Good Saturday morning, Uni Watchers, and welcome to the penultimate day of 2023. I hope everyone had a great week, and for all those who celebrated, a very Merry Christmas.
Since I gave the entire SMUW crew last weekend off for the holidays, we’re going to get you caught up on all the Bowl action you may have missed. TJ covered the first seven bowls — all of which were played on Saturday, December 16 — so today and tomorrow we’ll get you caught up on all the rest. Today will cover the bowls played between December 18th through December 26 (and Jimmer Vilk will have a Bowl 5 & 1 Part I covering 12/16->12/26), and tomorrow we’ll get you caught up on every bowl played through the four bowls taking place today. The trackers will return tomorrow and bring you up to date on every bowl in which one of their respective conference members played.
And in non-college football uni watching, there will be at least two more articles today (including one from Paul), so make sure to check back early and often. But before that…there’s a lot of bowl watching to get to, so we’ll jump right in. Somewhat surprisingly, only two bowls so far have been color vs. color (Syracuse and USF, as seen above) and last night, THE OSU and Mizzou also went color vs. color (we’ll cover that one tomorrow). Let me now turn it over to Terry with your…
by Terry Duroncelet, Jr.
Hello, one and all! I made SO MANY TYPING ERRORS LAST TIME, but I was also running on ‘E’ from working a lot during Holiday Hell, this column should have a bit more energy. That being said, my spacebar has also decided I’m public enemy #1, so if there are any weird fusion words, that’s why. Alright, enough preliminaries!
Famous Toastery Bowl
|Old Dominion vs Western Kentucky| A simple matchup here between two former C-USA rivals (ODU plays in the Sun Belt now): the Old Dominion University Monarchs wore –an unideal combo IMO of– white helmets, with navy jerseys and pants, while their opponents –the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers– wore Google chrome helmets, white jerseys, and black pants. WKU lived up to their team name and topped the Monarchs 38-35 in overtime (yes, I am fully-aware of the words I chose for that sentence. No, I’m not changing a single one).
Frisco Bowl
|Marshall vs UTSA| The Marshall University Thundering Herd wore their classic kelly green jerseys…but they also wore black helmets and pants. HECK. They faced off against the Roadrunners of the University of Texas at San Antonio, who wore navy/white/navy.
Boca Raton Bowl
|Syracuse vs South Florida| COLOR VS COLOR ALERT! It’s a shame that the score wasn’t as… STIMULATING. On one side of the ball, we have the Syracuse University Orange, who truly lived up to their name. On the other side, we have the University of South Florida Bulls, who wore gold/green/green.
|UCF vs Georgia Tech| Two teams that use gold living in black and white (TWO Underoath references in the same year?? We eatin’ good!). In this bout, we have the *not so* Yellow Jackets of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who wore all-white (an underrated uniform, IMO). They faced off against the University of Central Florida Knights, who wore gold/black/black.
Birmingham Bowl
|Duke vs Troy| We have a quillion games, so let’s speedrun this, shall we? The Duke University Blue Devils wore… NOT BLUE, that’s for damn sure! Meanwhile, the Troy University Trojans wore rather-nice white/white/cardinal. Always a shame when one of the teams doesn’t make use of their colors, this game could’ve been a prime case of “simple, but effective”. Oh well.
Camellia Bowl
|Northern Illinois vs Arkansas State| I’m not gonna make a THIRD Underoath reference, just enjoy this drum cam while I go over our two color-miming teams: The Northern Illinois University Huskies wore black/red/black, and the Arkansas State University Red Wolves wore white/white/black.
Armed Forces Bowl
|Air Force vs James Madison| Simple, but effective. The United States Air Force Academy Falcons wore white/blue/white, while the James Madison University Dukes wore white/white/purple (one of the nicest-looking purple trou teams in college football, IMO).
Potato Bowl
|Utah State vs Georgia State| Sometimes, I like to call this the “Spud Muffin Bowl”. Upon typing that, I realize that that’s a terrible name, I will never say this again. The Utah State University Aggies wore white/navy/navy, while the opposing Georgia State University Panthers wore blue/white/white. I hope the gulls weren’t on the prowl when this happened.
68 Ventures Bowl
|South Alabama vs Eastern Michigan| A festive showdown on Christmas Eve-Eve. The University of South Alabama Jaguars wore white/white/red, while the Eastern Michigan University Eagles wore green/green/white.Oh, and in the spirit of things, I hope this clown got a fat lump of coal for his harrowing lack of sportsmanship. Shameful.
Las Vegas Bowl
|Northwestern vs Utah| Now THIS was a looker! Here, we have the University of Utah Utes in red/white/red, and the Northwestern University Wildcats in full-purple. Definitely a contender for Most Striking Bowl Game of 2023.
Hawai’i Bowl
|San José State vs Coastal Carolina| Only one team embraced their stellar team colors. Can you guess which team that is? The San José State University Spartans wore the most drab thing a California-based university could wear, while the Coastal Carolina University Chanticleers (I LOVE that name) wore teal/white/teal.
Quick Lane Bowl
|Minnesota vs Bowling Green| We’ve finally caught up with this week, nice! Another effective matchup between the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in full-maroon, and the Bowling Green State University Falcons wore all-white. I loved Minnesota’s helmets in this game!
First Responder Bowl
|Rice vs Texas State| The Owls of William Marsh Rice University… their identity is so confusing. It’s like, they want to be traditional-ish, but then you have that weird name and number font that just throws everything off (I know that’s not the same game, but this puts the name and numbers on full-display). And out of all of the Adidas-outfitted schools, it always looks like Rice is the worst-furnished, almost as if they don’t care. Or perhaps the outfitter doesn’t really care, just sends them stuff, and they just have to make the best with that. At any rate, Rice wore silver/navy/white, while the Texas State University Bobcats wore all-white.
Guaranteed Rate Bowl
|UNLV vs Kansas| This was a fun one. This matchup features the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Rebels in grey/red/grey, and the school whose mascot I can’t look at without imagining him with anything BUT Foghorn Leghorn’s voice; the University of Kansas Jayhawks, who wore blue/white/blue.
Way too many mono looks. And way, way too many biking shorts. Ugly. So, what’s the best dressed sport these days? Football? No. Basketball? Nope. Baseball? Not anymore.
Think it’s tennis.
The NHL is the best looking.
“A festive showdown on Christmas Eve-Eve.”
– The preferred term is Christmas Adam.
T Ganz, I would say the best-dressed sport is PGA Golf. (But not the LPGA, which is a hodgepodge. And definitely not LIV.)
Happy New Year’s Adam, everyone!
GTGFTU: 2020 Citrus Bowl; Michigan 16, Alabama 35. Camping World Stadium 01/01/2020.
I mean, that one is pretty easy. It’s the only time to date that Michigan has worn white pants against Alabama, and the visible Citrus Bowl patch and pants Jumpman logo on Josh Metellus (#14) are also big giveaways.
Prior meetings:
2012 season opener in Dallas – Michigan wore these Adidas monstrosities: link
2000 Orange Bowl – White over maize vs. crimson over white, a traditional look for both teams: link
1997 Outback Bowl – Another traditional look for both teams – blue over maize vs. white over white: link
1988 Hall of Fame Bowl – Man, look at those sleeve stripes on Michigan’s white jerseys! White over maize vs. crimson over white.
Whoops, forgot to add that last link for the 88 HOF Bowl: link
Georgia Tech doesn’t wear black. It’s navy.
Lot of monochrome, which is rarely good. So many chances to look good were squandered. Kids these days.
I’m surprised how good the Eastern Michigan unis looked. The perfect blend of green and silver makes it really pop. I just wish they had changed their nickname to the Emus instead of Eagles. Missed opportunity!
BGSU needs to ditch the orange and brown hashmarks on the pants and go back to something more traditional. I’d love to see them feature more brown in their threads.
If EMU had gray instead of silver I’d like them. The shiny numbers and helmet trim aren’t always easy to see.
Bowling Green had it right wearing Browns’ uniforms and sporting the calligraphy-rendered falcon’s head on the helmet: Chef’s kiss!
I live in Ypsilanti, and every time I drive into downtown I see the sign for “EMU” and every time it kills me that they went with Eagles. It’s a quirky little town for, let’s face it, a quirky little team. Emus would have been a perfect nickname for a Midwest non-power conference team.
The Boca Raton Bowl was also a rare instance of a bowl game without bowl patches
I miss the great big Rose Bowl patches on the shoulders. Always thought that was pretty cool!
Does anyone have any idea what the two hash marks under the yardage markers at Allegient Stadium’s artificial turf are for? Haven’t seen that on any other field before.
Wow, this still hasn’t been answered?
GTGFTS
2018 Rose Bowl
Georgia 54, Oklahoma 48 in double overtime
Sony Michel ends it on a 27 yard TD run in Baker Mayfield’s last OU game where the teams roll up a combined 1058 yards in offense.
Strong disagree with the &1. EMU’s unis are spectacular and I loved the contrast and the xmas theme.
Great job crew!! At this point I don’t care to watch bowl games, but at least, thanks to you all, I can enjoy the uni matchups!!