Good morning, all. Last night a couple of maroon and gold Sun Belt Conference teams unveiled new uniforms for the upcoming college football season. Also, what started out as an April Fool’s joke has turned into an alternate helmet for Utah State.
Let’s begin with our first maroon and gold school, the University of Louisiana-Monroe, who came up with this simple but effective black alternate uniform with a white helmet. The Warhawks are scheduled to wear this for their second game of the season against UAB on September 7th.
Well…mostly simple. There is a lot going on between the neck and the numbers, with the school logo, conference patch, maker’s mark and chest lettering. I would have preferred sleeve stripes instead of repeating the mouth design from the helmet, which is taken from the classic P-40 Warhawk fighter plane, but it still looks nice. The star logo from the plane is featured in school colors on the right hip, the back of the helmet, and inside the state of Louisiana design on the back nameplate of the jersey.
I’m loving those properly-sized highly-contrasting gold numbers, and the font they chose to use. It’s a step up from the blocky font they’ve been using lately.
I know a lot of you don’t like a white helmet on top of dark jerseys and pants. I do, so I’m glad to see this alt instead of head-to-toe black. Even without stripes, this is one of the better BFBS unis I’ve seen recently. And hopefully that number font can make it onto the regular unis as well.
The other maroon and gold team, which features a darker shade of both, is Texas State. They showed off their new white uni with a gold helmet.
Unlike ULM, the Bobcats didn’t share any photos, so I had to get screenshots of the dimly-lit hype video. The following are the only two decent looks I could get of the script Bobcats helmet.
The script seems really high on the helmet, which has maroon/white/maroon separated stripes. The jersey and pants, on the other hand, feature maroon/gold/maroon separated stripes.
Also featured on the jersey, above the conference logo, is a patch commemorating 125 years since the school’s founding…five years before they started playing football.
Kudos to Texas State for bucking the current trend and not going head-to-toe white here. I’m a sucker for script and stripes, so I’d call this a big upgrade over last year’s all-white uni with small thin numbers.
And then there’s Utah State, who must have gotten a lot of positive response from their April Fool’s prank. Their cow-themed helmet is going to be worn next week as the Aggies host Robert Morris.
‘ !
Established as the Agricultural College of Utah, we are proud to celebrate the agriculture history of Utah State University and Cache Valley as we take the field on August 31.
MORE INFO ➡️ https://t.co/BqI1dEERtW pic.twitter.com/eGLxcDSMzP
— USU Football (@USUFootball) August 23, 2024
The Salt Lake Tribune says “Cache County is home to more than 1,300 farms and is one of the top 200 counties in the nation for ‘market value sold of milk from cows,’ according to USU.” I bet none of the cows on those farms have blue spots, though. Or maybe some of them do, and that’s where Luke Skywalker got his blue milk…
This is one of those times where I’m going to use Phil’s line and say I’ll have to see what that looks like on the field before I can comment.
texas state logo could use a touch up as it looks like a generic default logo. congrats Jimmy to you and your nephew!
Thank you for reading the piece carson n.
Loved hearing about Conner and Jimmy! Personal stories add personality to the site.
My Mother was at my father’s freshman game at Maryland when he played against the great Roger Staubach, that was about sixty-five years ago, wow, a long time.
White helmets work only if there is a white pant or a white top or both. The ONLY exception are the Chargers
This is the truth!
Way back when, white helmets over non-white uniforms totally worked:
link
link
link
And begrudgingly, even these (though not a fan of those orange pants):
link
The orange pants of the Sun were an acquired taste, I think white pants would have looked better. But out of all the teams the Bell played at JFK stadium in 1974, the Sun was the only team I ever heard players talking about their uniforms after the game. They really made a statement.
Those had contrast though, although decreasingly so in your examples. When it’s just white>mono below helmet it seems more unbalanced. The contrast provides the balance.
Visually the white helmets used to look better because the whites of the socks went pretty far up the leg, creating a balance with the white helmets.
Good examples in those links!
Man, that Keiser QB is straight outta the Greg Oden school of looking like a grown-ass 50-year old man at 20 (or whatev).
I have to admit I was getting some Charlie Conerly vibes there.
link
Well, he is done playing and now coaching there!
That Monroe uniform is atrocious
Thank you…
Great story about Keiser University and Justin Wake. Now all the kid has to do is sucker punch Roger Staubach and his Clint Longley connection will be cemented forever.
Hey, way to connect the dots! When I told those guys about Clint Longley, they had no idea who I was talking about? It’s tough talking football history with 22-year-olds, I am used to Uni Watch where everyone knows the players.
I can’t decide if that USU helmet is the greatest or worst helmet of all time.
Biased Utah State fan here. I think that helmet is amazing!
Some may say the Utah State helmet looks udderly ridiculous!
Nice hardware right there – and congrats to Keiser and Connor!
Man, if only the Tennessee Titans could look as good (though when they throw it back to their time as the Oilers, they come close to topping the uni-charts!)
Thanks Chris H, I just hope he can hang on to that ring. Our house was robbed in 1977, one of the things stolen was my father’s Pottstown Firebirds Championship ring.
hello from canada
i dont remember uniwatch having this many new college uniform reveal posts for days on end in pervious years. are more teams updating their looks this year?
as someone who couldnt care less about college football i look forward to other topics once that season starts
im not trying to offend. it’s just not my thing
cheers
No offense taken, but Phil and I are pretty into college football, so it’s going to be a long five months for you.
We will have other stuff, though.
I’m not sure there are any *more* reveals, but I’m (as is Jim) covering them more than Paul did. In Paul’s defense, New Yorkers aren’t generally into college sports (we have 9 pro teams and no *big* college programs anywhere near us), so they weren’t on his radar. When I started doing weekends way back in 2008, I had very little knowledge of just how big and important college sports are elsewhere in the country, so I quickly got myself up to speed, and I’ve been into the college uni game for 16+ years now (mostly thanks to Uni Watch!).
I try to cover almost any new uni unveiling or uni news, whereas Paul probably wouldn’t have covered anything but major college programs (Notre Dame, UM, THE, etc.), so that’s why you get uni news for McNeese and ULM and other non-P-4 schools.
With the season starting, there probably won’t be as much uni news for college football (although there will *always* be college football uni news). OTOH, I’m not nearly as into college hoops or puck, so you probably won’t get nearly as much uni coverage there.
And neither Paul nor I are “soccer guys” so I do my best to recruit soccer fans (fortunately, both Jamie and Anthony are big into it, so they end up handling a LOT of the soccer news).
Sorry, other than Minor League Baseball uniforms, I can’t think of anything better than College Football. Just the absolute craziness of what they do(some STATE FUNDED) it baffles the mind.
Keep doing what yall do, it’s why I’m here, and keep coming back.
thanks for the reply
you guys do great work.
Here’s a nice blog report on a recent “Oldtime Baseball” game in Cambridge, MA–not one of those “Base Ball” games with bare hands and such, but an annual event celebrating baseball nostalgia and some vintage uniforms. A couple of retired Red Sox played, and Jeff Maier, who infamously caught a Derek Jeter fly ball from the stands and turned it into a home run, played in a Seattle Pilots uniform.
link
Uncle Jim-Jam, I’ve enjoyed every single one of your stories, thank you!
Gee thanks Pit Pat, I had a guy in college who used to call me Jimmy Jam, was it you? LOL!
In unrelated news, Alabama did not, today, announce a new icy white helmet, black jersey or alternate uniform.
That ULM Helmet might be one of the worst uniform related things I’ve ever seen. It’s absolutely bad.
Great family story and look at all those smiles. That is what sports are all about. Congratulations!
You always have a good word Ingmar! thank you from all of us! Connor thinks that is my best piece LOL! I said I think some people would prefer the Tim Rossovich story!