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Today’s Special: Smoked Vols With A Side Of Rice

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Good morning, everyone. Yesterday was a busy day in college football, as both the Tennessee Volunteers and the Rice Owls shared some new uniforms with us. Let’s start with the Vols, who unveiled their third “Smokey Grey” alternate.

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Smoky, Smokey…pick a lane, people. There’s a lot to unpack in that graphic, so let’s get a closer look. Before we do, though, here’s Phil’s writeup of last year’s alternate for comparison. Starting at the top, the Vols kept the dark gray helmet with a subtle Smoky Mountains pattern. Phil will be chagrined to see they switched from a gray facemask to Smokey Grey. Instead of last year’s single orange stripe, they added an asymmetrical orange and white stripe, with three stars on the back.

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The stripe is inspired by the edge of the Tennessee state flag, but done in school colors. It’s repeated on the pants, replacing the two orange stripes from last year.

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The tri-star logo from the flag is on the sleeves, and on the right hip it’s in front of the state outline.

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Then, of course, there’s the jersey, which has a thicker number font than last year, but sadly no more shoulder yoke. Also, for the first time in school history, they will display the state name on a home jersey.

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A bit of overkill there. I don’t mind the name, but then ditch the T at the collar. That’s one of my only two quibbles. The other is, I wish they’d outline the T on the helmet in white. Besides those things, I really like this alternate. I used to be a stickler for wanting school colors only, but white and that shade of orange get drowned out during sunny games. I liked it when the Vols outlined their numbers in black, and I’ve liked all three of these Smokey Grey unis…yokes or no yokes. Credit where credit is due, Nike: well done.

Then there are the Owls. And again, credit where credit is due: Very well done, Adidas!

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Rice treated us with a *massive* upgrade from the previous minimalist unis:

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Please, never throw back to those.

I gladly welcome the return of properly-sized numbers and sleeve stripes, and I applaud the enlarged lettering.

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While I like both returning helmets, I wish the Owls would stick with the silver ones with the blue/white/blue stripe and the R inside the Texas outline. Anyway, I’m so happy with everything above the waistline that I don’t mind the lack of pants stripes. The white pants are the only ones with the R logo on the right hip, so I guess they can stay.

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Looking forward to seeing these unis on the good side of the 5&1 this year!

 

 

 
  
 

That's All, Folks...

I was hoping to include a DIY project with today’s post, but I’ll have it next weekend along with Part Two of The City Connect Playlist. Until then, take care, everyone.

 

 

Comments (18)

    While I would prefer a lighter shade of gray, Tennessee made a huge upgrade by getting rid of the gaudy orange shoulders on last years version. All in all, a nice uniform!

    Rice too looks better. With that said, the bicycle pants look ridiculous!

    For a home uni, I really like this shade of gray.
    On the road, I’ve been advocating for teams to use either a light gray (like the Seahawks)
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    or a bone/off-white (like the Rams).
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    Any shade of gray is better than all-white or all-black.

    And about the bicycle pants (which are inching towards coaches shorts length), yeah… I don’t get that.
    I banged knees with someone playing basketball and started to wear knee pads after that. I can’t imagine giving up a few inches of coverage and padding for .003 extra seconds of speed.

    Generally a good looking Tennessee uniform set. Not over the moon about the larger-than-life sleeve patches with the stars. Wish they were a bit smaller. Same with the team name on the front; if teams insist on them, I wish they were smaller. I realize this is a “college thing” when it comes to uni design; I still don’t need to like it. I agree with Kent – a lighter shade of gray would be better, so that it would look more like gray, and less like black.

    Regarding the Rice unis, refer to above-referenced comment about the team name on the front. As I always do when I comment on football unis, I lament that pants stripes have become an endangered species.

    UT: solid. I am not a fan of BFBS or GFGS but the tie-in to the Great Smoky Mountains carries this, I guess (daughter went to UT, and the school really encourages students to take advantage of all the natural wonders just past the campus, and I think it is a great thing).
    RICE: solid. I prefer the Gothic R without the Texas outline, only because it gets lost behind the giant monogram and doesn’t add a lot. Also, there are so many prominent Texas state schools that Rice’s location in Houston seems almost like an afterthought. It could exist anywhere, like Duke being in North Carolina.

    I would *love* it if Rice would have an alternate helmet with the old owl wing motif. It was such a cool look and managed to take inspiration from the Eagles without being just a re-colored decal.

    YES.
    Put that on the blue helmet instead of the standalone R, and keep the silver one as is. That would be fantastic.

    Last season they ripp…err, riffed on the Oilers uniforms (terribly, IMO) – can’t recall Rice getting into ‘hot water’ like the Houston Cougars did- but I wonder if the Philadelphia Eagles have a tighter-than-typical hold on the winged helmet motif than we know about (Aside: they are still trying to ‘own’ Kelly Green, correct?) and Rice would have to pay a price for using that?

    Rice had a completely different wing than the Eagles did.
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    Well, in the 90s it was close.
    And I didn’t realize that six (and eleven) years ago the wings looked like Oregon’s.
    I’d like to see the distinctive turn-of-the-millennium wings, or the script Rice of the 70s.

    Gray masks all around for Rice’s helmets?
    Good stuff…it being a school color is a plus.

    I’m almost certain Tennessee bequeathed the shade of orange on us that we now associate with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Too pale a color to stand alone and have the graphics be readable.

    I like the gray, but not in mono fashion (I’m being repetitive), pair the gray helmet and pants with a white jersey, I’d love it. Not sure it would work with the orange jersey, would stay traditional orange/white at home.

    Rice has a very nice update, they should have added stripes on the pants….

    I kind of like the Tennessee smoke unis. There’s plenty of orange to mute the mono effect. Agree about outlining the T on the helmet and ditching either the T logo or Tennessee wordmark on the jersey.

    Rice’s uniforms are fine. They are only “good” in comparison to the ones being replaced. Otherwise I find them rather generic. I like the color scheme, and the stripes are nice. I’d love to see them adopt the 1982 logo. That’s killer.

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