More CFB Reveals, And Uncle Jimmy Corcoran Uni Watch

Good morning, all. Last night a couple of maroon and gold Sun Belt Conference teams unveiled new uniforms for the upcoming college football season. Also, what started out as an April Fool’s joke has turned into an alternate helmet for Utah State.

Let’s begin with our first maroon and gold school, the University of Louisiana-Monroe, who came up with this simple but effective black alternate uniform with a white helmet. The Warhawks are scheduled to wear this for their second game of the season against UAB on September 7th.

Well…mostly simple. There is a lot going on between the neck and the numbers, with the school logo, conference patch, maker’s mark and chest lettering. I would have preferred sleeve stripes instead of repeating the mouth design from the helmet, which is taken from the classic P-40 Warhawk fighter plane, but it still looks nice. The star logo from the plane is featured in school colors on the right hip, the back of the helmet, and inside the state of Louisiana design on the back nameplate of the jersey.

I’m loving those properly-sized highly-contrasting gold numbers, and the font they chose to use. It’s a step up from the blocky font they’ve been using lately.

I know a lot of you don’t like a white helmet on top of dark jerseys and pants. I do, so I’m glad to see this alt instead of head-to-toe black. Even without stripes, this is one of the better BFBS unis I’ve seen recently. And hopefully that number font can make it onto the regular unis as well.

The other maroon and gold team, which features a darker shade of both, is Texas State. They showed off their new white uni with a gold helmet.

Unlike ULM, the Bobcats didn’t share any photos, so I had to get screenshots of the dimly-lit hype video. The following are the only two decent looks I could get of the script Bobcats helmet.

The script seems really high on the helmet, which has maroon/white/maroon separated stripes. The jersey and pants, on the other hand, feature maroon/gold/maroon separated stripes.

Also featured on the jersey, above the conference logo, is a patch commemorating 125 years since the school’s founding…five years before they started playing football.

Kudos to Texas State for bucking the current trend and not going head-to-toe white here. I’m a sucker for script and stripes, so I’d call this a big upgrade over last year’s all-white uni with small thin numbers.

And then there’s Utah State, who must have gotten a lot of positive response from their April Fool’s prank. Their cow-themed helmet is going to be worn next week as the Aggies host Robert Morris.

‘ !

Established as the Agricultural College of Utah, we are proud to celebrate the agriculture history of Utah State University and Cache Valley as we take the field on August 31.

MORE INFO ➡️ https://t.co/BqI1dEERtW pic.twitter.com/eGLxcDSMzP

— USU Football (@USUFootball) August 23, 2024

The Salt Lake Tribune says “Cache County is home to more than 1,300 farms and is one of the top 200 counties in the nation for ‘market value sold of milk from cows,’ according to USU.” I bet none of the cows on those farms have blue spots, though. Or maybe some of them do, and that’s where Luke Skywalker got his blue milk…

This is one of those times where I’m going to use Phil’s line and say I’ll have to see what that looks like on the field before I can comment.

Show And Tell With Uncle Jimmy

Now it’s time to hear from our good friend Jimmy Corcoran, but instead of sharing stories about his dad King Corcoran, he’s going to tell us about his nephew’s new piece of really big jewelry. Take it away, Uncle Jimmy.

My nephew played for Keiser University the last four years. On Friday night (August 9th) they got their Championship rings for winning the NAIA championship. These are much nicer than I thought they would be.

(JV: I’ll say! Look at the size of that. It’s a lot bigger than some of the early Super Bowl rings)

Here are a couple of pics from the Championship game played on Dec. 18, 2023 in North Carolina. Number 13 is the QB who won the game, Justin Wake. I call him Clint Longley.

Justin was a backup QB who was pushed into action when the starter was hurt. This was the only game he started in his Keiser career, and he won the Championship. Clint Longley also won the NAIA Championship in 1973.

That is my nephew Connor Hone #7 holding the trophy. The smaller trophy he is holding with Wake is the one that goes back to Keiser, not the huge one.

It was a fun season.

That is my mother with us. Connor still has two years of eligibility left but graduated in April so he is done playing.

JV: Congratulations to Connor, and thanks, Uncle Jimmy (and Grandma)!

That's Going To Do It For Now

Enjoy the beginning of college football today. I’ll have a mini-SMUW tomorrow morning, and some more Thriftspotting with Wafflebored…and Jimmer. Take care, everyone, and I’ll see you then.