The SMU Mustangs are trying to make a uni-splash now that they’ve joined the ACC, one of the Power 4 Conferences in college football. After opening the season with an “Icy White” uniform in “Week 0” at Nevada, the team has unveiled a new red jersey, which they will debut for their Friday night showdown against the BYU Cougars.
Naturally the new red jersey was announced via a hype video.
Red threads get the seal of approval ✅#PonyUpDallas pic.twitter.com/9hrr5PUjRn
— SMU Football (@SMUFB) September 2, 2024
The jersey is in classic SMU red, and features a royal/white/royal stripe on the sleeve caps — that striping pattern mimics the royal/white/royal stripe found on their white helmet and pants. Across the chest in what looks like a Copperplate font are the initials “SMU” in white. Numbers are a white block font, with a fairly thick blue outline.
For the red jersey debut, the team is pairing the shirt with a white helmet, this time having the classic pony logo (in red with blue outline) on both sides of the helmet. The cage is red. Pants are white with a blue/white/blue stripe pattern down the sides.
Here’s a closer look at the jersey and helmet.
It’s a little difficult to see in the photos above, but the jersey sleeve cap ends actually have a mini white stripe at the hem:
The back of the jersey has nameplates (hopefully not color contrasting as seen below) in a white block font. Rear numbers are absolutely ginormous.
And here’s one last look at the full uniform from the side:
Although this is a new jersey for SMU, they have worn red shirts for a good chunk of their history. In 2017, they had a similar jersey, although that had a different striping pattern and TV numbers on the shoulders; SMU was also in a different font face. Another recent red jersey, worn in 2014-16, was also of a similar design, but with no stripes and TV numbers on the sleeve caps. In 2013, the Mustangs wore a red jersey with oddly placed Northwestern striping on the shoulders. They’ve also worn red jerseys in varying designs throughout their history.
So the newly unveiled red jersey is another in a long line of red jerseys for the school. I rather like this new design (and surprisingly I like the wordmark), but it would have been nice if these had TV numbers.
Your thoughts?
It’s kind of odd that Dallas has the Rangers and SMU both of whom cannot decide if they are red teams or blue teams…
Have you seen the Texas flag?
I find it odd that so many of these CF posts simply refer to the school in question by its initials and nothing else. I don’t expect the full name to be written out every time, but it would be nice to see it at least once so that I don’t have to go elsewhere to find out what team is being discussed.
Sorry Charlie.
I did identify SMU as “Southern Methodist University” in the linked article I wrote. Since that was only a short time ago, I didn’t think it was absolutely necessary in this one. But fair point, and I should have done so.
I think SMU is one of a handful of college teams where the initials are accepted for reporting on them. UCLA, UNLV, TCU, LSU, and a few others are actually proper. There was an article on this some time back, can’t seem to find it.
The question becomes if UW/Phil/Jimmer want to follow AP style. In other words, on first reference, do they want to spell out the name of the school, then go with initials.
For what it’s worth, not even that style is obeyed by its writers and editors with consistency. But for what it’s also worth, I agree with Charlie. Call it “Southern Methodist” on first reference, then “SMU” down the line. The question is how exactly to enforce it. I mean, does anyone ever use “Louisiana State” for LSU, “Pennsylvania State” for Penn State or “California-Los Angeles” for UCLA, etc.?
It’s an interesting topic — that there are a few schools that are only rarely referred to by their full names. SMU is on the cusp for me — “Southern Methodist” does not sound as out of place as “Louisiana State” or “Texas Christian” does, but “SMU” still feels like the primary way of referring to them. I know style guides address this, but I don’t know where they stand on SMU.
Grain of salt perhaps, but Texas Christian sounds more out of place to me than Southern Methodist, but both sound far more normal that Louisiana State. Perhaps it’s a syllable count thing. Penn State and SMU are 5, TCU is 4, and LSU is a whopping 6. Although Oklahoma State and Arizona State are both 5, so maybe 5 is a gray area.
Really interesting, and could EASILY be the subject of a much longer thinkpiece!
An interesting sidenote on LSU – if you watch the film of the 1968 Sugar Bowl, in which LSU played Wyoming, you’ll see that the end zones read “Wyoming” and “Louisiana” – not LSU, not Louisiana State, just Louisiana. Not unlike Ohio State at the Rose Bowl, where for years the end zone read “Ohio”.
Need red socks.
Pretty sure SMU’s mono white uniform is just their standard white jersey uniform they have been wearing for as long as I can remember. No need to sully it with the stupid buzz words of the WFWS trend.
“No need to sully it with the stupid buzz words of the WFWS trend.”
The team did that, not me. They released photos and even did a hype video for it.
That number font looks great, the right size and perfect shape. I wish Arizona would go back to this font like they had three years ago. Their numbers now are too thin and small with a font that is not as good as this one.
the undershirt hanging out looks like a big stupid diaper. Great uniform underneath that I’m sure.
The more I see the undershirts, the more I see this as the “Ezekiel Elliot” look. The NFL and NCAA banned players from wearing jerseys with their mid-riff showing (let’s not talk about the mid 80’s/90’s college uniforms). So, this may have been the start of the look. Definitely not a fan as I don’t understand the skin tight jersey only to let a baggy undershirt to hang out.
Think they look great! The helmet/shoulder/and pants stripes line up. This is a great looking set!
Except for the helmet stripes being a little too narrow, this is a perfect looking uniform.
SMU has had a long and overall great uniform and helmet history, albeit with few exceptions, such as the 1973-75 “Dave Smith” period in which they wore silver helmets and gray pants with no mustang on the side. If you visit my SWC Helmet History website (link), you’ll see that SMU has made the pony (mustang) on the sides of the helmet smaller over the years. IMHO, their best “red” look was the first two years of Coach Ron Meyer, from 1976-77, in which they were predominately red with blue striping. In fact, Meyer ushered in the white helmet look that the team, except for the Phil Bennett years, has worn ever since (not counting the many one-offs, chromes, “Big D” special, etc. looks). In the Phil Bennett years, I worked with the then equipment manager on uniform designs, and at the last minute, Bennett changed his mind and went with navy blue shells (ugh!). My design featured a red helmet, red mask, white pony outlined in royal blue, with red jerseys.
That’s a nice looking uniform which would fit in any era.