Sunday Morning Uni Watch

By Phil Hecken, with the SMUW crew

Plenty of interesting unis on the gridiron yesterday, including the one worn by Mississippi State — who did something not-quite-unique, but in the overall scheme of things, was pretty cool. With teams falling all over themselves to come up with shinier and duller helmets, white-outs, all-black non-school-color unis, even dressing like their team’s mascot (and we can probably blame all of this on Nikegon)…MSU took the field wearing a “new” uniform …

… meant to mimic the New England Patriots road unis. Yep. They copied the whole uniform, right down to the Patriots number fonts:

They even added silver helmets like the Patriots. Why would they do this you may ask? Well, “because they can” is probably an acceptable answer, but the answer lies partially in the fact that they were playing UMass in Gillette Stadium, home of the Patriots. Why would they choose to wear a faux-Patriots road uni on the Pats home field? “Because they can” probably works there too. Maybe it’s due to that old adage that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But probably, “because they can” is a better reason. In any event, the unis actually looked pretty good. I’m no fan of one-offs, but that boat left the dock years ago. And while I’m no fan of the Pats unis, they didn’t look so bad rendered in maroon and white.

Interestingly, this isn’t even the first time a college squad has copied the uniforms of the pros (and I’m not even counting Iowa mimicking Pittsburgh here, as that’s a direct copy) — that partial honor also goes to Kansas State who basically copied the uniforms of the Dallas Cowboys.

So much for originality in copying. You can see more photos here.

Also there was Oregon dressing like Puddles, some white outs and more, but…

I’m gonna turn the rest of this section over to Terry Duroncelet, who will bring you the rest of your…

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Sunday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet, Jr.

So… I uh… watched the Minions movie on Thursday night. I’m still trying to recover. How was your Thursday night?

From Thursday:

• Georgia Tech wore all-white (including their honeycomb helmets) against Clemson.

From Friday:

• Really enjoyed SMU’s look against TCU.

• One tragic thing about Eastern Michigan’s grey field is that every game looks like a partially-colorized affair.

• Utah wore all-black against USC, and they also wore these helmets, which appear to be custom-painted.

From Saturday:

• C’mon Iowa State, if it didn’t work for Minnesota last year, what makes you think it’ll work for you guys this year?

• Oof. This game was more rough to look at than when Kyle from BitWit (formerly Awesomesauce Network) did this. That is Syracuse (white/white/orange) and UConn (all-grey), for those curious.

• Tennessee wore their smoke grey uniforms against the white dressed Florida Gators. It should also be noted that this is the Vols’ first win against Florida since 2004. I guess you can say that Florida’s day went up in smoke. It looks like Tennessee’s having smoked gator for the rest of the week… Anyone? No one? O-okay.

• Cincinnati wore black/black/red against Miami (OH).

• In their game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Northwestern wore these decals in honor of Nebraska punter Sam Foltz.

• I was expecting Virginia Tech to wear all-orange for their “Orange Effect” game, but that would be too obvious. Disappointing.

• It’s pretty annual at this point, but for those not in the know: coaches across the college landscape wore these patches over the weekend as part of the Coach to Cure MD initiative (more info here).

• Michigan State honored the memory of their punter Mike Sadler at midfield by adding his number in the midfield logo on Saturday. Sadler (along with Nebraska punter Sam Foltz) died in a car crash in Wisconsin back in July of this year.

• No secrets: I kinda like this look for Kentucky.

• USF wore white/green/white against Florida State.

• Georgia’s Rodrigo Blankenship joins the elite ranks of bespectacled collegiate kickers (alongside Harvard’s Andrew Flesher and South Carolina’s Landon Ard). H/T to (the ironically-named) NFL World.

• On a knee-jerk reaction, you’ll look at this and think “O.K., LSU looks like… LSU. So?” But if you look at the NOB of Caleb Lewis (#8), you’ll see they used a three-letter abbreviation for his first name. BIG ups to Kristian Nicosia for spotting that.

• Jim Harbaugh was spotted wearing an Adidas belt. Superstitious, maybe? (credit to T.J. Hudge)

• From Curtis Galvin: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the center wear the wrist coach and have the QB use it for the play call.”

That’ll do it for Week 4! Remember: Week 5 (the main part or it) starts on October 1st. You know what that means… Well, at least it’s not Ocyellowber. See you next week!

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NCAA Uni Tracking

Uni Watch will again track the uniform combinations worn by the “Power 5” conferences. Most of the 2015 trackers are back, with one new tracker added:

We’ve got Rex Henry (tracking the ACC), Dennis Bolt (tracking the PAC-12), Kyle Acker (tracking the Big XII), Davis Vinckier (tracking the B1G), and Ethan Dimitroff, (tracking the SEC). Rex, Dennis, Kyle and Davis are all returning from 2015, and Ethan is new to the NCAA Uni Tracking this season

Here are the Uni Trackers for WEEK FOUR of the NCAA Season.

I just wanted to say a couple things about the trackers — yes, there are occasionally a couple mistakes made — they’re always corrected and I try to get those corrections in as soon as possible. These guys have lives (unlike me) and they do this on a completely volunteer basis, under tight deadlines. I don’t mind if you folks point out mistakes in the comments, but please keep the comments civil. They (and I) don’t need the snark.

It seems every tracker had something going on this weekend — and Dennis was away all day with his family and won’t be back to his home base till early today (early Pacific time); Davis was taking the LSAT’s all day yesterday (and hopefully celebrating last evening); he wasn’t able to get his stuff to me by the time I put this post to bed, but promised it overnight (I’ll add it when I wake up); and…last but not least…Ethan got MARRIED yesterday!, but he STILL got me his tracking — now that’s dedication. He’ll be on his honeymoon next weekend (so we won’t have his SEC Tracking next weekend — I hope you guys understand).

Anyway, I can’t say enough good words about all my trackers, and I hope you’ll understand when everything isn’t perfect, OK? OK! Good now…onto the tracking…

+ + + + + + + + + +

Rex is up first today:

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ACC

More Here.
Follow Rex on Twitter here.

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

PAC-12

More here.

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And here is Ethan, with the SEC:

SEC

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And here is Kyle with the Big XII:

Big XII

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And here’s Davis the B1G:

B1G

THIS WILL BE ADDED AS SOON AS IT’S AVAILABLE

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Joe Ringham’s 5 & 1

Following in the footsteps of the original “5 & 1,” Jim Vilk, and Catherine Ryan after him, Joe Ringham is back for 2016 to make his “5 & 1” (five good looking and one stinker) Bowl matchups. Sometimes he’ll have some “honorable mentions” and sometimes there will be more than one “bad” game. You may agree and you may disagree — these are, after all, just opinions and everyone has one. Feel free to let him know what you think in the comments section.

Here’s Joe:

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Good Sunday morning, everyone! Hope you enjoyed your Week 4. Let’s see who made the cut this week, on both sides of the list…

5) Bowling Green at Memphis — Kind of an off-radar match-up, but one that I really dug. BGSU’s brown/white/brown really doesn’t look half bad against the blue/black/blue look the Tigers went with at home. A surprisingly sharp-looking game in the Liberty Bowl.

4) Wagner at Boston College — Another that was kind of an off-radar match-up. Always a fan of BC’s gold/maroon/gold home look, and it really clashed well against the green/mono-grey that Wagner went with. A great looking game at Chestnut Hill.

3) BYU vs West Virginia — Damn did this game look good. Loved BYU’s usual white/white/navy road look and how it matched against the navy/yellow/navy of the Mountaineers. A sharp looking neutral-site game in the D.C .area.

2) Central Michigan at Virginia — The Cavs navy/navy/white really clashed well against CMU’s maroon/white/maroon road set. Such a simple, great looking game in Charlottesville.

1) Colorado State at Minnesota — Such a pretty, colorful game in the Twin Cities. The Gophers looked great in their maroon/yellow/maroon home set and it matched up great against the Rams’ green/white/green. A very worthy #1 for me.

And, finally…

+1) East Carolina at Virginia Tech — White/white/purple vs orange/mono-maroon = a dreadful looking game. Just… yuck.

That does it for me this week. Let’s do this again next week, shall we?

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Welcome to the 2016 Oregon Ducks Uni Tracker. This little project was originally begun way back in 2008-08 by Michael Princip, who retired after several seasons, whereupon the project was continued by Tim E. O’Brien. He, too, retired from the tracking, but the project has been ably kept up by the man who also tracks the Pac12, Dennis Bolt.

Here’s this week’s Uniform Combo for the Ducks (you can click to enlarge):

You can read about this uniform, and MUCH MORE, by checking out the Duck Tracker here!

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UW’s Friday Flashback

With all the fuss over Color Rash, Paul’s latest Friday Flashback column on ESPN looks at the history of NFL teams wearing mono-colored uniforms (including the many teams that went mono in 2002, some of which are shown here).

Check out the Friday Flashback here.

Enjoy!

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Uni Watch News Ticker
By Phil

Baseball News: Fifty-nine years ago yesterday the Dodgers played their last game in Ebbets Field. Here’s a look at a gorgeous usher cap & final game ticket from that game (from Bruce Menard. … Also from Bruce, a picture of Ebbets Field in its heyday. … The Dodgers have a nice VIN tribute on their mound. They did that and a lot more. Check it out here. … Last night at Shea, the Mets gave away this fleece blanket that looks like their blue alternate — possibly not the greatest giveaway since the Mets are winless in those tops this year (from Bruce Menard). … Is this the worst jersey foul of all time. If you’re answer isn’t “Yes,” then you, um…need to find one worse (from Tony Tengwall). … This comes from Mike Chamernik: “Old, but it was on the front page of Deadspin (yester)day: The evolution of baseball cards.” … The Astros celebrated Hispanic Heritage month by becoming Los Astros (thanks to Mike Chamernik). Also, the game was red vs. orange. … Also from Mike, the Angels are wearing a hat patch for 50 years at Angels stadium. He adds, “From what I’ve seen, they started wearing the patch this month.” … Yesterday, the Washington Nationals captured the NL East, and Bryce Harper wore Katie Ledecky’s swim cap during the post-clincher celebration (from John Muir).

NFL News: A tweeter who goes by Broken Jaguars Fan asks if there is possibly a logo change in the works for the Jacksonville Jaguars. … “On Only a Game’s ‘3 Stories You Should Know’ segment this week, the second item started with a discussion of the patriotic shoes some players wore last week for the September 11 anniversary, and how it violated NFL uniform regs, but somebody in the league office apparently thought better of fining them,” notes Joe Makowiec. “Its main thrust, however, was that the NFL is considering a week when players can promote charitable causes of their choice.” … Here’s a look at a mannequin wearing the Vikings color rash getup (shockingly, the socks purple doesn’t match…) h/t CJZero. … OOps (from Joe Nocella). … Tweeter Justin Merriman notes the Titans yoke has been shrinking over the years.

College/High School Football News: Good look at the Arizona State Sun Devils’ equipment staff painting scratches on their maroon hats. … Cups in Alabama’s stadium are new this week, and are about Nick Saban (10 years at Bama) with some his stats on it (from Griffin Smith). … Neat old rivalry game photo here between Iowa and Iowa State (from Teddy); make sure to click on this one for some uni trash-talk. … RCC noticed a a few errors on the ESPN game map. … Interesting article about Oregon here, “Oregon Is Becoming Experts At The Risk Game”, which has several uni-notable (shock, I know) bits. Good read. … Somewhat related to the previous article: this is why we love the Oregon Duck. … A little hard to see, but a football player from Central Hardin HS in KY has a patriotic mouthpiece. Central Hardin is in the white jersey (from Josh Claywell). … My buddy Jimmer Vilk might just have earned himself an unfollow on the Twitter.

Hockey News: UMD (that’s the University of Minnesota Duluth) women’s hockey has some new Under Armour jerseys (h/t Paul). … Lots of WHL news from Wade Heidt: Major junior hockey season kicked off Friday night. Some uniform notables in the WHL: *Swift Current Broncos wore their 50th Season uniforms Friday night. “Colour scheme different than the usual blue and green. It is green with yellow trim like their original uniforms. Incorporates black as a trim colour as well. A nod to when the Broncos did wear black uniforms from 2003 to 2014.”; *Everett Silvertips have made their front-facing bear on a shied logo their new primary mark. “The former primary logo is relegated to a secondary shoulder patch. During this game, the Vancouver Giants wore their Gordie Howe tribute uniforms. Gordie was a part owner of the Giants.”; and *Prince George Cougars have added a shoulder patch to their jerseys. “Though I have not heard much about this and cannot find a good photo which provides a closer look.” … New uniforms for Pitt hockey (h/t Mark Clifford). … Sergei Bobrovsky is shown here wearing forwards gloves (good spot by J. Walker).

NBA News: Here’s a new ESPN piece from Paul, in case you missed it: Houston Rockets display trio of new alternates, including ‘Clutch City’ design. … “More photos of the Pelicans’ all star game patch can be found in the slideshow in the following article,” writes Richard Green. “Thanks for all the hard work and great content!” … Here’s a look at the 50th Anniversary Patch that the Indiana Pacers will wear this season. … Looks like the Houston Rockets will have a new court this year (h/t primal instinct). … Here’s some more on those new Golden State Warriors crossover unis for 2016-17. …

College Hoops News: “Just saw this on instagram as well,” writes Ahmad Billal Samady. “Freshman point guard Jordan ford wearing the new St. Mary’s uniforms for the upcoming season. Not sure if you guys have shown this already or not.” … Also from Ahmad: “Just saw this on instagram as well. New cal home unis. Looks like they are using the Jordan version of the new elite Nike template, similar to team USA and Kentucky.” … This Art Print Features Every Big 5 Score in the Palestra’s History (from Jimmer Vilk).

Grab Bag: What if the Red Sox moved the Green Monster to right field? Something similar is happening at major golf courses (h/t Benjamin Engle). … Apparently not content with having “Fighting Sioux” eliminated as a school name, UND students step up their social consciousness. … New uniforms for UC Irvine (from Jimmer Vilk). … Tweeter Correa Harden Watt asks of this Houston Rockets patch, “Have you seen this before? On eBay right now.” Turns out it’s a Houston Comets logo. … “I haven’t seen a boxer wear Stephen Curry styled white tights underneath boxing trunks before,” writes Richard Giron. “Compression shorts yes…but not the stuff that Curry wears when he plays basketball. It’s far more common in basketball, but it may be coming to boxing as well. The boxer incidentally is JohnRiel Casimero from the Philippines.” … There is no question that the helmet cart & helmet in the current KFC commercial is tremendous, but it’s the hosiery that seals the deal (from Chris Viel).

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And that will do it for this final Sunday in September. Pinktober will be upon us before you know it.

Thanks, as always, to the tremendous SMUW crew — and an extra big round of applause for all the trackers, who truly give as much as they can for the blog!

I’ll be back next Saturday. In the meantime…

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

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“What do you get when you chrome-out orange?
Something very Tootsie Pop-ish”

— Marty Hick

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