UPDATE: Scroll down for a look at the full jersey, which was released after the tease. The team will wear the jersey on September 13, against the Pitt Panthers.
Earlier this morning, the West Virginia Mountaineers teased a new uniform…
— West Virginia Football (@WVUfootball) August 23, 2023
A short time later, the team posted what we’re going to call “teasers” for their “Country Roads” (CR) alternate for 2023.
Here is what they’ve shown so far:
OK, so we know this year’s jersey will be gold. Unfortunately, that’s all we know for now. Additional teasers showed only different pieces of the jersey. “MOUNTAINEERS” is written prominently in blue capital letters across the chest. Last season’s CR had “WEST VIRGINIA” as their wordmark.
The collar is blue (and in Nike’s newest template), with their West Virginia logo at the base of the collar.
The numbers have a sublimated roadmap of the State, just like last season’s CR alternate.
The inside of the collar reads “CUE COUNTRY ROADS.”
Unfortunately, the team has not yet unveiled the full jersey, or whether there will be any special helmet or pants that they will pair with the new jersey.
UPDATE: The Mountaineers have finally released a photo of the front of the jersey, but nothing (yet) for the helmet or pants they’ll wear with the jersey:
For reference, here is what the team’s 2022 Country Roads uniform looked like.
As you can see, that was a new all-white uniform, with a unique helmet, sublimated state roadmap on the sleeve caps, and special pants. Like this year’s gold edition, the numbers also featured the sublimated map feature. Here’s how that looked on the field:
Obviously we don’t know what the 2023 edition of “Country Roads” will look like yet. We can speculate they will give it the same treatment as the 2022 uniform, swapping gold for white, but until they unveil the full uniform, that’s just speculation. Last year the Mountaineers wore their CR uniform twice. Of course, since this year they put “MOUNTAINEERS” as the wordmark rather than “WEST VIRGINIA,” perhaps it won’t follow last year’s format.
Until they release the full uniform… Cue Country Roads.
Fun fact, Country Roads was inspired by a road in Montgomery County, MD. And written DC link
Country Roads is a big song at the Hofbrauhaus tent during the Octoberfest. They play it over and over again. Crow goes nuts.
…and in almost every pub in Dublin
And the Shenandoah River is only trivially in West Virginia. Almost entirely in Virginia
As are the Blue Ridge Mountains – just on the edge of the eastern panhandle.
Good to see the school spending money on stuff like this instead of, I don’t know, math: link
My thoughts exactly! They have destroyed their academic program while frittering away money on special uniforms for the football team. In the big scheme of things, it’s probably a miniscule portion of the schools deficit, but the optics are horrendous.
It’s horrible what’s happening with the cuts to programs at WVU, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Nike PAYS WVU to wear its gear, not the other way around. I don’t know the AAV of their contract, but it’s easily upwards of $2 million per season. That’s why you see the swoosh on all the athletic gear and apparel.
Now, what Nike is paying WVU isn’t going to restore foreign languages or the humanities, for sure, but it’s not like the school is shifting money away from core academic programs to pay for specialty uniforms. That’s all part of Nike’s contract with the school.
I’m not sure if it’s all 50 states, but in many of them, the highest paid employee at a given large university with a football program is the Head Coach of the football team. Not the Chancellor, not the Provost, not the research assistant who will one day find a cure for cancer. They make a pittance compared to the football Head Coach.
We can blame the *professionalization* of college sports (particularly football, which serves as a de facto minor league for the NFL) for a lot of problems. But diverting previous funding to football uniforms ain’t one of them.
Thank you, Phil. I appreciate the correction on funding. I will stand by my assertion that, regardless of the funding source, it is tone-deaf to announce new uniforms literally the week after 32 academic majors were eliminated along with 169 full-time faculty members.
Catalog jerseys again for a P5 team.
I like it, the gold and blue looks nice and even the road maps in the numbers are OK with me. I hope they wear blue helmet and blue pants with this but I expect that they will go mono.
Not bad. Never have been a fan of different colored shoulder caps (except for the L.A. Rams). I really like the helmet decal. Wouldn’t mind if they used that as their primary on all their helmets.
The map thing is really cool. Keep that up.
Definitely a downgrade from last year’s… I get they’re trying this as a way to hype up the Backyard Brawl (and sell merch) but would love to see the BB without any gimmicky jerseys/uniforms. Since the Backyard Brawl is going to be WVU’s annual “Stripe the Stadium” game, it’s probably safe to assume they will go blue/gold/blue for the full uniform or maybe gold/gold/blue.
I would like to see every rivalry game without gimmicky uniforms.
Save that stuff for the cupcake game on your schedule.
So everyone playing Akron gets to wear a specialty/gimmicky uniform?
Except Kent State.
Everyone else, go for it.
Such a great color scheme. Unfortunately that number don’t is an eyesore.
Of all bespoke fonts, the Mounties’ is by far the worst. Almost like the Buccaneers’ clock-radio face.
Funny thing is, this font is much better than the one it replaced.
That “pick ax” font was brutal. link
Not as brutal as Bellotti Bold.
It wasn’t good, though. Glad they slightly upgraded.
Take me Home, United Road
To the place, I belong
To Old Trafford, to see United
Take me Home, United Road
Did anyone else think they first saw a hockey stick coming out of the eastern panhandle of the state on the helmet decal-where it bumps up against the vent?