Jimmer Vilk’s 5 & 1
Welcome to the Five and One for 2022!
After more than a decade in hiatus, Jim Vilk (the original “5 & 1” decider) returned! And he’s back again for 2022.
The concept of the 5&1 is simple: Jim will pick five good matchups (not necessarily the five best anymore… he will have categories that will change from week to week) and one awful matchup.
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.
If you have a game you feel is “worthy” of consideration for the 5 & 1, please either post it in the comments below or tweet Mr. Vilk @JVfromOhio.
Here’s today’s 5 & 1:
Lately I’ve noticed something in the grocery store. They now sell thinner cream sandwich cookies and candy bars with air bubbles in them. And they’re trying to convince you these are good things, when they’re just giving you less goodness for the same price. Reminds me of uni makers and the whole “clean” minimalist trend. Well I want more on the football field, so every matchup in The Five has a little something extra. Can you spot the common theme?
5. The “Not The SEC Game I Had In Mind” Matchup:
Mississippi State/Alabama
I had Ole Miss/LSU penciled in for this week, but the Rebs let me down by not going navy/red/gray.
4. The “Sometimes Icy White Is Alright” Game:
Virginia/Georgia Tech
I can appreciate a mono uni… when the other team isn’t wearing one.
3. The “You Don’t Need Athletic Block Font To Look Good” Matchup:
Utah State/Wyoming
The Aggies’ numbers remind me of Charlotte’s… and they *almost* made the list as well.
2. The “That’s Gold(s), Jerry! Gold(s)!” Matchup:
Vanderbilt/Missouri
And yet it took the silver medal today.
1. Simply The Best:
Iowa/Ohio State
A classic that looked better and better to me as the day progressed.
&1. UAB/WKU
If anyone saw this game, let me know if the announcers had trouble seeing either team’s numbers.
See you next week!
Thanks, Jim! OK readers? What say you? Agree or disagree with Jimmer’s selections? Let him know in the comments below.
Am I wrong, or does Penn St usually wear their road whites for a ‘white out’ game? Regardless, Minnesota COULD have had that matchup make the list if they had worn their normal helmets instead of the metallic gold.
Speaking of metallic gold….Washington pulled out their own metallic gold helmets and shiny gold trimmed unis…for a road game at Cal???? Seemed odd.
No they’ve always worn their home blues. Makes for nice contrast with the fans and forces the other team to wear white.
I don’t think Penn State wears their road whites for their “white out” games. Don’t know why they wouldn’t (unless the NCAA has a rule that the home team has to wear their dark jerseys at home).
Since Penn State has just about the whitest road uniform in college football, wearing it for their “white out” game would make perfect sense.
PSU wears the blue so you can see them amidst the whiteout conditions. Same as when UM wore blue during their maizeout.
Actually, this game was “locked in” as making the list because of the gold Gopher helmets, but I unlocked it at the last hour. Didn’t fit the theme I ended up going with in today’s Five.
Penn State never wears the road whites at home, only the navy tops.
Re: #5 – Um, Mississippi State are not Ole Miss/Rebs.
Pretty sure he’s aware. Try reading it again.
My bad!
No, they’re not. Jimmer was saying that prior to his final list, he was prepared to pick the Ole Miss/LSU matchup (link), but settled for Alabama/Mississippi State (link) instead. He’s not saying they’re the same school. Frankly, I much preferred yesterday’s Ole Miss/LSU combo to prior matchups between the two (link, link, link) but that’s just me. I think had Ole Miss gone with blue hats and gray pants, we’d have seen this game in The Five.
And Alabama isn’t LSU. He’s saying Ole Miss/LSU is who he wanted to put there, but Ole Miss wore a bad combo. So he went with Miss St/Alabama instead.
The Wyoming Aggie with the eye glasses just tops it off! But you are right, great look.
It’s the Utah State Aggies. Wyoming are the Cowboys.
The NO Saints should take a hint from Vanderbilt.
YES.
Re: The Wyoming kicker:
This is the first time I’ve seen a kicker wearing the new Riddell Axiom helmet
It’s also the first time I’ve seen anyone wearing it without the built-in visor.
It’s strange to see a kicker with a regular facemask now.
Wyoming’s uniforms are vastly underrated.
“Wyoming’s uniforms are vastly underrated.”
Yes, they are. They used to suck (and the team had too many combos), but since the overhaul a few years back — and limiting the team to only two combos: white/brown/gold (link) and white/white/gold (link) — I’ve really grown to like them.
Wyoming are now my favorite college football team. Seinfeld had it exactly right: We are rooting for laundry.
Wyoming does look good. They’re a non-P5 team in a tiny state, so no one cares about them, but they should. Wyoming looks good.
FWIW, since you asked about announcers possibly having trouble reading uniform numbers in the &1 game, most of the time they will have “spotters” who focus on who is getting the ball, etc.
Honorable top 5 to Pitt/Louisville in Gold/White/Gold vs. White/Red/White
Louisville will never make The Five until…
1) They realize cardinals don’t have teeth.
2) They get a bigger and better number font.
I put them on a level with Oregon:
They’re a default &1 candidate until I actually see them in action.
All excellent points. I’m just enamored with matching helmet/pants combos and this one had both, with no mirrored colors
acc-tracker.com/years/2022/week09/#game5
Here, Rex. Lemme help you out with that: link
My though is if a team wears white helmets and dark jerseys, the pants should be white and not a contrasting 3rd colour.
There are 3 teams I can think of that can get away with this as it is a signature look for the team.
Wyoming definitely one of them and deserves a regular appearance in The Five.
The others. LA Chargers when they wear powder blue over athletic gold pants. USFL Breakers with the white helmets and silver pants.
I think the California versus Washington game should have gone in as an and one. You couldn’t read Washington’s numbers [ Gold numbers with purple outline on a white Jersey] and and the blue/yellow/blue of Cal is just hideous.
Cal’s blue/yellow/blue is what kept them out of &1 consideration. I loved it.
But yeah, Washington looked terrible.
The OSU-Texas game was also not very pleasing to the eye, with bright orange against burnt orange. Syracuse at Clemson was also a lot of mixed orange but in a much better way.
My favs for the week were the UTEP/Texas Western throwbacks, the Mizzou yellows, and the absolutely gorgeous Louisiana Tech anniversary unis. Three great looking one-offs done right.