Just Ducky — Bowl Roundup, Part Deux

By Phil Hecken, with Terry Duroncelet

While I was away for the past few days, in New Hampshire, chasing a story for my Independent Study project for this semester (hint: it deals with GOP candidates), I didn’t get to watch any TV, including all but about 5 minutes of the BCS Championship Game Monday night. I missed UW and you guys. Fortunately, the man who has, without fail, been bringing us NCAA Football roundups throughout the entire season, and who graced us with one of the most amazing roundups for the first half of the Bowls, my NCAA partner-in-uni-crime, Terry Duroncelet has been living and dying college ball for the past several weeks. So, without further ado, and making his final NCAA roundup for the season, is Terry. Enjoy:

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-TicketCity Bowl (held Monday, January 2nd, 2012); The Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions arrive to the game in the uniform that most people love, but some… well, let’s just say that you know who you are ;). The tried-and-true white helmets, blue jerseys, and white pants. The University of Houston Cougars showed up in their red helmets, white jerseys, and red pants. The first of six bowl games on the day.

-Outback Bowl (held Monday, January 2nd, 2012); The University of Georgia (in Athens) Bulldogs wore their classic red/red/silver look (cool belt), and the Michigan State University Spartans wore their somewhat standard road uniform (they have two different pairs of white pants), which isn’t all that bad, but those pants kinda suck. The start of overtime was pretty comical, because the ref looked sooo short compared to the two players!

-Capital One Bowl (held Monday, January 2nd, 2012); The University of South Carolina Gamecocks going mono-garnet for the game, and the University of Wisconsin (in Madison) Badgers Nebraska (in Lincoln) Cornhuskers in their standard road uniform. Kenny Bell had on a pair of striped socks to go with his… uhh… striped socks.

-Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl (held Monday, January 2nd, 2012); THE Ohio State University Buckeyes wearing their standard road uniforms of silver (yes, silver) helmets and pants with white jerseys in their last bowl game until the 2013 season (correct me if I’m wrong), and the the University of Florida Gators went with their standard home uniform of orange helmets, blue jerseys, and white pants. Good-looking game.

-AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic (held Friday, January 6th, 2012); The University of Arkansas Razorbacks arrive to the game in their dark red helmets and jerseys (including the blanco underarms), and white pants. The Kansas State University Wildcats wearing PAUL’S FAVORITE COLOR as trim, with their white jerseys, grey helmets and grey pants. I’ll be honest: I wasn’t all that thrilled with the pace of the game as I was in previous years. But JerryWorld’s ringleader was happy with the outcome.

-BBVA Compass Bowl (held Saturday, January 7th, 2012); The University of Pittsburgh Panthers in their gold helmets and pants with navy blue jerseys faced off against the Southern Methodist University Mustangs in their full-whites. Unfortunately, the uniforms weren’t the most notable thing about that game.

-GoDaddy.com Bowl (held Sunday, January 8th, 2012); The Northern Illinois University Huskies wearing full-black uniforms against the Arkansas State University Red Wolves wore black helmets, white jerseys, and red pants, which actually didn’t look too bad on ’em.

–The following BCS bowl games that I’m about to list are addressed in the way that I feel like they should be addressed as (bowl name first, sponsor second). The only one that won’t be listed differently is the Rose Bowl, because it’s already addressed in that way.–

-The Rose Bowl presented by Vizio (held Monday, January 2nd, 2012); The Pasadena Tournament of Roses, The Rose Bowl, The Granddaddy of Them All, whatever you want to call it, it’s always a gem to watch. Played in a beautiful stadium that I was blessed to even visit one year, let alone be able to march on that very field (that’s me on the bottom right). This year’s contest was between two teams that were in the previous two Rose Bowl games: the University of Oregon Ducks (Rose Bowl runner-ups in 2010), and the University of Wisconsin (in Madison) Badgers (Rose Bowl runner-ups in 2011). Both teams showed up to the prom in some fancy new attire. Sconnie came in with a new Adidas uniform that wasn’t anything too different from what they normally wear, “Battle Rose” design notwithstanding. I had to use the hi-def pictures here because the patterns were practically invisible on the field. Still looked pretty cool, although they should’ve broken out the red pants. More Wisconsin pics here. On the Oregon side, they wore a brand-new Nike Pro Combat uniform (I think this is the 4th installment of Nike PC. Sadly, the robo-duck wings weren’t included =/ ): a monochrome Thunder Green uniform with “mallard” green numbers outlined in Lightning Yellow in a brand-new font that kicks Bellotti Bold square in the nads. But the biggest story uni-wise were the helmets worn by Oregon. Hydro Graphics Inc. and Nike teamed up and worked on the design to appeal to 17 year-olds who love shiny objects use in TGoTA. They weren’t as blindingly reflective as I thought they were gonna be. The design was… O.K, but I still believe that a LiquidMetal green shell with yellow wings/O logo would’ve been SOOOO frickin’ cool. The graphics throughout the game showed Oregon’s freaky helmet. The player names were actually sewn directly onto the jersey on the new “Chain Maille Mesh” fabric. One more thing… the pants for this year’s Nike Pro Combat uniforms are slightly different. In the past, the stretch mesh wrapped around the back of the knees, but this year’s pants don’t do that, and game photos confirmed that. I mention this because it’ll be interesting to see what pant stripes will look like next season on NFL teams with pant stripes. But either way, the new AmPac Mach 4 suit should be a hit amongst NFL players who like Nikegon, as the Ducks won their first Rose Bowl in 95 years that day. More Oregon pics here.

-The Fiesta Bowl presented by Tostitos (held Monday, January 2nd, 2012); The last time the Oklahoma State University Cowboys played in the Fiesta Bowl was in 1974 (unless Wikipedia steered me wrong), when they defeated BYU 16-6. This year, they go up against the Stanford University Cardinal. They decided on the full-Vader look for this game, to invoke some manly badassery contrast well with the Cardinal’s classy all-whites. A good-looking game, in my opinion. Several Cowboys wore new grey sheriff patches on their collars with an orange “C” as captaincy designations. Not the first time that they’ve done this. I take it that they’re treated in the same fashion as Notre Dame’s NOBs, in which they only make appearances in bowl games? They are — in my opinion — the greatest captaincy designations I’ve ever seen in football (the Philadelphia Flyers [who played that same day] took the title for hockey with their keystone designations). Stanford had a memorial patch on their jerseys (and a matching decal on the back of the helmets) that read “CMc” in memory of Stanford assistant Chester McGlockton.

-The Sugar Bowl presented by Allstate (held Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012); The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (SPOILER ALERT: that was a mouthful, so they’ll accept “Virginia Tech”) Hokies look to erase at least some of the bitter taste from their mouths from last year’s Orange Bowl loss to Stanford as they faced off against the University of Michigan Wolverines, who return to their first BCS bowl game since the 2007 Rose Bowl, and look to get their fist major bowl game win since the 2000 Orange Bowl. VT kept it simple by going with maroon lids and tops with the all-white pants. I wish that they would use the white pants with the maroon/orange/maroon stripes, and those black crew socks suck, but still a good look. It was reported that Michigan would wear a new uniform for the game, which would be their 7th uni on the season (Michigan. Wearing seven different uniforms in one season? What the…). Here’s how they looked on the field. It’s O.K. Better than the tops that they normally wear, but I would’ve gone with their Under the Lights 2.0 tops from the Michigan State game (with the “Maize” pants, of course). Michigan would win in overtime, thus allowing them to take the main part of the trophy off to celebrate, which is good, because it shows off what might be THE coolest trophy base… EVER.

-The Orange Bowl presented by Discover (held Wednesday, January 4th, 2012); The West Virginia University Mountaineers enter their first ever Orange Bowl wearing their mono-whites with blue helmets. The Clemson University Tigers return to the Orange Bowl for the first time in 31 years, and marked the occasion by wearing a color that isn’t related to the name of the bowl game in any way whatsoever from head-to-toe. Sadly for them, the magic from 31 years ago just wasn’t there. I noticed something with the bowl game champion T-shirts. Look here. No, I’m not referring to the somewhat funny/somewhat lame joke on the front of the shirt. Look at Michigan’s shirts from the night before. Notice something? Two things weren’t on that Michigan shirt: 1) There’s nothing hot or sticky sweet on Denard Robinson’s shirt. 2) There’s no Nike logo on his shirt either, but there’s a swoosh on the WVU shirts, even though it looks like the shirts have the same exact design. You would think Adidas (who outfits Michigan) would put their logo on the Sugar Bowl shirts, but they didn’t. Weird. I checked Oregon’s “Rose To Power” shirts from the Rose Bowl to see is there was a swoosh there. Nope. Weird…er. But WAIT… If you do a Google search, you’ll see that those same Michigan shirts made for retail sell do have the swoosh. SUPER weird…er.

-The BCS National Championship Game presented by Allstate (held Monday, January 9th, 2012); All of the marbles — whether they be purple and gold, or crimson and white — are up for grabs in this game. A matchup that had me at a crossroads, with my Dad being an LSU fan and my Mom being an ‘Bama fan (both longtime fans, not bandwagoners), although I would’ve been happy with the outcome either way. By far, the best-looking matchup of the 2011-2012 postseason. The home-favorite top-ranked Louisiana State University Tigers in their classic golden-yellow helmets and pants with their white jerseys, the purple and gold shoulder stripes in your face. Standing in their way is the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, in their no-nonsense crimson jerseys, white pants, and crimson helmets adorned with the well-known helmet numbers for all to see. Speaking of the ‘Bama helmets, the Tide helmets used on College Gameday that night had ’13’ on it before the game (the number of all-time titles for Alabama before Monday night), but when all was said and done, the number changed to ’14’. Pretty cool. A great way to end a great season.

Before I go, I just want to say that it’s been an honor to provide the college uni rundown this season. When I woke up for the first weekend of college football a little over four months ago, I was so excited, and I remember blowing up the comments on Uni Watch that day with all of the uni-changes. I never would’ve thought that my life would change (for four months, at least) with just one email that Phil sent me that very day asking if I would like to report my findings, and I’m very glad that I said yes. Thank you to all who read the rundown every week. To any of my Facebook friends reading this, thank you for putting up with my constant links every Sunday. Now that the season’s officially over, I guess there’s just one thing left to say… Hope to see you guys next season.

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Thanks Terry! Wow, once again super job — let’s all give a standing “O” for Terry’s efforts all season long. I’m pretty sure you’ll be seeing everyone next season, buddy.

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MoVi’s Bowl 5 & 1…part the second

And now to complete our college bowl roundup, here’s everyone’s favorite critic, Jim Vilk with his final 5 & 1 of the year. This is the part of the post I wait up all night for where we see that pretty much anyone can be a uniform critic.

I have not even peeked at what is to follow, but we ALL know that the final game of the season is the runaway winner. The best uniform in all of College Football versus one of the Top 10…and neither of them was wearing a special costume just for the season ending show. Kudos to both the teams and Nike for showing a little restraint and taste. Let’s see if Jim feels the same way (and lets see if my Ducks, who did the one thing we had to see for Jim to actually put them in the “good” section — dump the Bellotti Bold — actually made it):

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For those keeping score, this final 5&1 covers the New Year’s Eve bowls to the BCS title game. And here we go…

Honorable Mentions to The Rose Bowl: Wisconsin/Oregon — Major points off for distracting the announcers, but no more Bellotti Bold!!

And to the “Hey, This Peach tastes like Chicken!” Bowl: Virginia/Auburn — The orange lids surprised me so much, it took me a while to realize this was a color vs. color matchup.

5. I’m still calling it the Birmingham Bowl: SMU/Pittsburgh — Not as good-looking as the ’83 Cotton Bowl, but good enough to make the list.

4. Orange Bowl: West Virginia/Clemson — I like the all-orange, but I can think of 70 reasons why we won’t see it again for a while.

3. Gator Bowl: Ohio State/Florida — That’s some nice striping there, fellas.

2. Sugar Bowl: Michigan/Virginia Tech — Both teams wore a lot of combos this year, and they wore them all well.

1. The BCS Championship: Alabama/LSU — That’s OK, Tigers…at least you and Temple are still the best-dressed teams in the land.

And the bad one: the Liberty Bowl: Cincinnati/Vanderbilt — I feel bad for the Bearcats – three times on the &1 and each time they were the better-looking team.

Wow, has it really been three seasons? Thanks again for another fun ride!

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And thank you Jim, for another outstanding season — we may “fight” on the boards (and even off), but I do respect the hell out of Jim for all he does to make the 5 & 1 such a “hit” every week (and even some in between) of the College Season. I have to say, I will never understand (despite him explaining himself over the years) how he picks some of the matchups he does, but the man works harder than most Zips. And that’s a fact. I hope we’ll see you back for year four next season! Cheers buddy.

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Uni Watch Ticker (compiled by Webmaster John Ekdahl): Here’s a screenshot from the pregame show for Monday’s National Championship Game. Notice the number “13” on Alabama’s helmet, representing their thirteen National Championships. Now check out the screenshot from the postgame (from Jared). … Hey, who’s up for some bacon? (George Nikas) … The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes unveiled their new home uniforms (Alan Poff). … Kenn Tomasch found some photos of Pat Palinkas in uniform, the female placekick-holder for Orlando’s minor-league football team in 1970. … Pittsburgh’s mayor pays off his bet by ‘Tebowing’ (Dane Drutis). … Those Taiwanese animators used the old NFL logo in their latest video (Matthew). … From Jeff Ash: “A longtime Packers season ticket shared this 1940 renewal letter with the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Those tickets cost $11 per season for the best seats. That’s $178 in today’s dollars. Enjoy!” … A Taxonomy of Baseball Eyebrows (Nick Phillips). … Northwestern men’s basketball team will wear at home January 14th vs. Michigan State, while the women will do so Jan. 16 at home vs. Illinois (Matthew Sampson). … The rugby team ‘Manly Warringah’ had their name spelled ‘Manly Warringan‘ on all their 2012 jerseys and jackets (Murray).

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That’s it for today — once again big standing “O” for Terry, Jim, and of course Johnny, for all he does for this board and for compiling the ticker (and who just started a new job this week, so the helping me out with the Ticker was above and beyond!). I’ll be back for one more weekday post tomorrow. Hope everyone who was at the Gathering with Paul in Clevo last evening had a great time (wish I could have been there). Have a great day Uni Watchers.

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“De gustibus nihil est disputandum.” — Conn Nugent