College Football Uniforms - 2015 Season

[pianoknight]

Good grief, stop it already:

"EMBROIDERED STRIPES SYMBOLIZING MILITARY UNIFORM INSIGNIAS." Does Adidas seriously think it's fooling anyone with that? off, 3 stripes.

Apparently these shoes are to honor the late Pat Tillman.

Of course they are. It says right in the PT-42 badge description. ASU's tried getting a lot of mileage out of that, and the current climate of sports design is to mine your team's history for anything that can be used to justify a certain concept, so it's not surprising. That doesn't make me a fan of ASU football players running around like pretend-U.S. Army Rangers though.

Yeah it's ridiculous, but not surprising. ASU rides that Tillman angle HARD (and probably should). They had just finished the Pat Tillman Veterans Center when I first got there and obviously poured a TON of money into it.

I get that Pat Tillman was a tragedy but I feel like an athletic identity needs to be bigger than just one hero's story. Every sport, every team has their own heroes. Nebraska was one of the first colleges with a black football player (and Mizzou refused to play us because of it), but you don't see them playing out Black History celebration angle.

Notre Dame had Rudy or Rockne. Iowa had Kinnick. Probably every university in America has had a former athlete join the military at some point.

Look, I respect Tillman and his story, but sometimes you have to honor the legacy by not whoring out the legacy. And I feel like ASU does that a bit. It starts feeling like Oregon and their "pick a cancer to support this week" thing.

[guest23]

Good grief, stop it already:

"EMBROIDERED STRIPES SYMBOLIZING MILITARY UNIFORM INSIGNIAS." Does Adidas seriously think it's fooling anyone with that? off, 3 stripes.

Apparently these shoes are to honor the late Pat Tillman.

Of course they are. It says right in the PT-42 badge description. ASU's tried getting a lot of mileage out of that, and the current climate of sports design is to mine your team's history for anything that can be used to justify a certain concept, so it's not surprising. That doesn't make me a fan of ASU football players running around like pretend-U.S. Army Rangers though.

Yeah it's ridiculous, but not surprising. ASU rides that Tillman angle HARD (and probably should). They had just finished the Pat Tillman Veterans Center when I first got there and obviously poured a TON of money into it.

I get that Pat Tillman was a tragedy but I feel like an athletic identity needs to be bigger than just one hero's story. Every sport, every team has their own heroes. Nebraska was one of the first colleges with a black football player (and Mizzou refused to play us because of it), but you don't see them playing out Black History celebration angle.

Notre Dame had Rudy or Rockne. Iowa had Kinnick. Probably every university in America has had a former athlete join the military at some point.

Look, I respect Tillman and his story, but sometimes you have to honor the legacy by not whoring out the legacy. And I feel like ASU does that a bit. It starts feeling like Oregon and their "pick a cancer to support this week" thing.

It's pretty disappointing that somebody who purposely did not want their fame and notoriety to intersect with their military service is having their legacy tarnished in just that way. It's pretty obvious that neither asu or aid care about that though and they are going to exploit his legacy for their own benefit.

[FiddySicks]

Well, there are essentially two sides to the whole Pat Tillman story.

I'm gonna preface this by saying that these (GOOD and BAD) are basically the very end of either spectrum, and NOT my personal opinions on the matter.

THE GOOD: The first side is what the state of Arizona/major media/military organizations/ect try to make it out to be. That he was a person who sacrificed millions of dollars for his country and was tragically killed in the line of duty fighting for our freedom. He was a guy who wanted little to no public recognition for what he did because it was simply the right thing to do and he was that kind of person. He was a kind and gentile soul who wanted nothing more than to protect his fellow Americans. He was known by his peers as someone who represented "All that was good in sports" and "Personified all the best values of his country, and the NFL."

That's the side ASU plays up and whores the hell out of because that's a pretty damn strong representation of your school. It was a national story at the time he entered the military and at the time he was killed. Hell, I even remember where I was when I heard he died (McD's parking lot during lunch break sophomore year), and this was YEARS before I ever even considered getting my education at ASU. That's a story that transcends sports/athletics/schools/ect and wraps it all up really nicely with a big giant patriotic bow on top. ASU uses this side and will steadfastly defend it to the death because it's a HUGE money maker for them. Now don't get me wrong, someone like that should be praised by the organizations they represent/previously represented. It's a story that's basically a model for the romantacism of the old timey values of this country and it pretty much just fell into Arizona State's laps. So in that sense, I can't totally blame them for trying to capitalize off of it because we all do things similar to that all the time (maybe not on such a grand scale, but it's basically human nature), and technically, they did have at least some part in molding who he was.



But then there's the other side of the story. And this is where things get really convoluted and REALLY ugly.

THE BAD: The other side of the story is that Pat Tillman was nothing more than a roided up Jingoistic gloryhound and a downright terrible human being, who basically got himself shot and killed by his own squadron due to his total and absolute stupidity. He was known as unreasonably cruel to his fellow soldiers, and was also known to ignore orders constantly and put his platoon in serious danger in search of his own personal glory time after time. He essentially took three bullets to the back of the head for the sake of making sure he wasn't going to get everyone around him killed. He was known as a relentless bully and I've heard stories of how Tillman treated people that were downright horrifying. And they stem from his early life in Northern California, his days at ASU, his brief time in the NFL, and finally his time in the military. There's also another sub plot to this which basically says that Tillman went over there as a patriot fighting for his country and by the time he was killed had pulled a complete 180 and was completely against the war efforts. Story goes that the higher ups in the military were so terrified of having such a public, personal figure speaking up against the war efforts that they assasinated him to prevent that.

Now, that's a terribly scathing review of someone's charicter, isn't it? Especially for someone who's considered a national hero by many. So you can most certainly see how this viewpoint would even piss some people off to the point of violence. But there are a LOT of people associated with ASU (within their academic department, athletic department, and even their veterans association) who have told these stories. And it ROYALLY pisses off the university. In part because it's so disrespectful to his memory, but in WAY BIGGER part because it's an attempt to with their cash cow. ASU isn't known for being a bastillion for extremely successful and marketable athletes (or even academic figures, for that matter) that they can constantly pimp like even other schools in their conference have, so they basically have to do with what they have. ANY talk of the potential negative sides of Pat Tillman are met with serious resistence because of every student that's been through ASU, nobody is more marketable to them than Pat Tillman. I also suspect that the rumors of Tillman's "bad" side, no matter the authenticity of the claims, is one of the major reasons they push him and his legacy so hard. They in essence want to cover up anything that can hurt that brand by overdoing the whole PT42 thing. They'd rather risk annoying you by inundating you with his glory than have you even question what kind of guy he really was.

Now, how much of either end of those perspectives are actually true? I have absolutely no idea. I suspect that the GOOD side is probably closer to the truth, but polished up quite a bit in order to sell the brand of Pat Tillman. But on the other side of things, while I feel that the negative views of Pat Tillman are WAY over the top, there's probably at least certain elements of the truth within all of that. I believe that Tillman was essentially a stand up guy who's persona absolutely exploded beyond what he could control, and it probably did go to his head a bit. Is that what ultimately got him killed? Probably not. But would it be completely shocking to hear of a soldier who put his platoon in harms way getting taken out to prevent them all from getting killed? No, not really.

This whole assessment may come across as kind of cold and calculating on the part of Arizona State, and I wouldn't completely disagree with you there. But they're one of the absolute largest businesses in the state and unfortunately that's the angle a lot of huge corporations/companies/organizations have to take in order to keep doing what they're doing and making the kind of money that they do. I saw this method of operation firsthand while I was there.

[pianoknight]

Well, there are essentially two sides to the whole Pat Tillman story.

I'm gonna preface this by saying that these (GOOD and BAD) are basically the very end of either spectrum, and NOT my personal opinions on the matter.

THE GOOD: The first side is what the state of Arizona/major media/military organizations/ect try to make it out to be. That he was a person who sacrificed millions of dollars for his country and was tragically killed in the line of duty fighting for our freedom. He was a guy who wanted little to no public recognition for what he did because it was simply the right thing to do and he was that kind of person. He was a kind and gentile soul who wanted nothing more than to protect his fellow Americans. He was known by his peers as someone who represented "All that was good in sports" and "Personified all the best values of his country, and the NFL."

That's the side ASU plays up and whores the hell out of because that's a pretty damn strong representation of your school. It was a national story at the time he entered the military and at the time he was killed. Hell, I even remember where I was when I heard he died (McD's parking lot during lunch break sophomore year), and this was YEARS before I ever even considered getting my education at ASU. That's a story that transcends sports/athletics/schools/ect and wraps it all up really nicely with a big giant patriotic bow on top. ASU uses this side and will steadfastly defend it to the death because it's a HUGE money maker for them. Now don't get me wrong, someone like that should be praised by the organizations they represent/previously represented. It's a story that's basically a model for the romantacism of the old timey values of this country and it pretty much just fell into Arizona State's laps. So in that sense, I can't totally blame them for trying to capitalize off of it because we all do things similar to that all the time (maybe not on such a grand scale, but it's basically human nature), and technically, they did have at least some part in molding who he was.

But then there's the other side of the story. And this is where things get really convoluted and REALLY ugly.

THE BAD: The other side of the story is that Pat Tillman was nothing more than a roided up Jingoistic gloryhound and a downright terrible human being, who basically got himself shot and killed by his own squadron due to his total and absolute stupidity. He was known as unreasonably cruel to his fellow soldiers, and was also known to ignore orders constantly and put his platoon in serious danger in search of his own personal glory time after time. He essentially took three bullets to the back of the head for the sake of making sure he wasn't going to get everyone around him killed. He was known as a relentless bully and I've heard stories of how Tillman treated people that were downright horrifying. And they stem from his early life in Northern California, his days at ASU, his brief time in the NFL, and finally his time in the military. There's also another sub plot to this which basically says that Tillman went over there as a patriot fighting for his country and by the time he was killed had pulled a complete 180 and was completely against the war efforts. Story goes that the higher ups in the military were so terrified of having such a public, personal figure speaking up against the war efforts that they assasinated him to prevent that.

Now, that's a terribly scathing review of someone's charicter, isn't it? Especially for someone who's considered a national hero by many. So you can most certainly see how this viewpoint would even piss some people off to the point of violence. But there are a LOT of people associated with ASU (within their academic department, athletic department, and even their veterans association) who have told these stories. And it ROYALLY pisses off the university. In part because it's so disrespectful to his memory, but in WAY BIGGER part because it's an attempt to with their cash cow. ASU isn't known for being a bastillion for extremely successful and marketable athletes (or even academic figures, for that matter) that they can constantly pimp like even other schools in their conference have, so they basically have to do with what they have. ANY talk of the potential negative sides of Pat Tillman are met with serious resistence because of every student that's been through ASU, nobody is more marketable to them than Pat Tillman. I also suspect that the rumors of Tillman's "bad" side, no matter the authenticity of the claims, is one of the major reasons they push him and his legacy so hard. They in essence want to cover up anything that can hurt that brand by overdoing the whole PT42 thing. They'd rather risk annoying you by inundating you with his glory than have you even question what kind of guy he really was.

Now, how much of either end of those perspectives are actually true? I have absolutely no idea. I suspect that the GOOD side is probably closer to the truth, but polished up quite a bit in order to sell the brand of Pat Tillman. But on the other side of things, while I feel that the negative views of Pat Tillman are WAY over the top, there's probably at least certain elements of the truth within all of that. I believe that Tillman was essentially a stand up guy who's persona absolutely exploded beyond what he could control, and it probably did go to his head a bit. Is that what ultimately got him killed? Probably not. But would it be completely shocking to hear of a soldier who put his platoon in harms way getting taken out to prevent them all from getting killed? No, not really.

This whole assessment may come across as kind of cold and calculating on the part of Arizona State, and I wouldn't completely disagree with you there. But they're one of the absolute largest businesses in the state and unfortunately that's the angle a lot of huge corporations/companies/organizations have to take in order to keep doing what they're doing and making the kind of money that they do. I saw this method of operation firsthand while I was there.

This is a fantastic write up. Nice job balancing both extremes and like you said, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. Martin Luther King Jr was alleged to be a cheater and womanizer. Fact is, nobody is perfect and we're all flawed human beings. It's why hero worship really only works in comic books, movies and religion (not trying to start a conversation on THAT topic, though) - you need a completely spotless, unflawed leader to rally behind.

[nuordr]

Back to uniform related news. Here are some combos for this week:

South Dakota State Jacks will have a special helmet for homecoming:

New:

Old:

[pianoknight]

That helmet is beautiful.

[RollDamnHawkeyes]

UTAH IS STRAIGHT FIRE

KIDS, THIS IS WHAT FIRE LOOKS LIKE

[seattlesonicsofsacramento]

I'm not feeling the Jackrabbit's neckline or whatever you want to call that

[VikingsNotMinnesota]

That helmet is beautiful.

I want to agree with you, but I can't help but think it looks like a high school helmet. I'm not really big on the mascots on helmet thing, always looks amatuer to me.

[pianoknight]

That helmet is beautiful.

I want to agree with you, but I can't help but think it looks like a high school helmet. I'm not really big on the mascots on helmet thing, always looks amatuer to me.

I'm not normally a fan either, but Jackrabbits is such a unique identity and that logo is probably the best rabbit logo I've ever seen.

[LEWJ]

That helmet is beautiful.

Love it. But I can't help but think there will be numbers on the opposite side.

[VikingsNotMinnesota]

That helmet is beautiful.

I want to agree with you, but I can't help but think it looks like a high school helmet. I'm not really big on the mascots on helmet thing, always looks amatuer to me.

I'm not normally a fan either, but Jackrabbits is such a unique identity and that logo is probably the best rabbit logo I've ever seen.

I mean I agree with you, it IS a nice helmet, but I don't think college when I see it. Maybe it's the colors, it looks kinda cartoony.

Love it. But I can't help but think there will be numbers on the opposite side.

I'm pretty sure the SD is on the other side, which makes it all worse.

[djam2410]

Miss St blackout jerseys complete with aluminum foil numbers to simulate the blackout effect most people will have from seeing those ugly shockweb marks & ugly foil

[hailstateunis]

Miss St blackout jerseys complete with aluminum foil numbers to simulate the blackout effect most people will have from seeing those ugly shockweb marks & ugly foil

Yep. Known about these since June:

http://msuunitracker.blogspot.com/2015/06/black-jerseys-officially-coming-in-2015.html

Helmet is expect to be matte maroon; pants are still unknown but expected to be black also. The above image was labed a "uniform reveal", even though it only shows the jersey, which we already knew about. I was disappointed that the helmet and pants were withheld.

[CLEstones]

UTAH IS STRAIGHT FIRE

KIDS, THIS IS WHAT FIRE LOOKS LIKE

Am I the only one around here who doesn't think that Utah's uniforms aren't all that great? I love the satin helmet, but the jersey's and pants don't do anything for me. The uniforms, as a whole, doesn't do much of anything for me either.

[djam2410]

Miss St blackout jerseys complete with aluminum foil numbers to simulate the blackout effect most people will have from seeing those ugly shockweb marks & ugly foil

Yep. Known about these since June:

http://msuunitracker.blogspot.com/2015/06/black-jerseys-officially-coming-in-2015.html

Helmet is expect to be matte maroon; pants are still unknown but expected to be black also. The above image was labed a "uniform reveal", even though it only shows the jersey, which we already knew about. I was disappointed that the helmet and pants were withheld.

Saw you detail these in your tracker awhile ago I am guessing this is the first live look at them. I wonder what the throwback will look like

[hailstateunis]

Miss St blackout jerseys complete with aluminum foil numbers to simulate the blackout effect most people will have from seeing those ugly shockweb marks & ugly foil

Yep. Known about these since June:

http://msuunitracker.blogspot.com/2015/06/black-jerseys-officially-coming-in-2015.html

Helmet is expect to be matte maroon; pants are still unknown but expected to be black also. The above image was labed a "uniform reveal", even though it only shows the jersey, which we already knew about. I was disappointed that the helmet and pants were withheld.

Saw you detail these in your tracker awhile ago I am guessing this is the first live look at them. I wonder what the throwback will look like

Those didn't happen, though it would've been interesting to see. It would've been last week. Basically I just mocked those up after it was rumored that they would be worn. In my preseason predictions I predicted that they wouldn't be worn; regardless I caught some flack from MSU fans for being "wrong."

[tj4eck]

At Syracuse

The Count sure loves that Nike uniform.

I hope Syracuse goes Navy. Orange vs. Gold would not be appealing.

I see 18. Not counting the top right corner logo.

[bigwalk]

Duke going black/white/black at VT, just like they did last time they went to Lane (and won, hence the repeat.)

[Billy B]

Illinois will be wearing the Gray Ghost uniforms at homecoming:

Booooo.

One of my favorite t-shirts is based off this uniform, but that's as far as this design should go. They don't need to be wearing gray uniforms, especially for homecoming where they should be in orange/blue/orange.