Good morning, everyone, and Happy December. Last night’s WYO/Wazzu matchup turned out to be a nice-looking color vs. color game…almost nice enough for the Top Five. It wasn’t Wyoming’s white pants that had this game in the Next Five, though. It was Washington State’s pants. I don’t mind stripeless pants when they go mono-anthracite, but I kind of mind when they go mono-anything else. Elsewhere, there were two teams who iced themselves completely out of Top Five contention by succumbing to WFWS below the belt. To find out who I’m talking about, first let’s travel down the Sunday Morning Uni Watch trail, along with our tour guide Terry Duroncelet, Jr. Take it away!
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Hello, all. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, unless you’re a Bears fan, in which case, my condolences for that fustercluck of time management that happened at the end there. Now then… RIVALRY WEEK. A week full of high stakes, high tradition, and high tensions of the not-lewd variety. Seriously, there seemed to be more fights and jackassery this week than a group of lifetime friends playing Mario Kart. Let’s see what we’re working with on this last week of the regular season.
From Friday, November 29th
• Georgia/Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets almost had a 3rd giant-killer case on their hands for this season, but 8 OTs is hell on anyone. It was just a touch more hellish for Georgia Tech. I don’t know how to feel about the gold decals on the gold lids (the same ones they wore in last week’s tilt). On the one hand, the visibility is a bit limited, but on the other hand, I kinda like the “reverse sticker” effect (these are decals, but besides the point), like it was removed after years and years of existing on a roughed-up surface, and you’re left with a GT-shaped snapshot into the past of what this thing used to look like. Certainly a term for this has to exist, right?? Of course, the glamour shot from Blaise D’Sylva can’t be ignored.
• Colorado/Oklahoma State: Contrast Matters: “Staggering” Sportsmanship Edition. White/black/white vs black/white/black in this renewed Big XII matchup.
• Sam Houston/Liberty: Color-vs-color matchup! Liberty wore mono-light blue against Sam Houston (details on the helmet here).
• UCF/Utah: I was looking at the Knights’ helmets, and thought to myself: “Y’know, the Saints’ black alt helmets would look 1000 times better with gold cages”.
From Saturday, November 30th
• USC/Notre Dame: I know I half-praised (and half-scorned) Notre Dame’s white pants this season, but this is the rare case in which it makes sense. (JV: I’m still in full-scorn mode)
• Syracuse/Miami (FL): Contrast Matters: “Orange You Glad I Didn’t Turn This Into A Forced Meme?” Edition. This could’ve easily been an overload of Orange, but thankfully, this ended up being quite the looker (JV: On the other hand, I agree with you here). Also, brutal for the Canes: I can’t imagine how it must feel to get blicked as the #6 team in the country TWICE in one season.
• Arizona/Arizona State: The Wildcats aptly wore all-red, because this game had them seeing red, from the score, to… other reasons.
• Northwestern/Illinois: A small detail that I loved: Illinois wore block I decals with a touch of ivy, as they were playing at Wrigley Field against in-State rival Northwestern.
• FIU/MTSU: Light blue uniforms for Florida International.
• Cincinnati/TCU: Random chrome domes for the Horned Frogs (closer look). Gotta love a helmet that is perhaps the most unphotogenic lid I’ve ever seen. You can’t even tell that they’re chrome unless you look at close-ups!
• Washington State/Wyoming: Color-vs-color alert! Wyoming basically did what Western Michigan did that same day, and put their own spin on things.
• Michigan State/Rutgers: ‘S’ decals for the Spartans.
• Indiana/Purdue: Purdue had what were probably my favorite helmets from this past weekend (closer look).
• LSU/Oklahoma: Wow, LSU has really thrown out the purple jersey protocol, haven’t they?
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Thanks, Terry!
Welp cant do anything about that. A good 5&1
Thanks. It would have been even better with some more classic rivalries, but I had to play the hand I was dealt.
Wanted to include my new favorite rivalry, Iowa/Nebraska, as well. Carolina’s mono was way better than Iowa’s mono, so I had to relegate them to the Next Five.
Maryland was pretty committed to the black socks which looked pretty sharp. I wish Penn State had been as committed to blue socks and white long sleeves. Good looking game though, great result too.
I didn’t think Sparty in all green would look great, but in the snow against Rutgers red white red, looked really good.
It was a total abomination for Notre Dame to wear white pants in such a historic rivalry. And these all white from the neck down uniforms look like practice uniforms, with no stripes on either the pants or jersey.
The kids like it, apparently.
I think part of the reason the mono and yoga pants look is so popular is because these “ain’t your daddy’s uniforms.”
I know when I was 18 or 19, I liked a lot of stuff my old man didn’t like, simply because he didn’t. It was new and different. In hindsight, it wasn’t necessarily better (and in most cases it was worse). But I didn’t care about that, I just liked that it was different.
I have to think some of this sentiment is present with uniforms. The kinds may not necessarily love the look, but it’s different from what the previous generation wore. Their own “look” if you will (even if that look is the same as every other look). Fashion fads, it seems, work on the gridiron as well.
I just made a long post, but the “kids” who don’t like what previous generations wore have no allegiance to schools like the previous generations did. They can wear all-white at Michigan this year, all-white at PSU next year and heck, if they want maybe even wear all-white at OSU to finish off their career.
One of the best things about college football, and what makes it so unique, is the fact that it’s full of traditions. We all know the traditions and part of them are uniforms.
We’ve reached a point where coaches would rather empower athletes rather than keep rules. When I played college football, our team wore black cleats. Our coach would not let you on the field wearing white cleats….bottom line. Turn on Florida State today. They should be a white-cleat team. They have guys wearing black cleats with black spats, garnet cleats with garnet spats and white cleats with white spats. Then you have the socks/tights. Again, all over the board. There’s no uniformity to so many teams anymore.
PSU, Bama, USC…keep it up boys.
Well said!
Blue socks would have been better, for sure. I liked the contrast in the SoCal sunshine, though, much more than I thought I would.
Loved that the Tar Heels broke out the blues, that’s the best look for them.
Hated that my Huskies looked like crap against The Temu Raiders. Both in performance and uni-wise.
Iron Bowl looked perfect
My chefs kiss goes to Wyoming and (I’m throwing up in my mouth as I type this) WSU.
Loved seeing Arizona and ASU get chippy, and why can’t THE and Big Blue fight more?
Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone.
UNC’s current uniform set is as good as it gets, but their throwback uniforms are next level. They should make the switch permanent. They have 2 jerseys and 2 sets of pants to mix and match and every one of them look fantastic.
It’s an easy switch – they actually took the present bespoke schoolwide athletic number font and added a heavy shadow and stuck it on the Late Mack Brown Era I uniforms. I would also vote for this for my alma mater.
Thank you Wade for a year of north of the border excellence! As we like to say here in Washington State: Vaya con dios!
I appreciate your kind words, Rick! Not only is it a pleasure to monitor Canadian university football uniforms, it is the CUUW ‘s duty. Looking forward to next year’s uniform possibilities.
Hoping my alma mater Regina can build on that unexpected momentum in this year’s playoffs and be a Vanier Cup contender. Vanier Cup will be in Regina in 2025. The CUUW is considering taking the Vancouver to Regina flight next year to see the game in person.
2024 will be the season that we truly saw school wide traditions and uniforms die in favor of trends and what current players want to wear.
-Notre Dame ditching gold pants.
-LSU ignoring their purple uniform rules.
-Michigan wearing white cleats.
-Unitards, be it all-white/BFBS/mono-color.
These are just observations from this week. Every week we saw something different. Coaches want to “empower” players and let them decide what to wear. IMO, in the transfer era when guys are 1 and done at schools, letting them decide what they want to wear even if it goes against decades of tradition is silly.
Probably me just being 43 and doing my best get off my lawn impression, but losing things as simple as uniform traditions sucks.
I couldn’t agree more. It being “rivalry week”, I can let a lot of the mono-senselessness slide. That’s kind of what I consider to be the reason for wearing the uniform change-up. Perfect example is Clemson. They always wear their orange pants for “big games”. Now, the Notre Dame thing just didn’t set well with me. Such a classic uniform and they had to go and do the “plain white pants thing” again.
Staff, I’m quite disappointed that my SMU Mustangs weren’t mentioned. They wore their classic Mustang white helmet (red pony — best) with blue tops and white pants. And Cal looked sweet in the gold lids with the 80s Cal script on sides with white tops and striped white pants. This was a nice-looking game on a sun-splashed day in Dallas.
Had my eye on that game. Thought it would make it, too.
It was very easy to eliminate ninety percent of the matchups, but it was very hard to whittle the top ten down to the Top Five.
Some things don’t change. Coug’s Coug’d it at 8-1 losing its last 3 against New Mexico (who lost to Wyoming) Oregon State in the Pac 12 championship and Wyoming (2-9). I liked the Uni Matchup last night.
Unlike Vilk, I sort of liked the Oregon/ UW Uni Matchup. Liked it even better to see UW at 6-6.
Color v color clearly works. more games need it. Wazzu Wyoming was a beaut.
Not a huge fan of the mountain range motif on the sleevecaps of WYO. Starting to get played out, with the Broncos (NFL) and Buffs (NCAAFB) probably having claim to it, although Colorado went with normal sleeve striping this week.
UT at A&M was a good one. Great palette, classic looks for two teams looking like themselves, revival of an amazing rivalry… I just wish the Ags’ offense had come out of the locker room. #SawEmOff
Why do brides wear virgin white?
Most do not deserve that right.
What if Xmas didn’t come this year?
Who would cry the biggest tear?
The child, or the store?
Yada, yada, yada…
To defy the laws of tradition… is a crusade only of the brave.
-Les Claypool
Admittedly, was surprised to see the matchup in Chapel Hill in the five, especially given UW’s general dislike for mono (saw Jim’s comment … completely legit, but still). That’s probably NCSU’s best road look – a nice amount of red and, truthfully, the road white jersey breaks up any blood clot jokes.
As great as UNC looked, NC State and their red yoga pants should have dropped this one out of the top five in favor of SMU-Cal
I disliked the plain uniforms my father’s generation espoused. Now I criticize the apparel that the young generation celebrates. I am reaping what I have sown.
All eight SEC road teams wore white jersey/white pants I know several of these are traditional looks, but… man, am I looking forward to the day we stop seeing so many jerseys and pants matched.
I decided it would be interesting to see just how many mono looks (minus helmets/socks) there were this weekend for the Power Four conferences. Here’s a quick breakdown:
MONO:
SEC: 11/16
XII: 9/16
ACC: 10/18
B1G: 6/18
WHITE / WHITE:
SEC: 8/8
ACC: 6/10
XII: 4/8
B1G: 3/8
As an SEC fan, I hate it admit it… but, the B1G looked so much better this past weekend.
No wonder I picked so many B1G games this week… and I almost added Nebraska/Iowa at number five!
As always thank you Jim! A couple personal opinions, minnesota combination was perfect. msu block s decal is my favorite, and western michigan was so close to having an outstanding uniform if they made helment dark with traditional decal. hope everyone has a good week!
You too!
WMU looked good but EMU looked so bad I briefly had that game in &1 contention.
If this hasn’t been done already, I think it would be cool for someone at UW to do a 5&1 (or even a ranking of all 30 games) for every playoff game from the 4-team era. It could be a good way to mark the start of the new playoff.
If we’re end-of-season griping here, is anyone else tired of the loose undershirts and exposed knees? I know it’s not my job to say who should wear what, but it just looks sloppy.
On the other hand, the undershirts looking like skirts is a perfect for the linemen hoisting players in the air for “I’ve Had The Time of My Life” touchdown celebrations.
One other subtle aspect of the Illini helmets I really liked was the two stickers on the back of the helmet, made to look like the Cubs’ retired number flags, for Dick Butkus (50) and Red Grange (77), the only two Illini retired numbers, and two Illini greats that played at Wrigley for the Chicago Bears. Just a nice touch.
Purdue (and many others) would look so much better without that garish gash (I think it is a Vicis?) running across the top of the sides. I am all for safety but that helmet is ugly and their trademark gash disrupts every team’s designs.