A Week in Review
Where's the fight? The passion? The ability to dig deep? Those questions have been beating drums the past few weeks, particularly after the Washington State loss. While it wasn't the prettiest game from either team, those answers of grit and intangibles were answered during and after the game by the guys in all gold. Even after falling behind, toughness and resilience prevailed. Though USC isn't the type of team, it has come to be known as in past years, any win over the Trojans is a good win, and the fact that the Sun Devils were able to overcome turnovers and penalties to earn the win was a welcome sight. Another welcome sight was the return of all gold uniforms for the first time since 1990.
Folks, take a seat, get comfortable. I'm going to tell you a quick story. Once upon a time, in a time now known as the current Inferno Student Section called "before we were born," a time that spanned two years called 1989 and 1990. During those two years, the Arizona State Sun Devil Football team wore all gold uniforms twice. Once against their in-state rival, and another time against the USC Trojans, losing in unsavory fashion in both contests. The losses weren't the only things that were ugly, as the all-gold uniforms didn't have much that were uniform about them. The gold helmet was a darker, more orange shade, the jersey a brighter yellow, and the pants a shiny gold hue that matched neither of the aforementioned uniform elements. As a result, fans that watched those games loudly exclaimed, "Never again!" whenever the idea of an all-gold rebirth was mentioned. Any time a media member or fan of a younger generation opined for such a uniform, the rabble from that crowd attempted to drown them out, for how were we ever to wear gold jerseys and win a game again?
Enter Jerry Neilly.
The man that has orchestrated the most incredible looks in college football for the last ten seasons was able to achieve another breakthrough through the adidas Reverse Retro program. When the gold Valley Heat jersey was worn for the first time this season, the equipment staff cleverly played it safe by introducing it with Sparky and maroon pants. That satisfied the old guard enough. They like the classic school colors. They love Sparky. The maroon pants avoided the "banana uniforms," as they affectionately called the original version. After a win over Colorado that opened up the opportunity for an all-gold uniform, and the equipment staff jumped on the opportunity.
That equipment staff worked their magic. Amazing maroon and gold digital camo PT*42 shield decals and center stripes graced the gold helmet, and gold pants with the PT*42 shield on the hip were worn to honor the late, great Pat Tillman and all of his brothers and sisters in arms throughout history. Gold facemask, gold gloves, gold socks, gold shoes. And they all matched, unlike the atrocities from the last century. Moreover, they were worn during a win. The fact that the gold uniforms looked so good and were worn during two wins this season effectively cuts the legs out of anyone who looked back to the 1989-90 seasons and said that they were ugly and losing uniforms. The script was flipped. Keep gold in the uniform arsenal!
As far as my overall opinion, I was very impressed. If I had one wish, it would be that the facemasks could have been maroon. That would have been the final detail to bring it all together. As it was worn last Saturday with the gold facemask, it looked incredible. I was at the game with my father, who saw the original gold uniforms, and he was very impressed by how nice the uniforms were. The Gold Rush uniform got plenty of recognition in the uniform tracker world as well. UNISWAG ranked it as the #4 uniform of the week, a respectable spot, but not high enough, in my opinion. Meanwhile, UniAuthority tagged it as the best uniform of the week. I can't say I disagree there.
Gold Rush: A+
The Week to Come
Uniform
After a much-needed bounce-back win, Arizona State heads to Seattle to take on an underachieving yet confusing Washington team. The key for the Sun Devils now is to keep the momentum going. Take the season one game at a time, which this week means braving the cool, soggy weather conditions against a team that just went toe-to-toe with Oregon last week. The Sun Devils will go into Husky Stadium wearing a gold helmet/white jersey/white pant uniform combination. This is the second combination of the season with white jerseys and pants; the first was worn with a maroon helmet in a win over UCLA.
The white jersey features a sublimated Arizona state flag in representing the sunset and the star across the chest. The star and stripes of the flag are a tonal gray. The maroon player numbers are outlined in gold on both the front and back of the jersey, as are the TV numbers on the sleeves.
The nameplate on the back of the jersey utilizes black Sun Devil Bold font, and above the nameplate is a small, maroon "ASU" outlined in gold. On the front of the jersey near the left shoulder is a black adidas logo, near the right shoulder, is a maroon and gold Pac 12 shield, and at the base of the collar is the black PT*42 shield in honor of ASU Football legend, Pat Tillman.
The white pants have a miniature gold pitchfork with black trim near the right hip and a black adidas logo near the left hip. "Sun Devils" is in maroon Sun Devil Bold running vertically along the side of the left thigh. There is paneling on the pants that features the darker tonal white, not only providing further dimension to the uniform as a whole but also serving a purpose in providing a greater range of motion.
Helmet
The gloss gold helmet will be worn for a second consecutive week. This week, the gold helmet will feature standard-sized maroon pitchforks with white trim, yet another first-time decal to be unveiled this season. The center stripe is the same maroon as the pitchforks and is bookended by two thinner white stripes. The facemask is white, and the front bumper has a gold base and maroon font that reads PT*42. An added element to the PT*42 front bumper decal is that the star separating the PT and 42 doubles as the star in the Arizona state flag, with tonal maroon rays rising from it in a subtle detail.
The maroon decals on the back of the helmet include the Pac 12 shield and the Warning label, which is in the shape of the state of Arizona with a gold border, featuring maroon text, and has a small maroon pitchfork with gold trim over Tempe. The decals on the back of the helmet are rounded by the American flag and maroon "Sun Devils" text on a white base on the helmet's rear bumper.
Cleats and Socks
The Sun Devils will wear gold cleats for a second consecutive week as well. From left to right, there are three different cleats. The first pair is an AdiZero, the next is a Freak mid, and the last is a Nasty Fly. The AdiZero cleats are typically worn by speed position players (wide receivers and defensive backs), while the Freaks have a hybrid element and can be worn by mid-size players (fullbacks, linebackers, and tight ends), and the Nasty cleats worn by heavier players (linemen).
Beginning with the pair on the left, the AdiZero features a gold base and sole, a gold tongue, gold laces, three maroon adidas stripes near the toe on the outside of the shoe, and a prominent gold AdiZero logo with a digital ghost effect on the instep near the arch. It also has a repeating pattern of the Forks Up hand sign printed in gold throughout the shoe and a gold finger loop on the heel with the phrase "Forks Up" in maroon print.
The Freak Mid pair in the middle has a gold base and translucent gold sole, gold laces, a gold tongue with a maroon Freak logo on it, three reflective maroon adidas stripes on the outside of the cleat near the toe, and a prominent maroon adidas logo on the instep. Like the AdiZero, the Freak Mid has a repeating pattern of the Forks Up hand sign printed in gold throughout the shoe and a gold finger loop on the heel with the phrase "Forks Up" in maroon print.
The Nasty Fly is the final pair on the right. The second to last pair is the Nasty Torsion. It is a heavier duty cleat with a gold base and sole, gold laces, gold eyelets with darker gold accents, a gold tongue with a maroon Nasty logo on it, three maroon adidas stripes on the outside of the cleat, a maroon adidas logo on the inside of the cleat near the heel, a small plastic gold plate on the arch, and a finger loop that mimics the styling of the lace eyelets with "Forks Up" in maroon print. The repeating pattern of the gold printed Forks Up hand sign is featured prominently on the front half of the shoe.
White socks will be worn to complement the gold and white elements in the uniform as well.
Gloves
The Sun Devils will wear gold and white gloves, and as with the cleats, there are different gloves for different positions. The gloves on the top are AdiZeros which are typically worn by speed position players like wide receivers and defensive backs. The gold gloves feature a gold pitchfork with maroon trim on the palm of each glove. They also have a maroon adidas logo on the back of the hand, maroon striping and a small "Z" AdiZero letter mark on the wrist strap, and maroon stitching along the wrist strap. The gloves in the middle are adidas Freaks, worn by larger skill position players such as linebackers and tight ends. The adidas Freak gloves have the same gold pitchfork with maroon trim on the palm of each glove as the AdiZero gloves. On the back of the glove, the adidas Freaks also have some extra padding, a maroon adidas logo, and maroon striping, and the Freak logo on the wrist strap. Finally, for linemen, the gloves on the bottom are adidas Freak-Max, which boast extra padding on the heel of the palm meant to withstand all of the contact that linemen endure throughout the course of a game. They are plain white and black two-tone on the palm, and along with a maroon adidas logo on the back of the hand, they also have gold accents on the knuckles and wrist-wrap.
Reaction
This week's uniform combination is very similar to what the Devils wore to Corvallis last year, with the only difference coming in the decals. Last year against Oregon State, along with a white center stripe, the team wore white silhouette pitchforks, which essentially looked like gold pitchforks with white trim. Fast forward to this year against Washington, and the helmet, face mask, jersey, and pants are all the same. Heck, even the trim on the pitchfork is the same, the only difference in that being that the fork itself is maroon rather than gold. The center stripe still has white trim as well, with the maroon base. It was a sharp, clean look last year, but the decals really got lost on the helmet, even up close.
It's the second time this season that the team has worn white jerseys with white pants. I'm not a huge fan of going that route twice in a season. From a team that's great at mixing in variety, it's a little unusual and disappointing to see. It would be great too if the white pants could be swapped out for the maroon so that we could see the fan-favorite away combination of gold helmet/white jersey/maroon pants.
Overall, this look is really nice. I love the decals. I've long wanted to see a maroon pitchfork with white trim on the gold helmet because I've always thought that the gold trim gets lost on the gold helmet and makes the pitchfork decal look much smaller than it actually is. I like that the facemask, shoes, socks, and cleats really complement the gold and white base. We shall see how it looks on the field in Seattle!
What Color Traveling ASU Fans Should Wear: Gold
#Faniforms Presented by Cactus Sports
Welcome back to #Faniforms Presented by Cactus Sports! Uniformity loves to highlight your best gameday #faniforms that you wear to support the Sun Devils each week. As a reminder, with Uniformity's new partnership with Cactus Sports, three #faniforms will be chosen at random each week, just like in the past, but this season, there will be a weekly Twitter poll to vote for which of those three #faniforms will become a contest finalist. At the end of the regular season, all of the finalists will be entered into a final vote, with the grand prize being a $100 gift card to Cactus Sports! Reminder, when posting to Twitter, remember to use the hashtag #faniform and tag the Uniformity Twitter account @ASU_Uniformity. Here are this week's selections! Keep an eye out on Twitter for the fan vote! Cast your vote for the best #faniform each week!
Congratulations to @JediASU on earning a finalist spot last week! And best of luck to @marcaltieri, @Shannon_Stone, and @bold_saguaro in this week's Twitter poll!
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