MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football has announced the hiring of Austin Gaines as the director of creative video.

"We are excited to add Austin's talent to our staff as the director of creative video," said Coleman Barnes, associate director of athletics for football external affairs. "Austin's abilities and creativity will help us build the brand of West Virginia Football and position our recruiting department to become one of the best in the country."

At WVU, Gaines will provide comprehensive, advanced-level video and digital media production by developing the concepts, planning, directing, editing and posting of multimedia projects for the Mountaineer football program.

Gaines is responsible for writing, producing and directing major video projects, ranging from recruiting materials, promotional campaigns, web features and hype videos. He will assist with the oversight, production and management of content for the football program's social media platforms and digital information strategies. He also will creatively work to develop innovative digital and social media strategies to increase engagement with fans.

Gaines comes to West Virginia after serving as the digital media producer for the NFL's Carolina Panthers since 2017. Under his leadership, he was in charge of developing concepts, overseeing the video shoots and producing short and long video pieces primarily used for social media.

Prior to that, Gaines served as the assistant director of creative services at North Carolina State in 2016-17. He oversaw the creation and completion of graphics and graphic styles for 14 sports and filmed and produced social media content for football, men's basketball, baseball as well as other Wolfpack sports as needed. He planned and collaborated staged photo and video shoots for athletics teams and formulated and executed NC State branding guidelines.

Gaines was a student and postgraduate graphic designer at Clemson from 2014-16. He created graphics used in Clemson's social media platforms, generated graphics used in its facilities and for recruiting purposes and oversaw photo/video shoots for brand and recruiting use.

Gaines is a 2015 graduate of Clemson with a bachelor's degree in graphic communications.