College Football 2014 Season

[djam2410]

I think the problem with Washington, as much as anything, is consistency in it's look from week to week. Gold helmets over purple jerseys over gold pants is Washington football. Yes the pants need stripes. Yes the black sleeves are unnecessary. But I don't think that the new look is awful. What would make the difference is if they'd simply wear this uniform full time at home, and then switch to white jerseys and keep the rest on the road. No white pants. No white helmets. No purple pants. No black anything.

Frankly, that's the issue with most of college football right now when it comes to uniforms: it's not that the modern uniforms are bad in many cases. It's that teams don't use any one look consistently. Most teams that have modern looks have three options for each of the the three main elements. An alternate once a year is fine. But mix and match every week is too much.

All they need to do is make the black area gold and just add a black border if they want to incorporate that into it somehow, that would look fantastic

[Ted Cunningham]

To continue the thought: this is something I've thought about a lot with WVU since they got their new look last year. Since they removed the stripes up and down the sides of the jerseys, I feel like the current look is a better successor to the 80s and 90s look. But that only works if that consistency principle is applied.

Now I admit that this uniform has its flaws. A few of those numbers are downright ugly (even though I like the thinking behind the design), and the black is again unnecessary. But it has grown on me.

With that said though, I don't think that what they wore this weekend, for instance, looked anything like WVU from an overall standpoint. I thought on more than one occasion that they looked more like LSU than anything:

I chose those angles/zooms because that's about the distance at which football is seen in action, either on TV or in person. While the details are visible, they're not paramount in recognizing a team by helmet color over jersey color over pants color. Gold/white/gold immediately put me in mind of LSU (while OSU looked like OSU at home in white/orange/white).

That's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. So I guess this was as good an opportunity to put that out there as any.

tl;dr I think that maintaining a consistent look week in and week out is more important to "fixing" college football's current aesthetic than going "back" to anything more traditional or conservative when it comes to design.

[WSU151]

When I was watching WVU highlights this past weekend, one of my first thoughts as well was "wow, they look a lot like another team...oh yeah, they look like LSU from a distance".

Navy/navy/yellow is always my favorite combo for the Mountaineers, and navy/white/yellow is the best away look.

[Clintau24]

I though WVU looked pretty dang good in yellow-white-yellow. But I agree with you guys about how some things can and should be fixed, as well as looking too much like LSU. But similar looks happen all over the country. It just tends to happen when so many teams play. But as far as WVU goes, that's one of my favorite combos they've worn with these new uniforms. As much as I hate the cut-and-paste placement of shoulder caps, I think the blue works well here to cut up some monotony with the plain yellow helmets and pants.

[kewp80]

This might belong in the unpopular opinions thread, but I'm not too opposed of adding black to West Virginia's color palette. When you think about it, it's not as unnecessary as many of the teams that do, including Washington as mentioned above. Black is the color of coal, and what do you think of when you think of West Virginia? Coal. I loved their coal inspired uniforms a few years ago, but switch the grey color to a black or anthracite (literally greek for coal-like) and I think it would be a pretty nice and unique look. At least for an alt or something.

[Cosmic]

If you have navy, you don't need black. It was a big accomplishment just for the Blue Jackets to do it and not have it look awful.

[DGivens87]

Now I admit that this uniform has its flaws. A few of those numbers are downright ugly (even though I like the thinking behind the design), and the black is again unnecessary. But it has grown on me.

What's the story behind the number design? I kinda like them...

[Ben5]

I like most of those numbers too. The 5 is wonky, but if you fix that I think they are pretty solid.

[JPDesign]

I think their number set has two fundamental problems:

The kerning between the 1's:

The fact that the 5 is just an upside down 2:

[Midway]

Let's not put lipstick on a pig. That font is bad and reeks of Nike overdesign.

[DC in Da House w/o a Doubt]

Now I admit that this uniform has its flaws. A few of those numbers are downright ugly (even though I like the thinking behind the design), and the black is again unnecessary. But it has grown on me.

What's the story behind the number design? I kinda like them...

If I remember correctly, they are supposed to be modeled after a coal miner's ax.

Let's not put lipstick on a pig. That font is bad and reeks of Nike overdesign.

Agreed. Give WVU a standard number font or even the font from their previous set and these uniforms improve 10 fold.

[Rambulance]

After seeing that Oklahoma State sleeve stripe, I couldn't help but think that it would make a great sleeve stripe for West Virginia with a little tinkering.

[sportstar1212]

I don't mind West Virginia's font, partly because it reminds me of the Red Sox font, which I like.

[nuordr]

Now I admit that this uniform has its flaws. A few of those numbers are downright ugly (even though I like the thinking behind the design), and the black is again unnecessary. But it has grown on me.

What's the story behind the number design? I kinda like them...

Here are all the numbers and you should be able to go here for more information (I cannot at work because the site is blocked):

[colinturner95]

I strangely like the WVU font a lot. Given that it is a little overdesigned, I think that if it could be made to look not so angular and more block-like, it would be a much better font.

[rcb05]

A few more previews of the throwbacks A&M is wearing on Saturday. This is definitely the first time I've seen this helmet treatment.

[YesterdayWasCool]

love the rust look

[guest23]

love the rust look

Just because vintage equipment is aged and rusty today does not necessarily mean that it looked that way back in the day when it was actually used. Other than relying much more upon leather and canvas back then I'm sure the uniforms were kept in pretty good condition. While a neat effect I'm not so sure it's really a vintage look/effect.

[oldschoolvikings]

After seeing that Oklahoma State sleeve stripe, I couldn't help but think that it would make a great sleeve stripe for West Virginia with a little tinkering.

[GoGamecocks29]

FWIW, Carolina is supposedly wearing either black over black or black over white against Tennessee on Saturday (1 November). Two of our players have tweeted along the lines of new black unis. Which is surprising to say the least, as Spurrier doesn't usually shy away from garnet at Williams-Brice and our set only has white and garnet.