By Phil Hecken
We no sooner rid ourselves of the Month of Pinktober than we move into Camo-and-flag-desecration-vember. And who’s the most recent offender? That’s right, yesterday Army busted out the camo in their matchup with Air Force. And I loved it. If there is one NCAA football team who can legitimately lay claim to camo, it’s Army.
This is not the first time Army has done this. In fact, they did so almost exactly three years ago, against VMI, and that may have been the almost the only time I praised the use of camo on a football uniform. Back in 2010, against VMI, Army went full camo. I really thought that that was a good look.
Army also went with camo helmets and pants in 2008 versus the Naval Academy, which I also wrote about, and I enjoyed it then. That year, Army wore “Duty, Honor, Country” as their NOB. I really enjoyed that game (and especially Navy’s then-unique unis).
So, Army has now worn camo (to my knowledge) three times — once (yesterday) with camo/camo/black, in 2010 with full camo, and in 2008, with camo/black/camo. Against Air Force, VMI and Navy, respectively. And each time, I’ve praised it. Are there any more service academies or combos left for them now? Or will this be the end of the run?
Army is most definitely NOT the only team to wear camo print on football unis or helmets, they won’t be the last, (and as you’ll see below, they weren’t even the only team yesterday) to wear camo print.
But they should be.
And don’t get me started on the flag desecration decals and unis.
Here’s Terry Duroncelet with your…
Sunday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet
Hello, everyone! Hope you all had a good Nightmare Night. My area didn’t get to do much, as there was a tornado morning that put the kibosh on a lot of kids’ plans for trick-or-treating. Sad. But on the bright side, TWIX AND MUSKETEERS AND MILKY WAYS FOR DAAAAAAAYYYYYYS… but enough banter, lets get into the news from Week 10.
From Wednesday:
• Memphis wore black uniforms on Wednesday night. And the helmets? Someone apparently likes the Bengals.
From Spoopy Night Thursday:
• Well, if you’re gonna wear a costume, you might as well wear it on Halloween. That is the BFBS G.I. Joe look that Houston wore on Thursday night against South Florida.
• Troy also wore all-black that same night against Louisiana-Monroe (who looked to have been wearing those back-up jerseys from *I think* Week 2).
• But wait: yet another black uniform appears! Probably the best one out of the bunch, worn by North Texas against Rice (who decided to squeeze out the last drops of Pinktober).
From Friday:
• Oregon State may have been a day late to the festivities (as if they had a choice), but that didn’t stop them from wearing all-orange on Friday night against USC. And let me just say… WOW. That is a DEEP orange. Even as I’m watching this on my HD T.V., it almost looks red from afar. I really dig the addition of gold to the uniform. Definitely my personal favorite uniform out of a set that still has me confused.
From Saturday:
• Illinois wore blue helmets against Penn State.
• Rutgers wore helmets with the outline of New Jersey on them to mark the (unfortunate) anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. Not bad.
• UMass wore star-spangled helmets against Northern Illinois.
• Purdue wore a new black helmet against Ohio State, which included a really nice railroad track for a helmet stripe. Huge fan of these, and I would love for the Boilermakers to use this design for their gold helmets.
• No photos, but Eric Carson sends in this note: “In the on-going Iowa-Wisconsin game, the two QBs that have played for Iowa appear to have their TV numbers placed differently than the rest of the team. Rather than being ‘centered’ on the shoulders (certainly relative to their vestigal stripes) so the numbers face straight upward, the QBs have their TV numbers slid so far forward so they’re almost on their chests.”
• You know those alternate unis that were constantly hinted at for Michigan State during the week? Turns out it was just an addition of stripeless green pants. I dig this SO MUCH. Ironic that a solid-color look is the best look that the Spartans have put out with their current uniform (the striping on both of the white pants that are normally paired with the unis kinda suck). Hope they wear these on the road.
• Kansas State wore camouflage helmet decals against Iowa State. I saw that myself, but what I didn’t know was that this was for Fort Riley Day in Manhattan (KS), making this the first major helmet modification of any sort since 1989. Credit to Dale Alison for that tip.
• By now, some of you know how much I love Navy’s Pro Combat uniforms from last year. They surface in Uni Watch news again via Thomas Murphy (I’ll admit: Periphery was the first thing to come to mind when I read that name), who sends in this really awesome note: “I was at the Navy vs Notre Dame game today an the Billy Goat of Bavy came to where I was sitting. I noticed that he was still wearing his Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl patch and there alternate away jerseys from last year. Don’t you think it’s a bit weird they haven’t even taken off the patch yet?”
• Oklahoma State was lookin’ a little bit like Clemson on Saturday night.
• Florida Atlantic now has new red jerseys with “FAU” on the back after Carl Pelini’s resignation.
• Texas A&M wore ugly star-spangled helmets against UTEP. Of course, you can’t have ugly helmets without matching field markings.
• … really, NC State? There’s a line about imitation and flattery ‘n’ all of that, but still… I will say that they had a nifty helmet in that game. Here’s a closer look.
• Fresno State wore their black uniforms against Nevada.
• You know, as time goes on, Mizzou’s uniforms grow on me. This was a looker of a game, BTW. You know those bricks that are awarded for each Tennessee win that I mentioned last week? Here’s a good shot of that.
• From Andrew B.: “Not sure if this has been done before, or is a first. Yale is one of many schools using the Oregon play cards for calling offensive plays, but they’ve taken things one step further by adding self-advertisement to the back of the cards, to generate Instagram and Twitter followers. PS – Also saw this at the game. Is this a varsity sport? Only in the Ivy League…”
That does it fo– *sigh* Hang on, let me turn off italics… That’s better. That does it for Week 10. See you next week.
Thanks TJ!
Catherine Ryan’s
Five … and One
Happy Sunday, UniWatchers! It was a pretty tame weekend uni-wise for college football so I took the time to watch a few non-marquee games. I hope you will all tolerate a couple new schools making the countdown this week!
Honorable Mention: Western Kentucky vs. Georgia State: I don’t like to reward chrome helmets but this game was pretty nice.
5. Notre Dame vs. Navy: Battle of the gold(ish) helmets! I liked that this game featured basically two different combinations of the same two colors.
4. Minnesota vs. Indiana: I loved the contrast in this game. The Gophers looked great in their golden pants and brown matte helmets. Indiana looked clean and sharp in the red and white.
3. Middle Tennessee State vs. UAB: This is somewhat of an unorthodox pick but I loved Middle Tennessee in this game and I thought UAB looked great in the all-greens.
2. Michigan vs. Michigan State: A marquee match-up that didn’t disappoint.
1. San Jose State vs. UNLV: Ok, Ok. I may get hate for this but I thought this game was absolutely stunning. Gorgeous weather and bright colors means a visually pleasing game! Loved it!
+1 NIU vs. UMass: This game made the +1 solely because of UMass’ hideous uniforms.
Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday!
Alex Rocklein’s (Final) MLB Playoff Uniform Tracker
Well, the Red Sox are your 2013 World Series Champions, and no matter what your feelings about that, I think we can all most of us can agree the NLCS and ALCS, as well as the World Series itself, were some of the best uni matchups we’ve seen in quite some time. The LDS games? Meh, not so much.
There’s not much more to say, so I’ll turn it over to Alex who has some parting words. Huge thanks from me (and all of UW) to Alex for doing this yet another year. Great job. OK, here’s Alex:
“Honestly it was a pretty nice looking postseason. A lot of alternates early but it could have been worse. Game 1 between the Sox/Rays was easily the worst but it got better as October went deeper.”
Thanks Alex!
Uni Watch News Ticker: We begin today with Warren Junium, who sends “not a uniform, but a cool picture” which he notes he did not take. … Here’s one of the Army All-American jerseys. Pictured is Matt Elam, who will be playing in the game (from Josh Claywell). … Pacific-Rim Correspondent Jeremy Brahm checks in with this photo of the Raukten Golden Eagles infield. “Check out the dirt cutouts with the painted turf infield, just looks weird,” says Jeremy. … Sadly, but perhaps not shockingly, “Walmart to source U.S. footwear in reshoring push” (thanks to TommytheCPA). … Lots going on here in this photo sent in by Frank Mercogliano. “New Mexico women’s soccer wore turquoise (the former school color) for senior day, while San Diego State had red numbers on a red jersey, which is against rule here. We usually announce who takes a shot, or who scores, but because we had no clue in the press box, we just announced ‘Shot taken by San Diego State.’ Quite the cluster—“. … SDSU has tweaked their basketball jerseys for 2013, says Jared Bremseth. Here’s the home whites, and the road blacks (these are the replicas sold at Jared’s store). … 11 on-deck circles were included in an auction of Astrodome memorabilia at Reliant Park on Saturday. Two of them were used by the Giants in slightly different font eras (big thanks to Jacob Lipp). … Reader Joe Giordano asks, “Is Andrew Bynum wearing three pairs of socks? Or is that one sock with three NBA logos on it?” … A submitter who goes by the initials “WK” writes, “I can’t wear my name because…coach got caught with the Peruvian marching powder?” … In each of the Red Sox three titles, the two pennant look has appeared in the MLB World Series logo. This is the only three times MLB has gone with that two pennant look: 2004, 2007, 2013 (from Jake Duhaime). … Bit of sad news: Norwood T. Smith, who created original Sabres logo, has passed away. … The Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers will wear blue uniforms for all 10 ‘True Blue’ Saturday games, beginning with last night. … Couple jersey retirements Saturday, as the Canucks retired Pavel Bure’s and the Syracuse Orangemen retired Donovan McNabb’s. … “Drawings of a Paynter,” writes John Whiting. “Ned would have loved this.” … “Pinktober respects no calendar,” notes Sean Robbins, who was at the Stockton, CA Thunder game. “ECHL. Still wearing pink. On pink ice.” … The Heungkuk Pink Spiders have skirt uniforms this season. More photos here (thanks to Dan Kurtz).
And that’s it for this Sunday Morning Uni Watch. If you didn’t already, Don’t Forget To Turn Your Clocks Back An Hour (sorry for shouting). I hate this time of year, even more so when it’s already dark “early” and now it’s even worse. Screw the extra hour of sleep — I want Daylight Saving Time year round.
Thanks to Terry and Catherine, of course, and to all those who were at the Uni Watch Gathering yesterday in Brooklyn — great to see most of you (again) and to meet the new folks. Paul will have a roundup and photos later this week, so stay tuned.
Have a great Sunday and a good week and I’ll catch you next Saturday.
Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.
Peace.
“I’ll take the heat for this as well but I still say Navy still does ND better than ND does ND. Navy uses the proper shades of gold that matches up better…They look much better than ND. Even the Navy dress up costumes are usually done better.”
–“Bromotrifluoromethane”
Does anyone know of a good way to read UniWatch on iPhone?
Switch to the desktop version.
I’m a bit of a camo scold, but Phil is right. Army in camo is awesome. Navy and Air Force could certainly do camo as well, but in both cases the services and academies have more relevant traditions that make camo a second-best choice.
The lesson for other athletes: If you want to wear camo uniforms on the football field, just do as Army’s players did, and enlist in the armed forces first.
Not to pick nits, but none of those players enlisted. They’re going to be officers. I agree with your overall point though!
However, if they drop out, to the ranks they go. Still agree that only the service academies should be wearing any sort of camo.
I paused over the word when typing that. Is there a better word that covers how both officers and enlisted join the service? There must be, but it isn’t coming to me this morning.
Joined? Committed? Signed up?
Yeah, I see your point, and The probably has it right. I’d say “committed” or “signed up”.
Trust me on this folks–everyone of them swore in and took the Oath during R-Day. They draw pay from DoD. One small insignificant wrinkle is that the cadets (midshipmen, airman, etc.) can avoid their post-Academy service commitment by separating from the Academy anytime prior to the start of their junior year. After that they’re staring (now) at 5 years active, 3 reserve, and they begin as commissioned 2nd Lieutenants. Some career it, others don’t. After discharging their service commitments, it’s up to them.
But, to the salient point here, anyone who dons “camo” unis who is not at West Point, Annapolis, or USAFA are, IMHO, mere “poseurs.” Seriously, let’s reserve camo unis for those who’ve earned it.
…unless you’re hunting deer.
I agree on all points. Maybe it’s just knowing that it’s Army in the full camo from a couple of years ago, but I kind of like the effect better than when broken up by a black shirt or pants.
Why in the world did South Carolina wear blue camo pants????
It doesn’t match their color scheme at all! Especially when paired with a red, black, and gray jersey. That particular uniform has got to be the ugliest football uniform I’ve ever seen!
Here is the photo of what I’m talking about so you don’t have to scroll up:
link
I don’t think it’s blue.. it’s just a dark charcoal matching the undershirts.
Whatever it is, it still looks turrible.
I published this on yesterday’s thread. I sort of doubt it’s worth publishing twice, but since the initial post was reprinted here, I’ll try to present the counter-argument;
“I’ll take the heat for this as well but I still say Navy still does ND better than ND does ND.
Helmets: Notre Dame is much better than Navy. If Navy went with the full metallic gold that they have used as a trim color (anchor logo, helmet stripe) on one of their special Army game helmets, it would be much better. There is no reason these days why a team that uses a metallic gold as a color (Purdue, Pitt, Navy) should not have a school-appropriate metallic-colored helmet.
Uniforms: Both schools use a similar dark blue (Adidas’ collegiate navy, Nike’s obsidian). The difference is the gold color. Notre Dame uses the Adidas “old gold” which was chosen last year to better match the helmets and give the uniform a 60s “old school” look. Navy uses Nike’s pale old gold color, which looks rather washed out (see Pittsburgh for another example)
This site published the rumor that Navy would be switching to Under Armour next season (could very well be; last night after the game, I saw a Navy staff member with an Under Armour Navy jacket). Perhaps they’ll come up with a better look than Nike.
I don’t know, that “old gold” color Notre Dame uses for their pants doesn’t even come close to matching the helmet color. It may look old school, but that doesn’t make it good. They should be wearing metallic gold pants, and the gray facemask needs to go away as well.
I’m pretty sure that Notre Dame switched to those pants because it would make their helmets look even shinier.
Personally, although I do like the modern helmets, I prefer the look they used in the Weis era with TV Numbers instead of monograms, and with the pants, helmets, and number outlining all matching.
I thought they went to those pants because that’s what Addidas is pushing these days. Same thing happened to UCLA who rather co-incidentally also needs to drop the gray facemask (again).
I like the consistency Navy has in matching everything up color-wise. ND and the Saints could both learn from them.
Spoopy Night? Billy Goat of Bavy?
“Spoopy Night” is a running joke, mainly on Tumblr. You may have seen link floating around
As for the “Billy Goat of Bavy” part, that was literally a direct quote from the submitter, and I never censor or edit quotes (although I should probably start adding ‘[sic]’ to the spell checks).
Dammit! Every time I begin to think I’m still kinda hip, I go ahead and show that I’m definitely not. Apologies for my douchiness.
– Spoopybird
Oh no worries! You weren’t a douche at all!
Adam Foote’s number retired by Avalanche last night. Avalanche players wear jerseys with his name (plus their own) and his number during pregame warmup
link
Avalanche player’s jerseys have retirement patch on game jerseys.
link
UMass football needs to ditch the black. It’s not a school color and back in the ’90s when UMass basketball wore special black uniforms, they’d lose, which is pretty much all the football team does.
Canucks retire Bure’s jersey last nigh. Wear jerseys with his name and number during warmup.
link
So… that’s a trend now…
Hockey’s been doing that for a while now..
Maybe I’m just being picky, but they should’ve gone with “waffle skate logo” throwbacks for the pre-game as Bure never wore that version of the Canucks jersey.
…and don’t get me started on the banner not matching up with the era that he played in.
Nevada and Fresno St. had the same number fonts last night. However, Nevada had several combinations that looked very unbalanced while the Bulldogs’ looked normal. Is there any good reason for this?
Notice the ‘1’ and ‘9’ for the player in white:
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Oregon State looked stunning.
NC State should go with that helmet full time.
I agree with the Oregon State sentiment. I’d love to see the Browns go that way if they go through with the proposed uniform tweak.
You’re right about that UT/Mizzou game TJ. Gorgeous.
I know I liked it. A lot. I had about 320 reasons to like it.
Looked great, unless you are a UT Alumni like myself, then it was quite hard to watch. Glad Mizzou went with traditional kit though. UT’s orange pants are around quite a bit more now. Coach Fulmer hated them from his playing days and rarely had the team in them. Kiffin wasn’t here long enough to form an opinion and Dooley is just now getting the news he no longer “coaches” here. Butch seems to have embraced the look. As well as starting something new(Smokey Grey). Maybe they can win a few and look as well.
Skins wearing throwbacks with the current helmet sans stripes. Not a good look.
link
The color clash is all kinds of yucky. But I think I like the helmets sans-stripes.
It looks better than I thought it would, but it’s still not good.
They took the wrong decal off…
Agreed about the color clash, especially Trent Williams in those all black hose.
I think the Redskin helmet looks good without the stripes. I’m not sure how the current helmet with the logo but no stripes is any more relevant to the throwback design than leaving the stripes on would have been.
It’s almost as if they took the stripes off for throwback accuracy, but in the face off all this anti-Redskins name talk, there’s no way they’d consider taking the injun-head off, lest the gesture be misinterpreted.
“there’s no way they’d consider taking the injun-head off, lest the gesture be misinterpreted.”
~~~
Heaven forbid.
I’m just saying that Snyder’s not going to want to look like he’s possibly caving to anybody, or that not having the Redskin on the helmet means anything on that front.
That’s an odd choice. You’d think they’d have removed the logo too, and essentially recreated the 1994 version.
Am I missing something? The Walmart link says that jobs will be coming back into the USA, at a new factory in Georgia. What is so sad about that?
The Bills in mono-white at home is just lame. C’mon Buffalo, you’re not a baseball team or the Cowboys, wear your damn blue jerseys like you’re supposed to.
The Buffalo NFL team in all white at home doesn’t look as awesome as the Miami NFL team does when they go that route, but I like it.
If we had Daylight Savings year round I’d move to one of those counties in Indiana or whatever that doesn’t observe it.
Arizona also does not observe Daylight Savings Time.
neither does the province of Saskatchewan.
I could never do Arizona. Far too hot for me. Anything over 70 and I don’t want to leave the house.
i think phil is the only person in the world who supports it year-round. i feel like most people are in the opposite corner.
Do we know how the Rams are getting away with their throwback helmets?
Did they find a way around the rule or did they manage to paint the helmets/replace the metallic gold with yellow?
Pretty sure those are just decals, not paint (used to be painted, but I think they’ve been decaled for some time now). Just swapped metallic gold for athletic gold.
yep you’re right, never knew those were decals, they always looked like they were a part of the helmet to me, but a quick search yielded this pic which clearly shows the gold decal over a air hole.
link
If there was a 5 + 1 for NFL games, the Kansas City / Buffalo game would be 4 of the top 5 uni combos this weekend. Two of the best unis in the NFL.
The last time Purdue wore black helmets was when Fred Akers was coach in the late ’80s. That is a time for Purdue to forget. Stick with gold, Boilermakers.
Great job on the MLB Playoff Uniform Tracker. I, for one, didn’t mind the alternate uniforms, although, I would agree that the BoSox/Rays match-up was a bit much.
Brad Ausmus is named the Tigers’ new manager and will wear #7, the number he wore in his first stint with the team in 1996, probably since Andy Dirks is wearing #12, which he wore in his second, longer, more memorable stretch with the club in 1999-2000.
Here is a photo of the Iowa “shoulder” numbers. Definitely too far forward.
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No love for the World’s Largest Outdoor (censored) Party in the 5 & 1?
Kent State wore what looked like 90s San Diego Chargers helmets yesterday against Akron. Not sure if they’ve worn those before.
Pretty sure that was the first time in a looong time that Florida wore their white pants this year. Since, ya know, this started happening at the beginning of the season. Only saw glimpses of the game in Sheep Station yesterday, but I didn’t seem to see any ‘see-thru’ issues. Maybe they got another set of less sheen pants from Nike.
link did the Chargers thing throughout the ’80s.
And there was a time when the Wagon Wheel Game was a Top Five candidate, instead of the link it is now.
Oregon State has that gold number trim on all of their jerseys, not just the orange jerseys from Friday. It’s just very subtle so many people have probably missed it.
@ Terry Duroncelet: For future reference, the University of South Florida goes by “USF” instead of the confusing “South Florida” misnomer. It’s located in Tampa, which is in the west central part of the state.
The game results for World Series Games 3 & 4 are swapped on the Uni Tracker. St. Louis won Game 3 on obstruction. Game 4 ended with Boston’s pickoff.