The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Roadrunners have unveiled a new uniform, a BFBS set that will debut during the 2024 NCAAFB season. For those not familiar with the team, the Roadrunners compete in the American Athletic Conference, and play their home games at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
UTSA’s school colors are navy and orange, and they will wear various combinations of those colors, plus white uniforms, throughout the year.
For at least one game this season, they’ll wear white helmets with black jerseys and pants. This actually won’t be UTSA’s first foray into BFBS, as they wore full black uniforms for a Hallowe’en game back in 2016 (back then they were in the C-USA conference).
Of course, they introduced the new unis with a hype video, which is mercifully short, and contains a few quick cuts of “horror movie” symbolism, indicating the possibility that this new uniform will be worn close to Hallowe’en.
⌛️⌛️⌛️ pic.twitter.com/Zohchz0bfO
— UTSA Football 🏈 (@UTSAFTBL) August 19, 2024
Lets take a closer look at the new uniforms.
While the helmet appears pretty basic, it’s actually the “star” of this uniform set, and which we’ll get to momentarily.
The jerseys are black, with the only other color being white, which is used for the conference logo and makers mark. “RUNNERS” (short for Roadrunners) appears in UTSA’s bespoke font across the chest. Numbers are white, with a black/white outline. TV numbers are on the shoulder caps in the same pattern. There is also an additional logo — a triangular shaped patch known as the “210 Triangle of Toughness.” This is attributed to head coach Jeff Traylor in 2020 and it’s become the team’s mantra.
Here’s a closer look at the 210 Triangle on the jersey:
And an even closer look at the logo itself, with all the words/expressions.
Unfortunately no full images of the back of the jersey were provided, but the Roadrunner bird head logo will appear on the neck. One can assume the rear numbers will be in the same style as those on the front and the sleeve caps. Pants are solid black with no stripes.
As noted above, the helmet is probably the most important piece of the uniform. Here’s a look (click to enlarge for much greater detail).
The helmet itself is white, with a single black stripe running from front to rear, and uses a black cage. “UTSA” appears on the front bumper. The logo on the sides, rather than using the traditional bird head logo (or the prior UTSA/Texas logo), for the first time ever uses the full-body roadrunner on the helmet. (If you’re interested, you can check out UTSA’s helmet history here).
In addition to the first-ever full runner logo, the rear of the helmet also features the 210 triangle, and the neck bumper contains the words “SAN ANTONIO” with the skyline of downtown San Antonio at the bottom rear of the helmet.
Interestingly, the colors (or rather, lack thereof) of the new uniform are black and white, which just so happen to be the colors of the only local pro team, the San Antonio Spurs. Whether this is deliberate or coincidental was not mentioned by UTSA.
And as mentioned above, the team has not indicated when they’ll wear this uniform. But if we take a look at their posted home schedule…
…we can see that the November 2 game (against Memphis) is listed with a “Lights Out” theme, so, in addition to being the home game closest to Hallowe’en, it would be the game most likely for this uniform to appear.
As you’re all aware, I’m not a fan of teams going BFBS, a trend which is apparently not going away anytime soon. I also reeeeeaaaaally don’t like it when teams wear a white helmet over a mono-dark uniform. So that’s two strikes against this. But, as I always say, this uniform wasn’t created with me in mind, and I’m sure the players and recruits (and fans) will enjoy it. I don’t mind the special extras (the Triangle, the skyline on the neck bumper), although placing the triangle above the wordmark and the conference patch and at a slight angle, doesn’t seem like the best possible placement.
Of course, I’m not sure where a better placement might be, but it seems to get lost where they’ve located it.
Even though it’s BFBS, I’m fine with this as a one-off, particularly if it’s worn close to Hallowe’en. So long as UTSA wears their orange and blue every other game, then they can have a bit of fun with this for one game.
Your thoughts?
Looks like Plano or Odessa Permian high school.
The worst BFBS is when a team’s color is navy blue.
Being an almost jurassic college football fan in age comparison to the current players I do not get this infatuation with minimalist black and white practice gear at all. Let them have their fun, it is certainly not mine.
Glad I have a nice HDTV to watch all these solid white and solid black uniforms on.
Wearing all black in sweltering Texas…real smart. I hope they get spanked.
UGLY
Good thing they play in an air-conditioned domed stadium.
They play in a dome
Certainly not defending the BFBS (although I do like the helmet logo) BUT they do play indoors at home so the stupid heat we are suffering won’t be an issue.
I guess the were Blinded by the Light….another Runner(s) in the Night
Black aside, the full bird logo and runners word mark are an improvement to those elements from the rest of their uniform set.
I do really like the full Runner logo. They should implement that full-time
BFBS is bad, BFBS and also not even including the teams’ actual colors as trim color on the uniforms is even worse.
I’m also confused about shoulder down mono. I do not like mono (aside from white when the teams standard helmet is already white), but at least understand why some people like full mono. I’ll never quite understand why you’d want your jersey and pants to be black, and then the helmet white. It looks completely out of place.
At 42 years old, the way things have been rolling out lately, I feel like I need to take a page out of Paul’s book and step away from following uni news for a while.
You and me both. Done with BFBS, WFWS, biker shorts in football. Tights instead of socks in football. Pajama pants in baseball. Random colored shoes/cleats across all sports. The list goes on and on. May be time to step away. Probably too old for this stuff anyway.
Are the Cross Country and Track teams getting the same uniforms?
BFBS nonsense aside, I really like the full RR logo and agree with others that it should be used full time. Severed bird head logos are dumb.
This is a college version of an expansion team. It’s hard to get wound up about any of UTSA’s traditions, because there aren’t any. A big MEH. Little brother trying on big brother’s clothes.
groundhog day
Sure glad they pointed out the desire to be “physical” on defense. I guess that’s not needed on offense. Seems like, you know, since it’s contact football, it would all require “physicality”. “That team is so physical” is such a stupid use of that word (not to mention the cringeworthy over use of “physicality”).
Anyway, I don’t really get the black unis when their colors are primarily navy, but whatevs. I really like the helmet roadrunner logo.
God, those are ugly and uninspired.
Looks like Odessa Permian to me.
These scream Cincinnati Bearcats, from the colors to the font. This is a total no all the way around. Never should have gotten off the drawing board.
Friz Quadrata is the Comic Sans of college football.