Sunday Morning Uni Watch

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By Phil Hecken

For the second year in a row, the “world’s largest outdoor cocktail party” featured a color versus color matchup between Georgia and Florida. It’s not as great as UCLA vs. USC, when they go color vs. color to close out their season, but it’s still pretty sweet. The bold red of UGA matches up nicely with the Florida blue — but their helmets and pants are both quite similar, so the effect is not quite as awesome as it could be. And with yesterday being Hallowe’en, the teams could have made it a memorable matchup. Alas, twas not to be.

In fact, several teams (if you saw yesterday’s post) could have done the black vs. orange thing yesterday. Sadly — none of those teams (except one) did. The two teams who made it a Hallowe’en costume party were UTEP and Southern Miss. Oh, yeah, and an FCS matchup did this as well — but I wish more FBS teams had taken advantage of the opportunity.

Anyway…there’s lots to get to with the SMUW, so at this point I’ll just turn it over to my man, TJ Duroncelet, who will now take you through your…

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Sunday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet

In all my years of watching college football, as well as doing SMUW, I have NEVER… seen as much BFBS, or as many silly one-offs as I have in one weekend… and I absolutely LOVED IT. I mean, c’mon, it’s Halloween! If there was ever a time to partake in wearable tomfoolery, this is the perfect day to do it. So rather than damn the togs of Week 9, we shall celebrate them, if only for one day.

From Thursday:

• Pitt wore BCA decals. Not part of my “celebrate the costumes” write-up, so we’ll just use a mulligan here.

• TCU wore older mono-black uniforms from last season against West Virginia.

• Arizona State did what might be the first triple-threat that I’ve seen. We’ve got throwbacks, we’ve got ANOB (Alumnus Name On Back), and we’ve got camouflage. I’ve never seen a team do this before. I’m surprised Oregon didn’t think of it first! Speaking of which, they’ve apparently taken a larger liking to silver this season. Kinda makes me wish that their game was on Saturday, so the Ducks can dress up as the Silver Surfer and get it over with.

From Friday:

• Louisville wore these helmets against Wake Forest.

• UConn wore GFGS against East Carolina. Also, I’m sure you know what a Redshirt Freshman is. Well, how about a Redshirt Coach?

From Saturday:

• Let’s get this out of the way: uni-highlight of the weekend was the Spoopy Bowl (before anyone asks) between Southern Miss and UTEP, who took full advantage of their colors and created a festive and equally-rad color-vs.-color matchup. Good on ya both.

• USM and UTEP weren’t the only ones who got into the spirit of things: Texas A&M Commerce and Sam Houston State got in on the act, too.

• More color-vs.-color, as Georgia and Florida faced off over the weekend in Jacksonville. @GatorLenny on Twitter notes that Kelvin Taylor apparently lost his SEC collar logo during the game.

• Oklahoma dropped the ball and forgot to bring whipped cream for the pumpkin pie, so they made up for it by wearing their full-cream alts. Kansas had ‘KU’ on one side of the helmet, and their Jayhawk logo on the other.

• The ‘aTm’ on the Aggies’ helmets was hardly visible unless at certain angles in certain light, which in my opinion, fits the idea of things that go ‘bump’ in the night pulling in-and-out of the shadows, only leaving vague silhouettes of what might be.

• Cincinnati wore those commemorative Nippert Stadium helmets with their standard mono-black against Central Florida. Also, credit to Lora Sully (@sullenll) for catching that they were still using Adidas bags, despite being an Under Armour school as of this season.

• Florida State and Syracuse looked straightforward, no nonsense, and contrasted nicely. There was also this nice gesture: see that little apple-like figure? They wore those in support of Extra Yard for Teachers. One last thing: Florida State’s Marching Chiefs (the name for their marching band) took the field as zombies and played “Thriller”.

• SMU wore red chrome helmets while Tulsa wore black helmets and pants.

• The teams who dressed up in all-black are as follows: Washington, Utah, Kentucky (with chrome helmets), Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Memphis, Duke, Houston, and presumably more.

• And the teams who dressed up as ghosts: Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State, Arizona, Colorado (to an extent), and once again, probably plenty more that slipped my sight.

• Does anyone know what the gnome on the back of Texas’s helmets is for?

• Real quick break to bring you this. D’aww…

• Boise State wore a very-fitting* black and orange helmet against UNLV (*only for Halloween). Here’s a closer look.

• As mentioned above, Kentucky wore mono-black. Unfortunately, Tennessee didn’t play along by not wearing orange.

• As promised, Oklahoma State wore these decals in honor of last week’s parade victims. Texas Tech’s Avery Gilliam had a different font for his name than the rest of his team.

• Rest In Pieces.

• The on-screen graphics teams for SEC games sure are having a golden season, aren’t they?

• Minnesota took everyone by surprise by wearing mono-anthracite uniforms against Michigan. Now THAT’S a costume! And Curtis Galvin notes the perfect accessory worn by Jack Lynn on Nightmare Night.

I think that’s everything. Overall, lots of scoring, lots of mischief, and LOTS of weird, weird … uniforms. And now to prep for G.I. Joevember. Hope you had a safe and dry Halloween (my town got rained out for the second time in three years), and I’ll see you next week.

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Thanks, TJ! OK, now on to the rest of today’s SMUW.

NCAA Uni Tracking

Back again today with our new feature: NCAA Uniform Tracking.

Once again, I’m pleased to welcome our 4 NCAA trackers, tallying the uniforms worn by the Power 5 conferences.

We’ve got Rex Henry (tracking the ACC & SEC), Dennis Bolt (tracking the PAC-12), Kyle Acker (tracking the Big XII) and Joey Artigue (tracking the B1G).

+ + + + + + + + + +

We’ll start with Joey & the B1G today:

B1G

Joey will be establishing a separate website for B1G tracking, but for now, you can follow him on Twitter.

Rex is up next today:

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ACC

More Here.

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SEC

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And now, here’s Dennis with the PAC-12:

PAC-12

More here.

Here is your link to the 2015-16 Duck Tracker.

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And finally, here is Kyle with the Big XII:

Big XII

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And that’s all for today — thanks Joey, Rex, Dennis and Kyle!

Joe Ringham’s 5 & 1

We’re on to week 9 in the NCAA, and we had a bunch of good (and bad) games to choose from for our new 5 & 1 decider Joe Ringham. There were a couple of color vs. color games yesterday — did they make the list? Let’s find out…

Here’s Joe:

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Good Sunday, everyone! Hope you all enjoyed Halloween, and remembered to set your clocks back an hour. As per the usual from me, a little bit of variety in this week’s list. So, let’s get to it.

5) Wyoming at Utah State — Going back to Friday night to start this weeks list. Love the contrast between the navy/navy/gray of the Aggies against the white/white/yellow of the Cowboys. To me, Wyoming’s yellow pants really make the navy and silver of USU stand out.

4) Montana State at North Dakota — An off radar and FCS selection here (because it’s my list and I can do that, damnit!). LOVE the mono green of UND, and I think it works perfectly against the gold/white/gold of the Bobcats. A surprisingly strong entry for this week’s list.

3) Nebraska at Purdue — Well Nebraska, you certainly have redeemed yourself following the BFBS costume of a week ago. The white/white/red looked excellent against the traditional gold/black/gold home look of the Boilers. It somehow looked even better to me under the gloomy skies they had in West Lafayette.

2) UTEP at Southern Mississippi — Everyone who’s followed my debut tenure on this beat should know by now how I enjoy a color vs color match-up. But when you go color vs color IN HALLOWEEN COLORS… well, you get on the list automatically. Well done Miners and Golden Eagles!!

1) Florida vs Georgia — I still call this the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, and it was it’s usual color vs. color awesomeness. One of the easiest No. 1’s I’ve had to make all season long.

And, finally, to close out October and ring in November…

+1) Vanderbilt at Houston — Despite all the buzz I heard about Houston’s Halloween uniform, I didn’t really like it. It’s just another BFBS costume, with a helmet that looks more orange than the Cougars normal red. Doesn’t really match up well with the rest of the Halloween costume to me.

Enjoy the week, everyone!

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Thanks, Joe! Remember, the tip-line email (UW5and1@gmail.com) is back for any games you want Joe take a look at. Pictures of the game/games you want are very much suggested.

Uni Watch News Ticker:

Baseball News: Last night, during the Royals Game 4 victory in the World Series over the Mets, Blair Spangler captured this image of Royals’ reliever Wade Davis’ oddly non-reflective “V” and wondered what was up with that. The comments that followed were interesting. … Yancy Yeater writes, “I put together several trends for my Halloween costume. First my Pirates Turn A Head the Clock jersey. Next my Pirates hat complete with American Flag on the side. My swoosh logo shorts and finally, add my neon accented shoes and socks. Happy Halloween.”

NFL News: Have you wondered how the Packers will look next season during the NFL’s “color rush” if they were to go mono-gold? Here’s a possibility (from Jesse Zakshesky). … Most of the Color Rush stuff was already covered by Paul on Friday, but this may be a better look at the all red unis the Bills will wear against the Jets in two Thursdays. … In what promises to be the worst looking game of the afternoon, the Steelers will be in their bumblebee throwbacks vs. the Bengals.

College/High School Football News: Check out this photo of the BYU football players recreating photo from Remember the Titans (h/t Paul R. Cherrington). Reader Jason Johnson asks, “Anyone in the Omaha NE area know why Millard North has red bands around their helmets?” … Yesterday’s HS game between Massillon & McKinley was played at Faucett Stadium (where the NFL HOF game is played); the HOF logo is still there. Also the NFL logo was covered up by the McKinley logo (nice spots by Kyle Good). … Almost unwatchable game from the Idaho State Playoffs — Black vs (Dark) Grey: Declo in black vs Soda Springs in Slate (thanks to Andrew Seagraves).

NBA/College Hoops News: On Friday evening, the Blazers and Suns went black vs. orange for a little pre-Hallowe’en look (via Hit The Glass). Sadly, they played again last night but did not repeat the festive colors. … According to Michael Dugan, Nike designed a Halloween shoe for Anthony Davis that reminds him of Candy Corn. … Wizards assistant Don Newman wears an eyepatch. More info here (thanks to Mike Chamernik). … The OKC Thunder will be debuting their orange sunset unis today. … Here’s an interesting placement of a warmup jacket by Blazers center Chris Kaman (from Kenny Ocker). … Here’s a first look at the Green Bay Mens Hoops green uniforms (thanks, Paul). … Reader Jason Gutierrez was watching this old game between the Lakers and Heat from 1989. At the very start the announcers talks about Bryon Scott wearing double zero with no NOB because the Lakers did their laundry in New York and lost his jersey.

Hockey News: “Guy at work dressed up as Johnny Canuck,” says Chris Mizzoni. “Gotta admit, pretty cool.” … Based off these hats, could the Canadiens be wearing these jerseys (for their Winter Classic game against the Bruins)? … The Rangers practiced yesterday in orange sweaters for Hallowe’en. … Check out the spooky, zombified uniforms that the Utah Grizzlies and Reading Royals wore last night and will wear today (from Jeff Tasca). … Last night, RPI threw it WAY back with the Surveyor patch and Puckman on the shoulders (h/t Chuck Erickson). … Scott Wedgewood of the NJ Devils has a new mask and it’s got Puddy on it (h/t J. Walker).

Grab Bag: Mmmmmm. Pumpkin Pi. … Rugby World Cup is serious business: Qantas loses a bet, and their staff now have to wear All Blacks jerseys. … It looks like black soccer football shoes boots are making a comeback on the field pitch (thanks to Trevor).

And that’s it for today — hope everyone had a safe and happy and peanut-free Hallowe’en. Thanks, as always, to Terry, Joe, Joey, Rex, Dennis & Kyle and the few of you who tweeted or emailed for the ticker. Everyone have a great week — welcome to GIJokevember! Can’t wait to see what the NFL rolls out today (and the whole month). Don’t forget — if you didn’t already, turn your clocks back an hour…and enjoy the early football game across the pond. Catch you guys next weekend.

For all in the New York Metro-area — don’t forget — we’re having our Annual Gathering at Sheep Station in Brooklyn (just around the corner from Uni Watch HQ) on Saturday at 2:00 pm. Hope to see you guys there! Till then,

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

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“Duke-Miami and Texas Tech-Oklahoma State had a chance for a nice black vs orange matchup and both ruined it when the visiting teams went full stormtrooper.”

— Bromotrifluoromethane