By Justin Maskulinski, For The Miami Student
Linski's List
College football is back.
Those are four words that brought a single red, white and blue tear to the eyes of fanatics across America. Those four simple words ring loudly from the red turf at Roos Field at Eastern Washington University all the way to Sun Life Stadium, the home of the other Miami down in Florida.
With the arrival of college football, we also see some sick threads being worn by teams across the nation, including your very own Miami RedHawks. Last weekend the 'Hawks donned an all-white uniform, with new helmet decals. The white helmets featured a full-sized RedHawk head on the left and numbers on the right.
In case you missed it, the 'Hawks fell to Marshall University 42-27 in their season opener. The future looks bright for the Red and White as they proved they can hold their own against a team that many think is a dark horse candidate for a New Year's Day bowl.
Back to uniforms.
(Disclaimer: I work for the Miami Equipment staff. This means I am heavily biased toward Miami's uniforms, but I can also appreciate the uniforms of other teams.)
Take Florida State, for example. What looks like just a cool pattern to the naked eye on FSU's white jersey becomes a lot cooler when you read that the pattern includes the Seminole tribe's symbols for Arrow, Man on Horse and Fire.
Another team that revealed new garb was Vanderbilt University. If you watched ESPN last weekend you probably saw the issue/non-issue with the new Vandy jerseys. The all black uniform featured a school slogan, "Anchor Down" on the back of the uniform, which apparently breaks an NCAA rule. The referees were prepared to penalize Vandy for illegal use of swag, but documentation was presented and no penalties were issued. The Commodores sunk, much like an anchor, in a 37-7 loss to Temple Univeristy. Later reports have said Vanderbilt is no longer allowed to wear the all-black uniform.
Staying on the topic of black in uniforms, the University of Louisville revealed they would black out the University of Miami in a Monday night matchup. The all-black helmet that features a red metallic Louisville Cardinal head is the eye catcher on this uniform.
Sometimes the uniforms that do not change much at all are the best, and that is the case with Notre Dame. The school recently switched from Adidas to Under Armour and, thankfully, the Golden Domers looked more or less the same, just with a different logo on their gear.
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Last, but certainly not least, how could someone write a story about swagtastic college football uniforms and not say something about the University of Oregon?
Any equipment manager who says they would not want to take a tour of the Ducks' equipment room either hates their job, hates Oregon or is lying.
The Ducks opened up 2014 with white helmets, white jerseys and apple green pants. The jersey numbers and winged shoulders were apple green as well. The helmets had metallic wings and an apple green "O" on the back. When it comes to football uniforms, Oregon rarely disappoints.
There are not any stats this columnist is aware of that prove a uniform's effect on the outcome of a game, but it is fun to watch the uniform race between schools across America. There are many uniforms that have high readings on the swag-o-meter that were not in this article, and that's simply because of a self-imposed word limit.
Here's to many more college football games, and many more swagtacular uniforms.
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