A Week in Review

We’ve had a BYE week to recover from a tough one in Salt Lake City so let’s talk uniforms. The Devils wore the matte black helmet with the black fork that had a chromed gold and maroon outline with a white jersey and white pants.

ASU Utah 2015

In UNIFORMITY Installment 7, I had mentioned that I was rather lukewarm at first, but was warming up to the helmets. I had the same reaction when watching the game on TV. The helmets were fierce, but the combination as a whole did not hit my eye right. Now don’t get me wrong, the Sun Devils looked good. With our colors and our incredible equipment staff, it’s difficult not to look good.

On that note, because they’ve set the bar so high for themselves, I really grade against that curve and overall, this was not their best work. I can’t stress enough how much I individually loved that helmet, but would’ve liked to have seen it utilized in a different combination.

Away at Utah Uniform Grade: B+

The Week to Come

This Thursday night game against Oregon is Salute to Service night, and ASU has been working in conjunction with Marie Tillman, the Pat Tillman Foundation and Adidas on a uniform to honor the troops and Pat Tillman.

There has been much anticipation as to whether this uniform would involve camo or not. A few elements include camo in some way, but the actual uniforms themselves do not.

The first element to be revealed was the cleats. The cleats themselves are a canvas green, and the only portion of camo is inside on the sole of the shoe. In very detailed fashion, Sun Devil Athletics tweeted pictures describing every detail on the shoes and their significance.

The meaning and details behind @FootballASU’s new #PT42 cleats. #teamadidasASU @pattillmanfnd pic.twitter.com/7kBzF54Znu

— Sun Devil Athletics (@TheSunDevils) October 22, 2015

Sun Devil Athletics has also released the compression undershirt the team will be wearing. It is a camo base that has the iconic picture of Pat Tillman walking in his Sun Devil uniform on the front of the shirt. On the back of the shirt is a quote from Tillman that reads, “Passion makes life interesting, ignites our soul, fuels our love, carries our friendships, stimulates our intellect, and pushes our limits.”

The legacy lives on. #PT42 #teamadidasASU pic.twitter.com/QpQGUaYRvU

— Sun Devil Athletics (@TheSunDevils) October 26, 2015

The final camo element is the players’ gloves. The gloves’ camo match that of the undershirt’s base, and with hands placed next to each other and palms facing out, the image of the PT*42 crest appears.

The uniforms themselves are throwbacks to 1996 which has Sun Devil Nation jumping for joy. We see the iconic Sparky helmet making a triumphant return with its gold shell, maroon center stripe, maroon facemask, and Sparky facing forward on either side of the helmet.

Oct 19, 1996: The Sun Devils finished with a 48-35 win over USC at Sun Devil Stadium.

• – The pants are a plain gold with a subtle Sparky logo near the left hip.
• – The jersey is a deep maroon with “ARIZONA STATE” in a white, all caps font across the chest.
• – The player numbers are boldly large, gold, and outlined by white stitching.
• – The PT*42 crest is still at the center of the collar.
• – The name on the back of the each jersey is all in the same font as the front, though the font is larger.

Most importantly, the name on the back of each jersey will read “TILLMAN.” This is an incredible effort by Sun Devil Athletics to honor the military and Pat Tillman by bringing back uniforms from the era in which he played.

Reaction

PT

Finally! I loved the uniforms we had during the decade of the 2000s with the likes of Rudy Carpenter, Derek Hagan, Terry Richardson, and more, but my favorite uniforms of all time have always been those bold maroon jerseys with big block gold numbers, plain gold pants, and the great, classic Sparky helmet.

Especially now that the Fork has become a well established brand entity, I was wondering when Sun Devil Equipment would not only use the Sparky helmet like last year, but go all in with a complete throwback uniform.

As I’ve said in prior UNIFORMITY posts, I am a traditionalist that actually has a great deal of love for the Fork and the creativity that the rebranding has allowed within Sun Devil Athletics. It took me awhile to get to that point. To say that I was very unhappy with the initial rebranding effort is a gross understatement, but I’ve come to love the aesthetics of the new direction and feel very connected to it now.

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This has not diluted my love of Sparky and the classic look in the least bit. If I use myself as a timeline, the throwback couldn’t come at a better time. Now that we as a fan base are mostly on board with this new, incredible branding, we have been given the gift of not only an amazing throwback to a nostalgic era of ASU Football, but also the gift of being able to honor one of the greatest players and one of the finest individuals to have ever stepped foot on Frank Kush Field.

I applaud Sun Devil Athletics, ASU Football, the Sun Devil Equipment staff, and Adidas for undertaking such an effort and doing so with so much attention to detail. I also thank the Pat Tillman Foundation for their willingness to collaborate and honor Pat in such an incredible way.

Fantasy Combo of the Week

This week’s fantasy combo is a little bit of a stretch, but I had fun with it, to say the least. I took the gray Desert Hammer jersey and added some maroon and gold to it to see how modern meeting tradition looked. It turned out great.

Cole Streeper is a lifelong Sun Devil and an Arizona State graduate of 2010. He has always been passionate about ASU Football and that passion has only grown with time. You can follow Cole on Twitter at @sundevilcole7.

Live it like Pat