Batman watched for Gotham City’s bat signal. Lady Vol fans look for Bill Ferrara’s orange emojis on social media.

Ferrara, one of two new assistants coaches for women’s basketball, posted a GIF of Smokey the mascot dancing with one orange emoji as the only text when Tennessee got its first portal commit April 6. The next day another player committed, and the post came with two oranges.

Fans realized Ferrara was posting the number of commits and quickly started tracking his social media. Coaches and schools can’t discuss a recruit by name until the paperwork is submitted and certified, but mascots and emojis are fine, and the fans get to puzzle out who it might be.

That’s an easier process in high school recruiting where it’s a handful of possibilities that have evolved other months and even two to three years. But the portal moves fast, and the possible names can change every day.

Since Tennessee needed to restock its roster after four players completed their eligibility and eight players entered the portal, fans are counting those oranges.

The tally hit six on Thursday. Add to it Gabby Minus, an incoming freshman guard from Dacula, Georgia, who stayed committed to Tennessee, and the roster is now seven and counting.

So far, five of the orange emojis can be attached to a name as the players have all made their commitment public. All five also have sent their official paperwork to Tennessee.

The five are:  Zhen Craft, 6-2 forward, rising sophomore, Waldorf, Maryland, Georgia transfer; Avery Mills, 5-9 guard, rising junior, Lynchburg, Virginia, Liberty transfer; Harper Peterson, 6-3 forward, rising redshirt sophomore, Rocklin, California, Stanford transfer; Rylie Theuerkauf, 5-9 guard, rising senior, Tenafly, New Jersey, Georgia transfer; and Naomi White, 5-9 guard, rising redshirt sophomore, Omaha, Nebraska, Northern Arizona transfer.

Coach Kim Caldwell also added assistant coach Isoken Uzamere to the staff from Georgia on April 7. Craft and Theuerkauf visited Tennessee and were onboard within a week afterward. The addition of Ferrara and Uzamere has brought immediate dividends for the program in two weeks.

The sixth orange doesn’t have a name publicly attached to it yet. That should come soon as most players have announced the day after the emoji appeared.

As noted, the portal moves with the speed of whitewater rafting as a lot of players are in it and there’s probably not enough open rafts to accommodate all of them. Michele Peterson, the mother of Harper Peterson, posted some advice below to players.

Media tracks players that Tennessee seems to be interested in and vice versa – but some can fly under the radar – and these are the latest ones on a list that can change quickly: Blessing “Adde” Adebanjo, 6-3 forward, rising junior, Lagos, Nigeria, Arizona transfer; Harissoum Coulibaly, 5-10 guard, rising sophomore, Paris, France, Auburn transfer; Esmeralda Enriquez, 5-8 guard, rising junior, Yakima, Washington, Eastern Arizona juco transfer; and Tyi Skinner, 5-5 guard, graduate transfer, Washington, D.C., SMU transfer.

A high school player also has emerged after she posted a video of her visit to Tennessee on TikTok on Tuesday. Irene Oboavwoduo, a 5-10 guard, from Manchester, United Kingdom, plays for the Great Britain national team and had been headed to Boston College before a coaching change occurred.

Fun fact: Oboavwoduo played with former Lady Vol Cheridene Green, who is from London, last December during the FIBA EuroBasket’s 2027 Qualifiers at the National Basketball Performance Centre in Manchester, England.

Ferrara’s posts on Instagram, which are done via stories, come with audio of Rocky Top for enhanced effect. Click HERE and then click on his photo to see the stories. He uses the music when a commit happens and the the official signing by the player.

He posted Thursday: “Just so you know … I’m spamming your feed with Rocky Top for the next week.”

That’s music to the ears of Lady Vol fans.

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press and a 10th anniversary edition will be released June 16, 2026.