Good Sunday Morning, Uni Watchers, and welcome to Week 11 of the Sunday Morning Uni Watch. I hope today’s splash photo inflicted no damage to your retinae.
I thought I was done featuring Oregon this season but yesterday’s tilt with the University of Washington was … something.
We knew earlier in the week that Oregon was going full highlighter, but up until a couple hours before gametime, it was assumed (wrongly as it turns out) that Washington would be going gold/white/purple. An early version of Dennis’ Pac Tracker even had that combination. But apparently a few hours before kickoff, Washington asked for, and was granted, permission to wear their purple jerseys. Unfortunately for Oregon, it turned out to be a bad decision.
Now, I’ve argued over the years, and I maintain, that when teams wear gold (yellow) jerseys, those should be considered as “light,” and opposing teams should wear their dark jerseys. I didn’t envision a situation where my yellow jersey “rule” would apply to a team decked in head to toe yellow, as the Ducks were, opposing a team going all-purple from the neck down. But that’s what happened yesterday evening in Eugene, where we had quite the uni-battle.
I watched almost the whole game, and honestly, it wasn’t the worst uni matchup I’ve ever seen, and it certainly wasn’t lacking for contrast. Twitter had a lot of fun with it, even invoking the almost mandatory Teletubby reference:
washington-oregon uniform matchup today pic.twitter.com/OqSQsPi2oM
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) November 13, 2022
It was also pretty interesting that the line of scrimmage and line to gain superimpositions were in purple and yellow.
Also, you may have noticed during the game, the 4-yard lines were painted yellow (instead of the usual white). I think we’ve mentioned it before, but all Pac-12 teams honored Spencer Webb, a former Ducks tight end who died tragically this summer from a climbing accident, by painting their 4 yard lines yellow. Oregon is doing that all season long (h/t to Max Weintraub).
OK, I think I’m done (in more ways than one) with Oregon for 2022. But one more pic for posterity:
Should you so desire, you can see more photos here.
Ok. Now, on to TJ with the rest of your…
by Terry Duroncelet, Jr.
Hello, and welcome to Week 11! Now before we get on with what went down over the weekend, I want to shine some light on why I seemed low-energy last week. I, uh… was low-energy last week. Th-that’s it, that’s the statement. Last week was a chaotic week for me, and by the time I was finishing up last week’s column, I almost fell asleep at my computer TWICE. With that being said, I’m sure I missed a bunch of obvious games, so apologies for that. This week should be better, though!
Anywho, buckle up, because there was A LOT of flag-pandering, a lot of camo, and a whole lot of dad Rock (it’s jokes, promise). Yep, G.I. Joevember is in full-swing.
From Tuesday:
Miami (OH)/Ohio: Miami OH wore grey unis in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the relationship between the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and Miami University.
• Toledo/Ball State: HOLY TOLEDO, we got a double-whammy on the visual side. Toledo wore BFBS (ya missed the window by about *consults my PC’s calendar* TWO WEEKS) paired with camo decals, and Ball State is the first amongst the Week 11 participants to wear S&S decals on their helmets (closer look, with big thanks to Blaise D’Sylva, of course).
From Wednesday:
• Western Michigan vs North Illinois: GFGS for the Broncos (closer look at the helmet).
• Central Michigan/Buffalo: Nothing particularly uni-notable here, I just wanted an excuse to weave this run in.
From Saturday:
• Michigan/Nebraska: This game was SO CLOSE to glory, but then the Wolverines had to muck it up by going mono-navy. It’s like when you have an otherwise delicious dessert, but then you add coconut shavings to it. VILE. This is how Michigan’s mono-blue made me feel. And how’s about a little bit of decal death while we’re at it?
• As mentioned, there were PLENTY of teams with aesthetic demonstrations for (the day after) Veterans Day, including (but most certainly not limited to): Arkansas, Illinois, West Virginia, Michigan State, Louisiana-Monroe, Troy, Iowa, Middle Tennessee (yes, those are different stripes), UAB, South Alabama, FIU, Coastal Carolina, and… I have no idea who else. It’s a cacophony of performative patriotism, it’s been a long week, MY BRAIN NEEDS SLEEP
• Ole Miss/Alabama: Ole Miss wore their light blue lids and shirts against Bama.
• Clemson/Louisville: Clemson wore their seldom-seen purple tops for Military Appreciation Night against Louisville.
• Penn State/Maryland: Road throws for the Terps.
• West Virginia/Oklahoma: The Sooners wore their Rough Rider roads against West Virginia.
• South Florida/SMU: The USF Bulls also partook in the (post) Veterans Day festivities, but their look was just a bit more involved than just slapping a flag-pandering decal on the helmets and calling it a day. It almost has 4th of July energy, don’t it?
• WKU/Rice: Western Kentucky not only wore mono-red, but brought out this friend on their helmets for the occasion! (closer look)
• Minnesota/Northwestern: I cannot stop laughing about how comically-big the decals that Minnesota’s been using as of late.
• Navy/Notre Dame: I guess “2 ears, 1 mouth” doesn’t apply here.
• Iowa/Wisconsin: One word to describe Iowa’s pant stripe on their black trou is T H I Q Q.
• Okay, now it’s just getting ridiculous.
• Marshall/Appalachian State: Every year, Marshall honors the 75 victims of the 1970 airline crash with some kind of uniform-based tribute. This year not only marks the 10th year in a row that they’ve done such, but this is also the first year that they’ve worn a black helmet, which honestly ties the look together. The one time in which non-October-sanctioned black uniforms are acceptable.
Thanks, TJ! Great stuff as usual. Now we move on to Wade, who brings you his…
“Clemson wore their seldom-seen purple tops”
– Over the last 10-20 years, I wonder if Clemson or LSU tends to wear purple jerseys less frequently.
Clemson hasn’t worn the purple jerseys more than once per season (usually their military appreciation day) since 2010, and didn’t wear them at all in 2011-2012. Under Dabo, they wore them with the purple pants once per season from 2013-2021 (link), so it was notable that yesterday they paired them with the orange pants. As Rex pointed out in another comment, yesterday was the first time since 2010 they paired the orange pants with the purple shirts.
I cannot stop laughing about how comically-big the decals that Minnesota’s been using as of late.
Properly-sized. Just like the numbers. I. Love. This. Look.
I always said the Gophers should wear gold helmets, but if they made this their primary home uni, I would not complain.
Agree to disagree Jim. I’m with TD on the ridiculously big M. As an alum of the YOU, I have always been frustrated by ever changing helmets. Is you look at the history, they’ve never had a goo handle on the size of the M from too small to too big.
link
As for the use of gold, it makes sense since they are the Golden Gophers, but I have been always partial to Athletic Yellow.
That 1976 helmet is what I think of for Minnesota. But I’d be happy with athletic yellow or white helmets, as long as the M is big.
Actually, I flirted with putting UW/UO in The Five. Had Oregon gone with green instead of black…
Too bad it didn’t snow. It would have looked even better, like that Western vs Queens game up North.
Michigan State looked good. If you have to do stars and stripes, I like the way they did it.
Thanks for the ride, Mount Allison!
“Had Oregon gone with green instead of black”
Um…they went with yellow ;)
Obviously you’re referring to the uni numbers/accents. Unfortunately, their all yellow helmets/jerseys/pants have the black (and one could make the argument they’re actually nightmare green — which is almost black) accents. I’d have to check, but in the “modern” era — for them — I don’t think their yellow jerseys have ever had green accents/colors. They can do it with the green (link), so it kinda pisses me off they can’t do the inverse colors with the yellow.
Here is a short video from 2014 when Mount Allison last won the Atlantic conference championship.
link
Mount A is a perennial underdog and the video talks about this. The school’s total enrolment is under 2500 students. It is a triumph based on this that they can put together a team that completes in U Sports football.
Also, a look at a couple of the older helmets in the video. The helmets back in 2014 when the wings looked different and prior helmets featuring the A with the wings logo.
The Clemson game is especially notable because they broke out the orange pants with purple jerseys for the first time since 2010
acc-tracker.com/teams/clemson/
Also: Clemson (at least under Dabo) doesn’t break out the orange pants until they’re playing for a title — and yesterday they locked up the ACC Atlantic division (not quite a title, but still). So we can expect to see the orange pants again when they play for the ACC title and whatever Bowl they end up being invited to.
Should see them for the South Carolina game as well this season as Dabo considers that the “state championship” game.
link
No Wyoming v. Colorado State? Both in traditional colors White/White/Yellow v Green/Green/Gold for the Bronze Boot in the Border War?
link
link
“Both in traditional colors…”
That’s likely why the game was not included — we try to focus on uniform one-offs, oddities and other special circumstances meriting a mention. Both teams in school colors (while rare these days) usually isn’t enough on its own to garner a mention.
I am a bit surprised it wasn’t in the Five and One…but I think CSU’s numbers are a bit too small for Jimmer’s liking.
We’re almost at the point where a traditional uniform with traditional colors is the exception.
Hey Wade!
Ignorant American football questions about the rouge: if the Montreal returner had kicked the ball out of (beautifully ginormous) end zone, would the ball still be live? Would Lavel then be able to potentially return it for a touchdown?
If so, that sure adds drama to a field goal attempt.
Hi tosaman,
The ball is still live when kicked out of end zone. In the situation, Montreal had to avoid giving up a rouge (single). The option is to run it out which was the decision made. However, he did not make it. If you don’t think you can run it out, you have to get it out. Kicking it out is the other option and the ball is live.
Essentially, it is rare that a team would be able to return it for a TD. The punter will often be a player waiting in the end zone in this situation if a kick is missed. The team who they kick it back to is not in a kick return set up. They were set up to kick a field goal. Often, a team will try to kick it back into the end zone after it has been kicked out. The best option at that time to get just a single point needed to win.
This situation does not happen often, but here is an example in the CFL from 2010. I have linked the video below and it is entertaining. Montreal Alouettes missed the field goal and Toronto Argonauts had to kick it out. Montreal kicked it back in and Montreal actually scored a touchdown. It basically breaks down to disorganized chaos all in to attempt to score a single point (or avoid being scored on).
link
Great stuff! Wish there was a way to incorporate that south of border to spice up missed field goals, but the shallower end zone means most kicks, good or not, go out of bounds.
Western Mustangs v. Queen’s Gaels shows how a mono yellow v mono purple should look like.