Sunday Morning BOwl Watch

By Phil Hecken

Well, kids, we’ve got a full week of College BOwls under our belt, but for sure, the greatest Uni Watching moment of all of them came in last evening’s Nebraska/Southern Cal game, with the Cornhuskers and Trojans hooking up in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. As you can see from the splash photo, football knows Bo.

That’s Bo, as in Bo Pelini, who was fired as the Huskers coach in late November by Nebraska’s AD Shawn Eichorst. The players loved Bo, and yesterday evening it showed.

It all began with the team leaving a seat open on the team bus to the game for their dearly departed Coach (who, by the way, did land on his feet as Youngstown State Head Coach):

But the tributes to Pelini didn’t stop there as the players honored him in various ways on the field, ranging from writing on tape (Kenny Bell), to writing on towels (Joshua Kalu), and perhaps the ballsiest boldest and best statement — senior OL Jake Cotton adding the initial “B” “O” on his helmet:

Nice (big thanks to Coleman Mullins, Huskers Game Day, and @the_bear_31 for the screen grabs/photos).

And now, I’m pleased to welcome back my Sunday Morning Uni Watch compatriot, Terry Duroncelet, Jr., who will bring you up to date on all the Bowls so far. Here’s TJ:

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Bowl Wrapups – Part I
by Terry Duroncelet

You know what time it is… I’ll be honest, today’s column isn’t as heavy as it should be, because while I was editing this yesterday, my finger hit a button, and I guess it did a thing where most of this column was lost, and I couldn’t get it back. Curse these clumsy yaoi hands of mine! Anyway, as a result, I could not get to Saturday’s bowl games, due to time constraints. But that won’t stop me from bringing you what every team wore in their respective bowl games, and the lost games will be in part two of this roundup, so without further ado…

• LA Lafayette vs. Nevada (played on Saturday, December 20th, 2014): An interesting way to kick things off, because for a city and a bowl logo that has a lot of green, gold, and [color name redacted], there sure wasn’t a lot of it on the field. One one side, we have the University of Nevada (Reno) Wolfpack in all-white, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns in all-red. This was LA Lafayette’s first bowl in their new Adidas togs, but regardless of what the Ragin’ Cajuns were wearing, it was the Wolfpack that was seeing red, as they would fall to the LA Lafayette, 16-3.

• UTEP vs Utah State (played on Saturday, December 20th, 2014): The University of Texas at El Paso Miners arrives to their bowl game in all-orange, while the Utah State University Aggies dressed in navy/grey/navy. Not a bad-looking game, if you ask me.

• Utah vs. Colorado State (played on Saturday, December 20th, 2014): The University of Utah Utes did their best mountain impression by wearing white helmets to this game (with red jerseys and white pants), and can we talk about what the Colorado State University Rams wore for the game? Really cool mono-white Aggie uniforms with orange bone horns on the green helmets. I would not be opposed to them adding those decals to their standard helmets (in gold, obviously) as a long-term change.

• Air Force vs. Western Michigan (played on Saturday, December 20th, 2014): So let me get this straight: when Boise State wears all-blue on their own field, everyone throws a hissy fit, but the Air Force Academy Falcons do it, and hardly anyone bats an eyelash? Okay. Meanwhile, the Western Michigan University Broncos wore those gold jerseys from earlier this season with white helmets and white pants. Definitely better than the Laffy Taffy suits that they’ve been wearing all year (brown and white never work well together, for obvious reasons).

• Bowling Green vs. South Alabama (played on Saturday, December 20th, 2014): The Bowling Green State University Falcons played in their last game with their Adidas uniforms, as they will be switching to Nike in 2015. They went out in white/orange/white against the University of South Alabama Jaguars (USA! USA! USA!), who decided not to wear red helmets, white jerseys, and blue pants unfortunately. Instead, they wore white/grey/charcoal. I mention that this is BGSU’s last “Adidas” game, but it was also South Alabama’s first ever bowl game, which for a program that didn’t even exist up until 2009, worked their way up from obscurity to FBS status and a bowl game, is a damn-fine achievement. I know nothing about player eligibility, but bear with me on this as I try to put this in perspective: if a football player attended the school in the 2009-2010 academic year, and was on that first Jags football team, and stayed as a 5th or 6th-year senior (or graduate school, I don’t know), he would’ve experienced South Alabama football’s ascent to, well, where they’re at now, all firsthand. I’m happy for them, and here’s to hopefully more success for them in the future. Also, this happened. Ouch.

• Memphis vs BYU (played on Monday, December 22nd, 2014): The Brigham Young University Cougars dressed in all-white for their bowl game, which seems like a Mormon thing to do (although the end of the game says otherwise). Their opponents (the University of Memphis Tigers) wore chrome helmets, blue jerseys, and white pants. And hey, Memphis is already wearing black and blue, so why not add some more with a bit of red in there? On a serious note, the end to that game was so damn shameful. SO. DAMN. SHAMEFUL.

• NIU vs. Marshall (played on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014): The Marshall University Thundering Herd wore all-white uniforms against the Northern Illinois University Huskies, who wore black/red/black.

• San Diego State vs. Navy (played on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014): Doesn’t this seem like déjà vu to you (that’s from 2010)? Anyway, the San Diego State University Aztecs faced off against the Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy. SDSU wore red/black/black, while Navy wore their Don’t Tread On Me uniforms from this season’s Army/Navy game.

• Central Michigan vs. Western Kentucky (played on Wednesday, December 24th, 2014): Honestly, I didn’t even know this bowl was a thing. Well, at any rate, the Centeral Michigan University Chippewas wore maroon/white/white against the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers, who wore chrome/red/white. Sadly, not much to say about this game, except for the awesome name matchup. I propose a new hashtag be used: #ProtectAndSupportUniqueTeamNames2015

• Rice vs. Fresno State (played on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014): One of my favorite full school names to say is that of William Marsh Rice University, who you may know better as simply… Rice. Anywho, the Rice Owls wore their usual navy helmets and jerseys with white pants against the California State University (Fresno) Bulldogs, who wore chrome helmets, white jerseys, and grey pants.

• Louisiana Tech vs. Illinois (played on Friday, December 26th, 2014): Let me start by saying that I loved the rebrand that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Fighting Illini (that’s a mouthful) football team underwent over the 2014 off-season, and I rather enjoyed their bowl game combination of white helmets and jerseys with orange pants, but I was highly disappointed with their decision to not wear the navy helmets for this game. It just seems like a waste, and it would’ve helped with the contrast of the game. Meanwhile, the Louisiana Tech University Bulldogs was lookin’ an awful lot like the throwback Patriots (only LA Tech wore red socks, which is a massive upgrade over the Pats’ white).

• North Carolina vs. Rutgers (played on Friday, December 26th, 2014): Leaving out the part where the folks at Chapel Hill don’t feel that the studies of my culture are important enough to take seriously in the classroom, the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina wore black helmets and pants with Carolina blue jerseys. On the opposite end of the football, The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey were looking more like the Ivory Knights than anything. Not exactly a bad-looking game, but I still wish that North Carolina would use navy instead of black, because, ya know, that’s an actual school color. Just a thought.

• UCF vs. NC State (played on Friday, December 26th, 2014): To round off this list of games for now, we have the University of Central Florida Knights in white helmets, black jerseys, and gold pants, and the North Carolina State University Wolfpack in red helmets and pants with white jerseys. I like. Solid uniforms with decent contrast. Something that I feel is a bit underappreciated in the world of college football.

And that will do it for this first round of the 2014 college bowl season. Tune in next time as I try not to hit the wrong button next time. As a reminder, all of games from December 27th will be listed in part 2. ‘Til next time…

. . .

Thanks, TJ! Brutal news about the computer, but hey, it happens. I’ve added a few items from yesterday in the ticker, but we eagerly await your full report on yesterday’s games next weekend.

Premier League Games
By Andrew Seagraves

Good Sunday, everyone!

Happy New Years-to-be from us at UWFFL HQ.

The UWFFL Premier league is starting to get even more interesting in the waning days of the season. There are a few teams, such as Minnesota and Anchorage, who are in command of their own destinies while others are trying to make sure the wheels on their seasonal car do not fall off.

That last statement brings us to our Premier League game of the week between the San Diego Storm and the Vancouver Seawolves.

These Western Division rivals’ season is being balanced on the edge of a knife. The bottom three squads are so close in whether they will stay in the League next season or if they will go to the post-season or possibly into DII.

The visiting San Diego Storm are the reigning Divisional Champs and have shown signs of both strength and weakness throughout the season. At one point they were looking at going into the playoffs and now they’re are trying to keep their noses above water. They’re a team which is willing to make midseason tweaks in order to do so as they have already done this season. This week they are breaking out their mono-storm grey uniforms with Teal lids and Obsidian black socks.

The Vancouver Seawolves were promoted into the Bigs after winning the Pacific Coast Conference last season. This season, however, the Salt Water City squad is trying to keep from the relegation zone as they currently sit at the bottom of the Western ladder. For their fray with the Storm they are donning their red lids, charcoal jerseys and parchment pants.

. . .

. . .

San Diego

Vancouver

 

pollcode.com free polls

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Other key battles from the bigs will see The Lone Star Wolfpack take on the South Beach Catamounts, the Vulcans will surprise the Mustangs for the holidays, and Atlanta will try and return the fruitcake they received from the Demons. Teams are gearing up for the stretch run – after today only three games remaining. Here are the standings after Week 12:

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La Lega prominent games will see the Kaumoana visit LA, The Vipers try and bite the CSKA Horses, and the Pearlers hosting RFC.

Get on over to uwfantasyfootballleague.com to vote on this week’s matchups and get on over to our family of UWFFL Google+ pages to see what is happening in the league and to potential submit a squad of your own.

That’ll wrap things up for this week, have a Happy end of your Holiday Season and we look forward to seeing you next week.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Update from yesterday: Unfortunately due to an error on our part, one of yesterday’s games had a discrepancy. When sending the column into Phil, we neglected to realize that the St. John’s Stingers – Brooklyn Uni Watchers game featured both teams wearing white uniforms. While the uniform clash was corrected before kickoff and St. John’s was required to switch to a non-clashing dark uniform, the pre-written column featured in yesterday’s Uni Watch still featured both teams in white uniforms and was unable to be corrected. The St. John’s vs Brooklyn game therefore will be declared no contest and the result is voided.

Due to the standings in the Eastern Association, if Swisshelm loses to or ties Cleveland, St. John’s will clinch the fourth and final playoff spot and the game will not need to be made up. (Even with a win, due to tiebreakers Montreal will be unable to finish in the top four and is still eliminated.) If Swisshelm wins, however, the St. John’s-Brooklyn game will be made up next week and the first round playoff games will be pushed back one week. We regret this error, and we thank all of the questions, comments and tweets about this discrepancy. Due to the sheer volume, we were unable to respond to each of them individually and hope that this will suffice.

EPL Tracker

Each Saturday or Sunday, Alex Gerwitz will be tracking the kit combinations (shirt/shorts/socks) of the teams in the English Premier League from the previous weekend and the current weekend.

Here is the EPL tracker for Weeks 17 & 18:

Uni Watch News Ticker:

Baseball News: Do Penn State and Yankee uniforms have common thread? (since the Nittany Lions played at Yankee Stadium yesterday). … Wonderful photo from (who else?) Bruce Menard here: Lou Gehrig’s wife driving the Lou Gehrig Memorial Ambulance — from 72 years ago, yesterday.

NFL News: In a rare NFL-related item, Bruce Menard presents this beautiful 1959 Championship Game program, featuring the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants, for a game that took place 55 years ago yesterday. Great stuff! … “Seahawks’ long-snapper Clint Gresham has a cross tattooed on his right arm,” writes Lorin Koch. “It looks upside-down in this picture, but think about what it looks like when the TV camera takes video of him from behind while snapping. Actually pretty clever.” Steven Zerhusen was at Dick’s with his dad yesterday and they were both “blown away” that they had these Ravens Starter jackets. Adds Steve, “he still wears his ancient Maryland one and would have gotten this if they had his size.”

College/High School Football News: Couple of things from Alan Borock: Looks like Mississippi College uses a variant of the Chiefs arrowhead logo. Also from Alan, “and down the rabbithole as these things go…one of their opponents, Belhaven University, has multiple multicolor helmets.” … We knew Mississippi State chose to wear white in the Orange Bowl, forcing Georgia Tech to wear color. What we didn’t know was what color. Now we do (it’s blue). … Here’s an interesting article, from Larry Bodnovich, on how back in 1930 the Pittsburgh Press talked about the fancy colorful unis of Pitt, Carnegie Tech, Duquesene. … Nice find from Ryan Dowgin who writes, “Lehigh jerseys are traditionally brown/white/gold, but I found a ca. 1997-2003 jersey where the stripe on the sleeve and the outline of the letters is actually green. From a distance you would never be able to tell the difference, but up close it is definitely green. Very strange.” He adds that Lehigh’s own write up of their jersey history makes no mention of green trim. … Looks like the Arizona Wildcats will be wearing red jerseys for the Fiesta Bowl game (h/t @MrNursfen). … Notre Dame will have some really toned-down, classic cleats for the Music City Bowl. … The Wisconsin Badgers were practicing in white helmets yesterday (from Clint Richardson). Also from Clint: our first look at Auburn’s Outback Bowl patches (interestingly, Sconnie hasn’t yet added theirs). … We already knew this, but OSU will wear these special white jerseys for their playoff game against Alabama this New Year’s Day. If you want to read more, the Nike Blog is happy to help. … ESPN announcer Sam Ponder was sporting what looks to be a camo sweater at last night’s Holiday Bowl (nice spot by Douglas Ford). Also from Douglas, “Last month, mike Riley had his OSU Nike gear in Lincoln, but clearly adidas has him strapped in adidas gear (last) night at the Holiday Bowl.” … Nice find from Clint Richardson, who found that the 1953 Gator Bowl between Auburn and Texas Tech was a color vs color (orange/red) affair. … A Boston College player’s helmet was missing some paint yesterday in the Pinstripe Bowl. … Awesome placement of two SCar players yesterday lead to a humorous FISH FRY sighting (h/t Timothy Burke). … The greatest moment in the Military Bowl happened not between the teams, but between the Racing Presidents and the Bearcat mascot. Here’s a closer look. … Also in that game, Gunner Keil was wearing #4 in warmups to honor teammate Munchie Legaux (via Doug Smith). Munchie was on the field wearing a Reds cap to support his ‘cats. … And finally, this from Jimmer Vilk, “here is an article about the last time the WVU Mountaineers played a Liberty Bowl and what do you know — here’s some footage.”

Hockey News: In last weekend’s ticker, I mentioned the death of Blackhawks Assistant Equipment Manager Clint Reif and the Hawks wore a memorial sticker for him. The Rockford IceHogs (a Hawks affiliate) are also wearing “CR” stickers on their helmets (nice find by Michael Bocuhm). … The Spengler Cup, which is an annual ice hockey tournament held in Davos, Switzerland, (and features uni adverts to make anyone cry), has referees wearing these jerseys (from Steve LeClerk). … The ECHL Orlando Solar Bears wore these beautiful ugly sweater jerseys last night (thanks to @j_tasca). Here’s a bit more on that. And another look (h/t @j_tasca again). … “While watching the Pen/Caps on NBCSN, they put up a graphic of the Caps next few games,” says Ken. “I know the Islanders are moving to Brooklyn but NBC moved them to Jersey.”

College/High School Hoops News: The boys and girls varsity basketball teams from Mendocino High School were disinvited from a tournament that starts on Monday at nearby Fort Bragg High, because of concerns players would wear T-shirts with the words “I Can’t Breathe” printed on them while warming up. Yes, really (thanks Paul). I’m not a lawyer, but maybe some of you lawyer’s on the board can answer: Is this a violation of the First Amendment? Some think so. Discuss. … For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, the UNC Tar Heels wore mis-matched Jordans yesterday.

And there we have it, folks. My last post of 2014. Big thanks (too many to list them all) to everyone who’s either contributed a recurring section (like Alex Gerwitz, Rob Holecko, Andrew Seagraves, Terry Duroncelet, Catherine Ryan, Gary Chanko, and many I’m forgetting) or had a “special” post (either on the weekends or during Paul’s August sabbatical), and folks like Jimmer Vilk, Ross Clites and others who have their own special contributions — you are ALL ACES and a tremendous help to me — I couldn’t do it without you. Thanks to all the ticker and tweeter submitters, readers and commenters as well — the Uni Watch family is super great! And of course, the biggest thanks of all to Paul for providing this wonderful forum and for allowing me to continue to bring you the UW blog on the weekends. It’s an honor and a privilege.

I’ll catch you guys all next year, OK? OK!

Peace.

.. … ..

“Your bowl picks were terrible.”

— hammy700