The debut of the game day illustrations featured the 12th Man dragging the Commodores' ship by the anchor chain, in an attempt to run Vanderbilt aground. After a 17-12 win, all that was left of the Commodores was a buried anchor, a 12th man flag securely fashioned to the idol.
One of the more abstract posters features the 12th Man bearing the brunt of a crimson tidal wave forming the shapes of the Alabama mascot, the elephant. As the lone loss on the season, this was the only game where we didn't get to debut the win poster.
In one of the biggest games of the year, the No. 21 Aggies took down the No. 4 Florida Gators in an early kickoff. The game poster was straight forward with the 12th Man wrestling a gator in the early morning hours. The win poster featured the 12th Man donning a new pair of gator-skin boots while sitting in a gator leather chair.
With the debut of their new head coach, & pirate enthusiast, Mike Leach, the rather mundane Bulldog mascot got an upgrade to an anthropomorphic canine buccaneer. After defeating the Bulldogs soundly, 28-14, the 12th Man collected college football's buried treasures.
As the posters began to gain popularity, we were also faced with much more scrutiny, and the approval process became more difficult the more outlandish the poster became. However, with Arkansas falling on Halloween Night, there was plenty of fertile working ground. Though I couldn't get it approved, I chose to include my first submission in this project because I felt that the concept was more on-brand, inspired by the film 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' When the concept was declined, I moved to the idea of The Big Bad Wolf & the Three Little Pigs, inspired by both the fables and a speech by Head Coach Jimbo Fisher describing his team like a "pack of wolves." With nine consecutive wins against their former Southwestern Conference rival, the Wolf-12th-Man howls in a graveyard featuring a Razorback skull, buried Arkansas helmet, and nine tombstones bearing the scores and dates of the Aggies' current winning streak.
Maybe my favorite game poster of the series, the 12th Man finds himself in fisticuffs with South Carolina's Gamecock. The cross-division rivals battle for a little-known piece of hardware, the Bonham Trophy. The 12th Man adds the Aggies' seventh-consecutive trophy to the case amidst rooster's feathers scattered on the floor.
With a two-week layover due to COVID-19, Louisiana State offered my first opportunity to play with adding motion to these illustrations. This poster was also the first time I had to take a choreographed photo to complete a successful image. My hand actually holds the A&M chess piece. I wanted to play off the popularity of the 'Tiger King' Netflix documentary, particularly after LSU's championship season just a year before. The 12th Man is in the process of collecting a victory on the board, his gold chess piece adorned with the signature A&M alumni ring, knocking over the Tiger King piece, featuring the bust of LSU's Mike the Tiger mascot statue.
The game poster for Auburn stretched the limits of the suspension of disbelief. The 12th Man surprise attacks Auburn's Golden Eagle in an attempt to snatch the bird of prey from the sky. After a 31-20 victory, the 12th Man adds another feather to an already impressive cap featuring spoils such as an anchor pin, gator-skin band, a magnolia flower, razorback tusks, a gamecock plume, Mardi Gras beads, and now a golden eagle feather.
The Ole Miss contest ended up being canceled due to complications caused by COVID-19, but we had put together several options for the game day illustration and a retort to their satirical post on Twitter. I thought it was great to see a team parody our account, & was only disappointed when we didn't get the chance to play head to head in order to settle the illustrative narrative. The first game poster ended up feeling too similar to our Florida illustration, so I took the opportunity for a different perspective, and palette featuring a heavy use of Ole Miss Powder Blue.
Tennessee offered a regular-season finale in Knoxville. The 12th Man went out with a bang, smashing Rocky Top's banjo on a stage in the middle of Neyland Stadium.
We wanted to go out with a bang in one of the biggest wins in Texas A&M Football history at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. The 12th Man drew on his agricultural roots, steer wrestling the North Carolina ram on Miami Beach, in a battle for the Orange Bowl trophy. After the win, the 12th Man victoriously drinks orange juice from a ram's horn in front of the Miami skyline. He has ventured from one of Miami's famed tattoo artists with the visage of every defeated mascot in the 2020 season emblazoned on his arm. Coach Jimbo Fisher dons his best Miami Vice duds while holding up the number three for his third Orange Bowl Championship. Reveille drives a speed boat featuring her namesake while famous alumnus Lyle Lovett rides shotgun, with Orange Bowl mascot Obie in tow.
