BYU Football: Cougars to Wear Royal-Blue Throwbacks Against Utah Utes

BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe announced on Twitter Thursday that the Cougars would be wearing their royal-blue throwback jerseys on September 21 against the rival Utah Utes.

The return of the royal blues comes after a four-year hiatus. BYU last wore them in the 2009 season, first in the rivalry win over Utah and then in their Las Vegas Bowl thrashing of Oregon State.

The royal-blue jerseys are popular within the BYU fanbase, as they are representative of the glory years of the late '70s to mid '90s. "Spirit, Tradition, Honor" has been one of BYU football's guiding mantras during Bronco Mendenhall's tenure as head coach, and few things are more evocative of BYU's glorious tradition than the royal-blue jerseys.

BYU has shown more of a willingness to use alternate jerseys the past few seasons. They regularly utilize the all-white alternate road jersey but have thankfully scrapped the experiment with the all-blue home jerseys that many Cougar fans found to resemble pajamas.

Last season, the Cougars broke out a black jersey with royal-blue accents against Oregon State. While the Cougars lost the game, the black jerseys were wildly popular with the majority of BYU's fanbase.

While some of the older members of the fanbase weren't too thrilled about the black jerseys, there are no such issues with the royal-blue throwbacks. There was almost no dissent among BYU's fans when they were used twice in the 2009 season, and there have been frequent calls for them to be used since.

The season may not start for another month, but BYU fans having something to cheer about now with the return of the royal-blue jerseys this season.