We Have a Breakthrough
There has been so much progress made in the time Shaun Aguano took over that it takes a reminder to recall that this season began with a head coach other than him at the helm. Instead, it feels like that non-conference schedule was ages ago and that while there have been growing pains, the progress made from the Utah to the USC and then to the Washington games make it feel as if a new season has begun with the reason for excitement and hope.
The Sun Devils notched their first win under Aguano in a thriller dominated by offense, a key defensive touchdown, and backup quarterback Trenton Bourguet showing out in a big way. That’s not to say that Emory Jones wasn’t playing well to begin the game, but after getting knocked out of the game with an apparent concussion, which came on a targeting hit to his head as he slid, Bourguet filled in exceptionally well.
Bourguet showed tremendous command of the offense, along with the grit to stand in the pocket and make accurate throws in the face of pressure. He found the right time to step up in the pocket to buy himself more time and give the receivers more opportunity to get open. It was the best quarterback play Arizona State has seen since the days of Taylor Kelly and Mike Bercovici. It sounds like Aguano will start Jones against Stanford, and he knows his guys, but we’ll see how things progress with the quarterback situation throughout the second half of the season.
That all said, it’s a breath of fresh air to see how the team has responded to Aguano. They are, as Aguano says, stacking practices. They’re gaining more chemistry, confidence, momentum, and belief. They’re getting better individually and as a team. Now they have an opportunity to earn two straight road wins. First up, Stanford.
Week in Review
What a truly exciting game. The Devils came in prepared and executed a beautiful offensive game plan. There are significant kinks to work out in the defense, and hopefully, playing a couple of the statistically weaker offenses in the conference over the next two weeks will help. It will be fun to look forward to the continued improvements the Sun Devils make each week and to see an improvement next week from the Rising Devils uniforms that were worn against Washington.
Yes, yes. A win was collected while wearing the Rising Devils uniforms, and while that prevents there being a bitter taste in one’s mouth when thinking back on this game, I doubt Sun Devil Nation will likely look back fondly on the uniform itself.
I was very back and forth on this uniform. While much criticism was centered around the Sun Devils script, I found that to be poorly founded. Many seemed to think that script was created for this game and this uniform alone. This was a heavily used word mark on uniforms, particularly basketball, in the 80s and 90s and has been consistently used on apparel, window decals, and other merchandise to this very day. It’s not a new concept or aesthetic. I’m ecstatic that the Sun Devils script made it to a football uniform; however, I wasn’t thrilled about the rest of the uniform that it was on.
The tan uniforms were a rough call. Gray would have been lightyears better than the final product that hit the field. Whatever power that be which decided on tan failed miserably in that choice, and likening it as an ode to the desert fell flat. The lighter tan uniforms also showed sweat marks all game long, leaving the uniforms looking splotchy and anything but uniform across all players. It was a bad look in the many close-ups that took place on TV. The primarily gold numbers with a maroon drop clashed against the tan base uniform. A maroon number with gold accents would have looked much better. The gold gradients weren’t bad, but they also weren’t great.
That being said, the area where they truly #LetJerryCook was with the helmet. Equipment Manager Jerry Neilly and his team absolutely killed it with the maroon lid and decal combination. The gradient from maroon to gold on the Sun Devils Script decal was exemplary, and it also looked good on the number decal on the opposite side of the helmet. The center stripe began as gold at the front of the helmet and faded to maroon at the rear, an element I missed in the Week 6 Uniformity article. The only improvement I could suggest is to put the Sun Devils script decal on both sides of the helmet rather than the number decals. I typically like the number decals, but it would’ve gone from a great look to an amazing look to have script decals on both sides.
I went between wanting to love this uniform and wanting to hate it so often in the lead up to this game. The helmet was incredible, but the uniform on which it sat was bad. It ended up looking better on the field than it did on a mannequin or even in promotional videos and pictures, but it still came off as rather uninspired. We’ve already had a contender for the best uniform of the season in the first half of the season, and it looks like we closed out the first half of the season with possibly the worst of the season. I have faith in the equipment staff to send out much better looks for the remainder of the season.
2022 Blackout: C+
The Week to Come
Uniform
Take a deep breath. We made it through a horrible loss, a coaching change, and a gauntlet of ranked teams in which the Sun Devils improved weekly to eventually earn a win heading into a much-deserved bye week. Now, ASU begins the second half of the season with a trip to Stanford, which is coming fresh off a win against a perplexing Notre Dame team in South Bend. When the Devils travel to Stanford, they’ll do so in the classic gold helmet/white jersey/maroon pants road uniform combination.
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 maroon pants have a small gold pitchfork with black trim near the right hip and a black adidas logo near the left hip. "Sun Devils" is in gold 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
Gold helmets have long been one of the key identifiers of ASU Football, and for the fifth time in the first seven games of the 2022 season, the Sun Devils will wear a gold helmet. The details on this helmet are meant to keep consistency with the white away jerseys. The gold helmet features a maroon facemask, white chinstrap, and standard-sized white pitchfork decals with chrome gold trim, all surrounded by a thin, maroon border. This is a brand new decal design and is sure to catch sunlight and glow all game long. For the first time this season, standard-sized pitchforks will not be accompanied by a center stripe.
The white 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 white border, featuring white text, and has a small, maroon pitchfork with gold trim over Tempe. The decals on the back of the helmet are rounded by the maroon “Sun Devils” text over a tonal white desert landscape silhouette on the helmet’s rear bumper.
Cleats and Socks
For the first time since the season opener, the Sun Devils will wear white cleats. From left to right, there are three different types of cleats. The first six pairs are a mix of AdiZero and Freaks, and the last two are Nastys. 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 are worn by heavier players (linemen).
From left to right, the pair furthest to the left is the Freak Ultra Laceless. It features a white sole and white base with a maroon pixel gradient pattern around the bottom of the shoe and a primeknit center outlined by a maroon-lined starburst pattern. As the name suggests, this cleat does not have any laces but instead has three maroon adidas stripes where the laces would usually be. It is rounded out with a maroon Freak logo on the heel of the cleat. The next pair is an AdiZero which features a white base and sole, a maroon tongue, maroon laces, three maroon adidas stripes near the toe on the outside of the shoe, and a prominent maroon AdiZero logo with a digital ghost effect on the instep near the arch. It also has a maroon finger loop on the heel. The third is the AdiZero Scorch which is a Primeknit mid-top. It is white on the outside of the shoe and on the sole, but more prominently maroon on the instep and throughout the rest of the top of the shoe. The maroon instep features a maroon tonal AdiZero logo with a digital ghost effect and a maroon finger loop on the heel.
There are two more pairs of adidas Freaks in the middle of the group of cleats. The Freak pair on the left is the Freak mid. It has a white base and maroon sole, white laces, a white tongue with a maroon Freak logo on it, three maroon adidas stripes on the outside of the cleat near the toe, and a prominent maroon adidas logo on the instep. The Freak pair on the right is the Freak Ultra. It features all of the major base aesthetics as the Freak Mid but also features some gray primeknit material, maroon stitch detailing around the lace eyelets, and a maroon finger loop on the heel. The next pair is the third AdiZero pair. All of the major elements of this pair of cleats are white except for the three maroon adidas stripes on the outside of the shoe near the toe and the maroon adidas log on the instep.
The final two pairs on the right are Nasty cleats. The second to last pair is the Nasty Torsion. It is a heavier duty cleat with a white base and sole, white laces, white eyelets with maroon accents, a white 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 maroon plate on the arch, and a maroon and gold finger loop that mimics the styling of the lace eyelets. The far right pair is the Nasty Fly. It essentially shares all the same major details as the Nasty Torsion. However, it is not as heavy duty, and instead of a white sole, it features a metallic maroon sole.
Many players will be wearing these new release white Freak cleats that feature a maroon semicircle sunburst shape around the toe with maroon pointillism shading down to the sole. They have a maroon Freak logo on the instep and three maroon stripes on the outside of the shoe, along with a white sole.
White socks will be worn to match the cleats and complement the away jersey as well.
Gloves
The Sun Devils will wear 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 white gloves have a white palm that feature a maroon pitchfork with gold trim on each glove. They also have a maroon adidas logo on the back of the hand, a small maroon AdiZero wordmark above the wrist strap, maroon striping 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 white base and maroon pitchfork with gold 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
First and foremost, this is probably the best base uniform combination that the Sun Devils wear when they’re on the road, and it’s nice to see it again for the first time since 2019. Secondly, this is an immediate improvement from the last game. These uniforms look sharp, and I’m looking forward to seeing them during a day game.
At first glance, I question how the white pitchfork would look on the field with the overall uniform. There was debate as to whether or not to use a matching tricolor center stripe that was predominantly white with thinner gold and maroon stripes. As much as I am a major proponent of center stripes on standard sized decal helmets, I think the choice not to, in this case, was the right one. I have a bit of concern that the white will clash with the maroon facemask, but the fact that the decal also has a maroon element to it may save it yet. I have nothing bad to say about the chrome gold trim. I’m a big supporter of that accent being used, especially for an away game that most Sun Devil fans will see on TV, therefore giving them an opportunity to regularly see it up close.
Coming into this game, both teams are coming off of their first win against an FBS team this season, ASU against then-No, 21 ranked Washington and Stanford on the road against Notre Dame last week. It will be a test to see how the team has progressed during a Shaun Aguano-led bye week, especially on the road, where the Sun Devils tend to struggle. On paper, the Devils should be able to handle business. Let’s hope they can do so this Saturday and leave Palo Alto with a win.
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 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 $125 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 @ProducerWes on earning a finalist spot last week! And best of luck to @goodsparky01, @Skyisthelimit22, and @CraftCreative in this week’s Twitter poll!
