Arizona State has donned a variety of uniforms over the years. The infamous JediASU, content creator extraordinaire, has compiled and organized ASU Football’s wins and losses based upon what helmets, jerseys, and overall uniform combinations they’ve worn since 2011.
Helmet Records
The table above is ordered by the winning percentage by color of the helmet. Because some of the helmet colors were worn only 3 or fewer times, there are a couple of outliers represented in the 100% mark of the Tillman Brotherhood khaki, the 66.7% mark of the Desert Hammer gray, and the 0% of the Desert Chrome copper helmets.
Moving on from those options and into the most often worn helmet colors, we can analyze the statistics a bit more.
The most frequently used helmet colors are gold, black, white, and maroon. Of those, maroon has the highest winning percentage since 2011 at 65%, although it has been worn the least at a mark of 20 times total. Black has the next best winning percentage at 59.1% and has been worn 22 times. Gold has been worn the most with a total of 35 times and comes up just short of the black helmet in terms of winning percentage at 57.1%. White has the lowest winning percentage at 45.5% and has been worn 22 times, the same amount as black.
The high winning percentage in maroon helmets is impressive as they have been worn for quite a few difficult games over the years, particularly Maroon Monsoon color theme games. Those include games against Stanford once and USC twice.
Black helmets also tend to be reserved for games against the most elite competition whether at home or on the road. Games against Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Oregon, and USC all come to mind, yet the Sun Devils still boast a nearly 60% mark while wearing those helmets. The percentage could be even higher if the two losses in the flame helmets stood alone in their own category as well, but those are included in the 13-9 black helmet record.
Gold helmets have been worn the most, by a wide margin, in games ranging from the lowest to highest of competition which therefore gives it the greatest sample representation. It should come as no surprise, then that the winning percentage in gold helmets is only 0.4% higher than the Sun Devils’ overall winning percentage since 2011.
White helmets have the lowest winning percentage by a long shot and this should also not be a big surprise. While they have worn the white helmets at home, in college football, white is often associated with the away team and the Sun Devils have most often worn these helmets on the road. Road woes are no stranger to this program, so when the Devils do wear white, it is often associated with a difficult road test, therefore resulting in the lowest winning percentage of the four major helmet colors.
Decal Records
Decals have seen plenty of variety in size, shape, and color over the years as well. Here, we will analyze wins and losses with big pitchforks, regular-sized pitchforks, and helmets that had no pitchfork at all.
Regular sized pitchforks have the best winning percentage by a slim margin at 60.9% and have been worn a total of 69 times. While that’s nice for them, the big pitchforks come very close in winning percentage at 59.3% overall, though the large forks have only been worn a total of 27 times. The large pitchfork was first introduced in 2012, so the regular-sized fork had a full year under its belt before the big fork could begin compiling wins and losses. The regular pitchfork has also been used more for a couple of reasons: First, it is the original logo brought upon with the redesign and is still most commonly recognizable. Second, gold helmets are the most commonly worn helmet color, and until last season’s military appreciation game, a large fork had never been worn on a gold helmet.
Helmets with no pitchforks on them have a 1-12 record-equaling a 12.5% winning percentage. These helmets include helmets with Sparky, the Frank Kush 1976 Sunburst throwback, and the flame helmets. The first win with a non-pitchfork helmet during the pitchfork era did not come until 2018 when the Sun Devils wore a Sparky helmet in a 38-20 win against Utah.
Copper Uniform Record
Though short-lived, the Copper Age of ASU Football uniforms had a strong and lasting impact as many fans, recruits, and current players would still like to see it return. During the 3 seasons in which copper was utilized as a color option, the Sun Devils wore uniforms featuring the metallic accent a total of 7 times. They went 4-3 overall including a win for the ages over Notre Dame, 2 memorable wins against UCLA, and a win in the 2015 Territorial Cup game.
That 4-3 record equates to 57.1%, almost equal to the program’s 56.7% winning percentage since the 2011 rebrand. Though these uniforms were worn during some of ASU’s most difficult and critical games, they were still able to break .500 and produce some of Sun Devil fans’ greatest football memories in them. Even if they never return, may we always remember the “Turn Down for What” kickoff dance, the Ballage Moonwalk, and Zane Gonzalez breaking the all-time record for field goals made in the copper digs.
Helmets Worn by Year
Another point of interest is in the trends of what colors were worn during which seasons and how that has changed over the years.
In 2011, the rebrand was fresh, and black was all the rage as it was the new primary color that was introduced. As a result, it was worn 5 of ASU’s 13 games that season whereas the new maroon helmet and tradition gold were worn 3 times each, with the white helmet only being worn twice.
The helmet color distribution was more equitable in 2012 with black still being worn the most at 4 times, and the other 3 helmet colors all being worn 3 times.
In 2013, gold helmet usage went up as it was worn 4 times, maroon saw an uptick in usage as it was worn 5 times, white remained consistent at 3, and black fell to 2 times.
2014 had the same usage of gold helmets at 4 games and saw some slight variation with the rest of the helmets with maroon being worn for 2 games, white being worn for 4 games, and black being worn for 3 games.
While gold, maroon, and black helmet usage remained consistent from 2014 to 2015, white helmets were used only 2 times. With a new line of copper accented options came a new gray helmet option as well. The gray helmet was used in 2 games during the 2015 season.
2016’s gold helmet usage remained consistent with the 3 previous seasons at 4 games but saw a noticeable reduction in the use of maroon and black helmet with both being used only 1 time. White helmets were worn 4 times, gray was worn 1 time, and a new copper chrome helmet was worn 1 time as well.
Following an offseason memo requiring a rededication to traditional colors, 2017 had the highest usage of gold helmets to date at 7 games. Maroon was worn only once, and both white and black options were worn just twice. There was also an alternate uniform which featured a khaki camo pattern for the Tillman Brotherhood tribute that was worn once.
In 2018, gold helmets almost matched the 2017 mark by being worn 6 times. Maroon helmets were worn 3 times, and both white and black helmets were both worn 2 times.
2019 is sure to carry its own surprises when it comes to helmets, but it may not be in the typical way.
Keep an eye out for Uniformity right here on Devils Digest to keep tabs on ASU Football’s uniforms throughout the 2019 season. The first game-week article will be out next week. While you wait, please feel free to review more uniform tables from JediASU featuring jersey color, pant color, and the success of the various uniform combinations worn since 2011.
