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Sunday Morning Uni Watch 2024: Week Six

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Good morning, everyone, and look out! The Redhawks and Rockets are at the 25, the 20, they’re on their way to the Top Five! Wait… there’s a flag on the play. “Personal foul, low-contrast helmet logos, on both teams. Offsetting penalties, we’ll replay the down.” Tough luck, Miami and Toledo. Sometimes it’s the little details that can keep an otherwise good-looking matchup from Top Five glory. So who made it all the way with the officials keeping their flags in their pockets? We’ll find out later. First, let’s get this SMUW party started with the one, the only… Terry Duroncelet.

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Every October, I share this image, but why not accompany it with some music?

Welcome to October, and Week 6! As has been the case over the last few years, this is the month — and ONLY this month — that teams can wear their Saturday Worst. Appropriate for the season of dress, right? Unfortunately, a certain SEC squad with a solid uniform decided to apply ‘Saturday Worst’ to their gameplay, and I’m TOTALLY not blowing a gasket over it as I type this. At any rate, grab your heinous chalk that’s cosplaying as candy, put on your favorite Dark LoFi playlist, and let’s dive right in, shall we?
From Thursday, October 3rd
• Troy/Texas State: Right from the jump, Troy understood the assignment. I quite like the crimson facemasks in relation to the black shells.
• UTEP/Sam Houston: Couple of orange boys with new decals in this game. From the Bearkats’ side: a radial-arched Brush script decal that I somehow keep missing. And for El Paso: ‘El Cucho’ decals, which I actually quite like. They sort of remind me of where I grew up in SoCal.
From Friday, October 4th
• Kennesaw State/Jax State: Just think, only like, 3 or 4 years ago, these two teams were still playing in the FCS. Time is a funny thing. Jax State wore some pretty rad helmets in this game (closer look).
• TCU/Houston: TCU understood the assignment, and dressed up as a football team from 2013. It’s astounding that chrome helmets (which I know there were many from the first 5 weeks of this season that I didn’t cover) are still popular after almost a decade-and-a-half of service (closer look, BTW).
From Saturday, October 5th
• Ohio State/Iowa: Normally I would grill THE for the all-grey togs, but ’tis the season! Nice Putty Patrol costumes.
• Arkansas/Tennessee: Rare (and nice) white-over-orange look for Tennessee.
• Louisville/SMU: Ali gold-trimmed uniforms for Louisville. You can learn more about them here.
• Georgia/Auburn: Rare white facemasks for Auburn. They’re okay, but only once a year or so, and ONLY with the white uniforms.
• Iowa State/Baylor: Don’t let the white uniforms fool you: that top billing is correct. Iowa State is the home team here, and broke out the French mime unis (sans red ascot) in Ames against Baylor (closer look at the helmets).
• Boise State/Utah State: a decent-looking game between these 2 Mountain West squads, with Boise State wearing some classic decals (closer look).
• Air Force/Navy: Air Force wore their 2024 Air Power Legacy Series uniforms against the Midshipmen, which you can learn more about here.
• Tulsa/Army: FreedomEagle decals for the Golden Hurricane (closer look).
• Temple/UConn: Cancer ribbon decals for UConn (better look here).
• Charlotte/East Carolina: Color-vs-color game between these two.
• Nebraska/Rutgers: Yesterday’s unis were a polar opposite of what Rutgers wore last week.
• Coastal Carolina/Old Dominion: White at home for the Chanticleers.
• Arizona/Texas Tech: Arizona wore these decals in their game against Texas Tech. Generally, I dislike any display of the flag as part of the uniform, even during the month of October. That being said, these were actually surprisingly well-done.
Side-note: Andy Ussery sends this in: “I have noticed this year that very often the college away team QB had tape over the earhole. I suppose this is to shut out the noise and hear the radio better.”

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Thanks, Terry!
 
  
 

Canadian University Uni Watch

Returning for 2024 is Wade Heidt, who’s wearing a jersey created by the one and only Wafflebored (who took the photo as well). Now, let’s enjoy Wade’s look at the three-down, 110-yard game from up north.

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Oh, you know what time it is. Time for some university football uniform watching Canadian rules style! It’s time for the CUUW!

You know the CUUW won’t give up the search to see what the schools are wearing as the U Sports football season progresses. Choosing so carefully to make sure we see games with notable uniform changes and details worthy to review. We also make sure all schools are featured throughout the season.

I love the grassroots feel of our Canadian university game. Rarely do schools have to worry about needing to raise their expensive overhead stadium scoreboards like in the pros. I mention this because BC Place in Vancouver raised their scoreboard four feet before Friday’s game. BC Lions punter (and UCLA grad) Stefan Flintoft has been making it a habit this season of hitting the scoreboard.

Let us travel east to west to see some games as the CUUW is known to do.

* In the Quebec conference (RSEQ), the Concordia Stingers wore maroon over white at home in Montreal. The Stingers have a number of great combos to wear with their multiple jerseys and pants in their school colours. This combo is a winner. The visiting Sherbrooke Vert & Or wore their green/white/green combo. Sherbrooke switching to matte helmets this weekend compared to the shiny helmets last weekend.

To the east we travel as we look at a few games in the Ontario conference (OUA) this weekend.

*Another weekend in U Sports football, another weekend with more than one game with a team wearing yellow as the light road uniform. This game was in Toronto. The York Lions wore red over red at home. You may notice something different for York. They added striping to their helmets last weekend. They had started the season with plain white helmets. Maybe they are upgrading their look to celebrate actually winning a game earlier this year? The visiting Waterloo Warriors went with a yellow over yellow combination. Things are looking up for the York Lions. They now have won two games this year! York hasn’t done that for awhile and the season isn’t over yet.

*In Hamilton, the McMaster Marauders went maroon over maroon. Pretty standard look for McMaster at home these days. The visiting Western Mustangs wore white over purple. Once again this season, two of the top powerhouse teams in Ontario wear purple.

*We will always wonder what will be the next combo for the Guelph Gryphons at home. This weekend it was monoblack from head-to-toe for Guelph. I like it when the Gryphons are more colourful. The visiting Windsor Lancers wore white over navy. Ever since the Lancers switched to the navy helmets with their logo on the top, their look has a similar vibe to the Michigan Wolverines uniform. Wasn’t that many seasons ago that Windsor regularly wore yellow helmets with their logo on the side.

*We will leave Ontario and move to the Canada West conference for a game. Green is the colour in Saskatchewan. In Saskatoon, we got the first look at this year’s new Saskatchewan Huskies uniform in green over green. The visiting Manitoba Bisons wore white over brown. Manitoba no longer undefeated. The way it is playing out, these schools are really building a mystery about who will walk out of the west. (JV: Nice Sarah McLachlan reference…and that Bisons combo is as lovely as her voice)

That’s it for this week! The schools are working and holding on in the battle towards the Vanier Cup.

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Thanks, Wade!

 

 

 

2024 Uni Tracking

Uni Watch will again track the combinations worn by the Power Four college football conferences. Long-time trackers Rex Henry (tracking the ACC), and Dennis Bolt (now tracking the Big Teen) are returning, as is Zach Wooldridge (tracking the SEC). This year Derek Buchheit will be tracking the Big “XII” for us.

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We begin with Rex and the ACC:

(click here to enlarge)

More Here.
Follow Rex on Twitter here.

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Next is Dennis with the B1G:

(click here to enlarge)

Dennis not only runs the Big-10 Uniform Tracker blog, but he also continues the Oregon Duck Tracker blog. For a look back at the Pac-12, you can check out the old Pac-12 Uniform Tracker blog. And he’s on Twitter/X at @BigDuckTracker

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Here’s Derek with the Big “XII”:

(click here to enlarge)

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And here’s Zach with the SEC:

(click here to enlarge)

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Thanks, guys!

 

 

 

The 5&1 List

Once again I’ll give you five really good matchups and the worst looking one of the week. Unlike most lists, it’s not an *exact* ranking. It’s the five matchups that caught my eye the most, then I rank those from 5 to 1. Agree or disagree, but either way let’s have some fun with it.

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It’s been a couple of years since I said something like this, but it bears repeating: after seeing Friday’s Michigan State/Oregon game, and yesterday’s Missouri/Texas A&M game, I was reminded of those parents who bought the cheapo version of electric football, and their kids who were too lazy to paint the generic players.

Yes, there was *some* effort put into the unis, enough to keep them out of the &1 spot. They can do better, though. Now, let’s see who did much better beginning with…

5. The “These Should Be Both Teams’ Away Unis” Matchup:

Iowa vs. Ohio State

Lighten the gray jersey and pants to match the helmet, and outline the numbers in white *and* black just like the striping, and you’ve got yourselves a new and improved road look, Buckeyes.

4. The “Generation Of Good Enough” Matchup: UCLA vs. Penn State

The Lions are back to their regular unis, and this is the Bruins’ best look in their current set.

3. The “Simple But Not Lazy” Matchup:

Boston College vs. Virginia

Lovin’ those 1989 fauxbacks from the Cavaliers!

2. The “Predictably Gorgeous” Matchup:

West Virginia vs. Oklahoma State

If Jason Bernard is reading this, your saying about the Cowboys (and their opponent) is very true today.

1. Simply The Best:

Auburn vs. Georgia

If any all-white uni is going to make the top spot, it’s got to be Auburn.

&1…East Carolina vs. Charlotte

Purple chrome and tiny TV numbers are less than ideal, but way better than a completely washed-out uniform.

 

 

 

That's It For Today

Normally Phil is the one who ends a post with a sunset photo, but today it’s my turn. Yesterday the family and I went up to Mentor Headlands Beach, “on the shores of beautiful Lake Erie,” as they said on the Houlihan & Big Chuck or Big Chuck & Lil’ John shows. Here’s a photo from earlier in the day first:

Every time I see that lighthouse, Billy Joel’s “This Is The Time” plays in my head. I went up there one Winter, and since then the line “And so we embrace again behind the dunes, This beach is so cold on Winter afternoons” makes me think of this beach. Now, here is the sunset:

I really need a real camera, because my phone doesn’t do justice to what was a beautiful evening. Hopefully, you’ll have a beautiful Sunday. Take care, everyone, and I’ll see you next weekend.

 

 

 

Comments (20)

    Am I the only one who dislikes the gold mask from ucla that mask should be grey or silver whatever color they had before

    Rex, I assume you already have been made aware of this, but the UVa ACC tracker this week is incorrect. See #3, the UVa helmet is logoless due to the fauxbacks to 1989. Just something to address for the triviality of it.

    Great job crew!

    Thanks Wade for the Hilarious video of each ref’s call when BC punter hitting the scoreboard three times.

    I love Jimmer, but am not sure of his motivation on putting OSU in the 5 spot? A chance to comment on how this Uni could be good? It’s like saying East Carolina and Charlotte could be a great looking game if ECU dropped to chrome helmets and Charlotte used a decent shade of gold with green numbers, stripes and green helmet logo.

    I love orange and blue as Colorado born and UVA alum, appreciating their #3 ranking. But, I have never liked Boise’s gimmicky looks, but I thought their uni and the contrast with Utah State was pretty good- a top 10 perhaps…

    I liked OSU’s as it was. My tweaks were to make them even better and worthy of replacing the current road uni.

    And Boise was in my top seven. It pained me to leave them off when they finally wore some orange.

    I was at the game in person the first time the scoreboard was hit by Flintoft. BC Lions hosting Winnipeg.

    Enjoyed showing up for the game and seeing the BC Lions in the black over grey combo rather than the usual monoblack primary home uniform.

    Agree on #1. Auburn has no option other than going solid white. It’s a great look and with Georgia’s red/gray combo, it was a classic looking SEC game.

    Even with points deducted for the Tigers opting for white facemasks…Auburn/Georgia was the best for sure.
    And as much as I love the Saskatchewan Huskies uniforms generally, going full-booger was a bad choice. They may have won the game…but the Manitoba Bisons won the day uni-wise.

    We saw the new combo from the Huskies. In addition, there was also the new first-time combo for the other Saskatchewan school with their new home uniforms. The Regina Rams had been wearing green over green predominantly, but went green over white on Saturday. The 2 Sask schools doing the opposite of each other in the same weekend.

    link

    Ghoulardi season… and midge season as well.
    As soon as the sun set at the beach, the midges rose to the sky in swarms that looked like mini tornadoes. Good thing they don’t bite!

    Not sure if anyone else said this, but the “tape” over the Earholes are actually 3D Printed to fit in the Earholes and block the noise

    Link: link

    Those Vandy all black unis looked pretty bad. Mainly it was the fact that the helmet has all that white, but jersey and pants have none at all. Made the helmet look like it was from a slightly different set.

    Even though Cal went mono, I thought Bears – Hurricanes was a nice looking game that might end up in the 5&1. Yellow pants would have made this one magnificent.

    Who signed off on that Charlotte uni? It’s a failure on every level.

    I’ve noticed the ear hole plugs as well. Definitely looks more fitted than tape, as noted in the comments above. Altmeyer has been using it for most of his games this year for the Illini.

    And is this the April Fools Top 5? Other than 2, I don’t like any of those and I usually agree with the top 5. :)

    I was giving all the Ole Miss fans Hell. When is Kiffin going to let Ole Miss look like Ole Miss??????? Those solid white pants need to go.

    Great photos “on the shores of beautiful Lake Erie” and of course the Houlihan & Big Chuck or Big Chuck & Lil’ John shows. Such great shows to watch on a Friday Night and their skits were the best. Great memories.

Comments are closed.