13-Year-Old Aspiring College Football Player Hopes to Catch Arkansas Coach's Eye with Billboard

If you find yourself driving south on I-49 toward Fayetteville, Arkansas, any time soon, keep an eye out for the revolving billboards.

One of the billboards, which features a photo of an aspiring student-athlete and the proclamation "COACH PITTMAN, I WANT TO BE A HOG," is particularly hard to miss. And that's the idea.

Courtesy of Jourdan Black

The now-famous student is 13-year-old Bear McWhorter, an offensive lineman from Cartersville, Georgia. His father Josh, a high school football coach and former left guard for Furman University, works in the billboard business.

Bear told Southern Living that his dad wanted to try a form of recruiting for his players that hadn't been done before.

"Nobody has ever done a billboard," Bear said. "So, we tried it out on me."

The rising eighth grader, who already stands at 6 feet, 2 inches and weighs 245 pounds, said he set his sights on becoming a Razorback after attending a football camp at University of Arkansas this summer.

Bear said he loves his position as an offensive lineman because it's "solely focused on making other positions look better." But "putting someone on their back" is fun too.

While he hasn't heard from Coach Pittman yet, Bear said the response to the billboard has been 100 times better than he expected.

The billboard will be displayed for 28 days, so there's still plenty of time for Coach Pittman to give him a call.

For more information on Bear, visit Bear76.com