.

They even broke out the ball pit, because everybody loves a ball pit.

Four-star defensive back Kris 'Koko' Wokomah was living it up.

His ball pit shot is an all-timer.

@8kriss_/Twitter

Three-star linebacker Eric Moore Jr. was big on the water features.

He was straight chilling.

@Eric_MooreJr11/Twitter

And then there was defensive lineman Sterlin Brooks, who blew bubbles as if it was his job.

@thesterlin1/Twitter

The Mustangs took a different approach to their recruiting shoot and the results couldn't have been better. Brooks, Moore and Wokomah's pictures will go down amongst the greatest visit shots in history.