Sunday Morning Uni Watch

By Phil Hecken and the SMUW Crew
Follow @PhilHecken

There were a lot of good looking teams who played football yesterday. In fact, there were a couple of really good looking games (just check out Joe’s 5 & 1 for those). Even the bad game didn’t look that bad (OK, maybe it did).

But yesterday stood out to me for the two teams who went BFBS: Oregon and Ohio State. Now, Oregon going BFBS is nothing new — they practically invented it. What is new is this uni was what I believe to be a one-off collab with the “Jordan” brand. At least I hope so.

And OSU has worn this particular BFBS uni before. Maybe Oregon wanted to give a homecoming present to their former coach, Chip Kelly, who now coaches UCLA. THE Ohio State usually wears one special costume a year, and I’m kinda surprised they brought this one out of the closet. Usually Nike prepares a special one for them. Who knows? Urban Meyer knows, and he’s known for a while.

Anyway. Other than BFBS UCF wearing their NASA suits (earlier in the week), there wasn’t all that much notable about yesterday — but you can be sure TJ has everything we need to know below. So without further ado…here’s your

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Sunday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet, Jr.

“Statement Saturday”, “Separation Saturday”, whatever you want to call it, it was a fun Week 10, full of movement, blowouts, and plenty of uni action to spare.

From Wednesday:

• Decent color-vs-color matchup between Ball State and Toledo.

From Thursday:

• I would say that UCF’s space unis from Thursday were out of this world, but I’m trying to limit myself to one trash-tier pun per column, so I’ll put a sock in it. Nevertheless, I loved the unis.

• Akron or Norka? The Zips wore seemingly-standard helmets in their game against Northern Illinois, but the highlight of the night was the mother of all decal malfunctions, with photo cred to Bud Brooks.

From Friday:

• U of Colorado or Colorado U? David A Wishinsky sends this in: “I got my MBA from the University of Colorado, but I guess FS1 was as confused by it being “CU” as I was!”

From Saturday:

• Not exactly uni-related (unless you count Louisville in black cherry helmets and black pants), but given yesterday’s outcome, nobody should ever trust me with GIMP, because I will do stupid shit like this, guaranteed (context for this meme). Better that than bad puns, I guess. For example…

• Oregon “Jumped” the shark (I’m terribly sorry) and became the latest school to wear jumpman-logo’d Nike uniforms Jordan Brand uniforms. Interesting for a school that from the standpoint of aesthetics in college football, has always LEAD trends, to all of a sudden FOLLOW in the footsteps of Michigan, UNC, Florida, Oklahoma, and probably a couple of others that I skipped. Although, I guess Oregon’s still leading uni trends in that they might be the first ever school to change maker’s marks IN THE MIDDLE OF A SEASON. Also, I can’t tell if the numbers are kiss-cut, but if you look at both of the provided photos (for Oregon, not the other Jordan schools), you’ll notice a black outline around the green. Wouldn’t it be more economical to just use the green outline over the white base? Unless it’s printed twill, and even then, can’t you just print the white on a sheet of green?

• October was interesting in that we did see a decent influx of Pinktober demonstrations, but it was almost nonexistent at the beginning of October, but then ramped up as the month went on. But military appreciation in November? NOPE! We turn that up to 11 with ZERO hesitation. Examples include (but by no means whatsoever are limited to): Ole Miss, South Florida (closer look), East Carolina (Marine Corps seal on the back of the helmets), Southern Miss (context), Middle Tennessee (from Friday), New Mexico State, Western Michigan (from Thursday), and almost definitely a plethora of others I’m unaware of.

• Touching on Ole Miss again, can anyone tell me what the red bars on the back of the helmets are for? Are they a type of merit decal? Additionally, here’s their field design from Saturday.

• Mizzou wore gold tiger heads on white shells against Florida. An alright look, but I feel it would’ve worked better with a few more gold elements in the uniforms, or at least a keyline to define the head better.

• Georgia Tech wore a (seemingly) rare combo of white helmets and jerseys with navy pants. Anyone know the last time they wore this combo?

• Auburn QB Jarrett Stidham’s jersey was looking a bit… cramped. H/T to Ryan Weiss.

• While this could’ve looked LEAGUES better, at least Iowa’s pants helped to make things somewhat manageable.

• Not as bad as this accidental color-vs-color game was (h/t to Brett Hein).

• FIU wore a new left-side decal where you can see a panther peeking through a set of claw marks. For about 5 seconds, I thought “why is FIU wearing the Monster Energy logo?”

• THE wore black shirts against… the Blackshirts. Okay.

• Good to see Sparky return on the Arizona State lids, even if it’s only for Homecoming. You can also see Utah’s giant U decals.

• Favorite decal of the week goes to Baylor and their Sailor Bear decals.

• Utah State wore one of the nicest (in design and gesture) memorial decals I have ever seen in their game against Hawai’i. Here’s USU’s tweet regarding the context behind it.

• Kansas wore what I call their WWII Ode uniforms in their Salute to Service game against Iowa State. For those who missed it, here’s the hype video, and the article going into detail about said unis. Much like LSU’s Silent Season uniforms from Week 8, this is an example of a military appreciation uniform Done Right.

That’ll do it for Week 10. I hope you all had a great Halloween, and I’m gonna use this extra hour to hibernate for 42 years because what’s a normal sleep schedule? I’ll see you next week.

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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 returns for 2018 to make his “5 & 1” (five good looking and one stinker) uni-vs-uni 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:

. . .

Happy Sunday, everyone! Now that we’ve all turned our clocks back an hour, let’s see who made the cut for this first Saturday in November…

5) Texas State at Georgia State — We go a little under the radar to start this week. I don’t know if anyone does mono-blue better than GSU. They always seem to look good in it. This week, it contrasts nicely against the maroon/white/gold the Bobcats went with on the road.

4) Penn State at Michigan — Two simple, classic uni’s. Perfect for a fall afternoon… and, yet, it’s STILL only at #4!!

3) Notre Dame at Northwestern — More classic simplicity with the road look of the Irish. But, I absolutely loved Northwestern going white (w/ numbers)/purple/white at home for this game. Made for quite a beaut of a game in Evanston.

2) West Virginia at Texas — This road look, going navy/white/navy, is what WVU should always go with. Just looks so damn good. Paired here against the usual home look of the Longhorns, and you have one excellent looking game in Austin.

1) Alabama at LSU — No explanation needed here. As automatic a #1 as it gets, according to me.

And, finally…

+1) Iowa at Purdue — On a day where there really wasn’t a clear-cut choice for the +1 (at least, to me there wasn’t), this gets the spot only because I’m just not a huge fan of these Purdue uni’s. Just something about the two-tone tops that is just to CFL-like for me.

That’s it for me. Enjoy your football Sunday!

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Thanks Joe! You can follow Joe on the Twitter and let him know what you think of his choices or make a 5 & 1 suggestion of your own!

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NCAA Uni Tracking

Uni Watch will again track the uniform combinations worn by the “Power 5” conferences. All of the 2017 trackers are back!

We’ve got Rex Henry (tracking the ACC), Dennis Bolt (tracking the PAC-12), Kyle Acker (tracking the Big XII), and Ethan Dimitroff (tracking the B1G AND the SEC). Rex, Dennis, and Kyle and are all returning from 2015, and Ethan is back after joining the NCAA Uni Tracking a couple seasons ago. Ethan continues his dual role of tracking both the B1G and the SEC.

Here are the Uni Trackers for the Power 5 Conferences:

+ + + + + + + + + +

Rex is up first today (ACC):

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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.
Follow Dennis on Twitter here.

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And here is Ethan, with the SEC:

SEC

And be sure to check out Ethan’s WVU Mountaineer Tracker.
Follow Ethan on Twitter here.

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And here is Kyle with the Big XII:

Big XII

Follow Kyle on Twitter here.

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And here’s Ethan with the B1G:

B1G

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Welcome to the 2018 Oregon Ducks Uni Tracker. This little project was originally begun way back in 2008-09 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!

Thanks Dennis!

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Uni Watch News Ticker
By Phil

Baseball News: Baseball season may have ended last week (who is already counting the days till Pitchers and Catchers? I know I am), but that doesn’t mean players aren’t out there reppin’ — here’s Alex Bregman in an LSU jersey — he’s wearing #7 – but which #7 is he repping? (from Ignacio Salazar). … Looks like new caps and logos (and maybe unis) coming for the Wisconsin TimberRattlers (via Paul).

NFL News: Remember last year when the Dallas Cowboys were the first (or at least one of the first) teams to modify their color rash look by combining CR and non-CR elements? Well, they’re wearing the blue tops over what bottoms again, tomorrow night. … Hallowe’en may have been last Wednesday, but this guy and his kid may have just had the best costume ever (via Paul). … Ugh. The New Orleans Saints will be wearing mono black today against the Rams. This should be one of the worst looking NFL games this year.

College/High School Football News: On Friday night, Louisiana high school rivals St. Amant and East Ascension (Gonzales) went color vs. color (from David Steinle). Might I add, this actually was a GOOD looking color vs. color tilt. … Great photo from this 1977 Iowa vs. Beat Iowa, er, Iowa State game (Iowa State didn’t). From Too Tall Stegall.

Hockey News: The iconic Indian-head sweater is still getting love around the NHL. In a recent NHL.com players poll, the Blackhawks’ home red sweater was voted the best jersey in the NHL (From Tom O’Grady). … Instead of typical camopander, Canadian hockey teams know how to honor Remembrance/Veterans Day (from Al N. Kreit). … Here’s something you’re likely to never see again: “Zero Fucks Given” about a manufacturer’s logo (from A Random Joe). … Check out these Carey Price red pads. Says submitter Mike Engle, “These red pads were once dubbed “practice only,” then Price once warmed up in these in a game he didn’t start in, now they got game action…but the Habs lost 4-1, so I don’t think we’ll see these for a while.”

College Hoops News: Eastern Kentucky has switched from Under Armour to Adidas and has new uniforms. Their football team has been wearing Adidas for a few seasons now and now men’s basketball joins them. Here’s a couple looks at the home unis, and here’s a look at the roadies (from Travis Coffee).

Soccer News: Italian giants Juventus celebrate their 121th anniversary this week. Besides some historical content that was shared on social media, the club also released a special 121-years anniversary shirt featuring all logos in club history (from Josh Hinton). … These are the black armbands Arsenal wore against Liverpool last night in honor of Leicester City (from Mark Coale).

Grab Bag: Pacific Rim Stalwart Jeremy Brahm asks, “How about the serifs on Suntory Sunbirds uniforms in Japanese Men’s V.LEAGUE?” The Minnesota Vikings are not impressed. … I’m not sure there’s anything really uni related, here, but Jimmer Vilk got a front row seat to a big rivalry game in Volleyball. He even shot video!

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