10 Best Uniforms from 2015-16 College Football Season
Uniform design is becoming a bigger deal each season in the world of college football. What a team wears can affect recruiting, create national attention or be a great way to honor individuals.
The 2015-16 college football season featured a massive amount of design tweaks or entire new uniforms for teams all across the country. According to Paul Lukas of ESPN.com, 80 of 128 teams made uniform adjustments before the season even started.
Since then, plenty of teams have surprised players and fans alike with new uniforms for specific game days. There seemed to be something beautiful or bizarre coming out each Saturday this fall, with most of the latter category brought to you by to the folks over at Adidas.
Here are my personal top 10 picks for the best uniforms that debuted this past college football season. Again, this is one writer's personal preference, and everyone has their own opinion on what makes a uniform great or grotesque.
Give us your own top-10 list from the 2015 season in the comments below and tell us who you think needs to take a page from these teams with a different look in 2016.
Honorable Mention
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Here are 10 uniforms or pieces of certain uniforms from the 2015-16 season that didn't make my top 10—but they still deserved to be recognized:
- Baylor's silver-black-silver uniform vs. West Virginia
- Duke's throwback helmet vs. Indiana
- Michigan State's Greek warrior-inspired uniform vs. Oregon
- Missouri's all-white uniform vs. BYU
- Ohio State's "Dark Night at the Shoe" uniform vs. Penn State
- South Carolina's alternate helmet vs. Florida
- Stanford's tweaked all-black uniform vs. USC
- UNLV's "Welcome to Las Vegas" helmets
- USF's bright "SoFlo" uniform vs. Memphis
- Vanderbilt's anchor design helmets
10. Memphis (vs. Auburn)
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Memphis has stepped up its uniform game since the arrival of now-former coach Justin Fuente, and the Tigers broke out a new helmet in their Birmingham Bowl appearance against Auburn.
It wasn't the best of performances for quarterback Paxton Lynch and Memphis, but their matte-black helmets with chrome Tiger stripes popped when paired with this blue and black uniform set. Jasmine Watkins of Athlon Sports named this one of the best uniforms of bowl season.
"Memphis Tigers 2015 Alternate Anthracite #2 helmet. Worn in the Birmingham Bowl vs. Auburn #gotigersgo pic.twitter.com/qfQ4ltYyZ5
— Chief Sums (@ChiefSumerel) January 9, 2016"
"This is a good color combination for the Tigers, but it's the helmet that really sets it off," Watkins wrote. "Memphis sometimes goes with the metallic or blue helmet but this black and blue combination is the perfect fit."
9. Colorado (vs. Arizona)
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Colorado debuted a new white helmet and a silver uniform set for the 2015 season. The Buffs were able to mix and match all year long with their four colors—black, gold, silver and white—but the best-looking option was the all-silver look during their homecoming game against Arizona.
"We will be in all silver uniforms for Homecoming this weekend. C.U. There. #GoBuffs pic.twitter.com/17ThdrWcqS
— Coach Mike MacIntyre (@CoachMikeMac) October 12, 2015"
Some of the traditionalist Colorado fans didn't seem too pleased with the new look the Buffs had on homecoming night—a close loss to the Wildcats.
However, from a neutral perspective, these were some of the cleanest uniforms in all of college football this season.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
8. Florida State (vs. Chattanooga)
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Two seasons after unveiling their redesigned uniforms from Nike, Florida State finally busted out the black jerseys and pants with alternate helmets for its final home game of the 2015 season. Coach Jimbo Fisher said the move to the alternates for one game was an incentive for his players.
"Florida State Will Unveil Alternate Black Uniforms Saturday Against Chattanooga https://t.co/YvJdSxqvCP pic.twitter.com/bQHO7xEPoz
— Bud Elliott (@TomahawkNation) November 19, 2015"
"I’m a traditionalist. ... I love our original uniforms," Fisher said, per Safid Deen of the Tallahassee Democrat. "But I understand times are changing. If you do it for the right reasons with respect to the uniforms and you make it about the game and not the uniform, I think that’s the key."
FSU's garnet and gold were perfect accents to the all-black scheme, and the helmet is one of the nicest-looking alternates you'll find in college football. It's a bold look for a program that sticks to tradition, but it worked well for the Seminoles.
7. Utah (vs. Cal)
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Utah turned back the clock for its big home game against Cal—one that featured a visit from College GameDay—with what Paul Lukas of ESPN.com described as a "fauxback" set of uniforms.
Instead of just going with a straight throwback to an older uniform, Utah combined several different elements of past uniforms into one clean look. According to Ryan McDonald of the Deseret News, the helmet design was from the 1960s, the numbers were from the 1970s and the stripes were from the 1970s-1990s.
"Utah football unveils throwback uniforms for Homecoming game against Cal -> http://t.co/VVP0a1hXIV pic.twitter.com/Akv9RCOApu
— Phil Hecken (@PhilHecken) August 6, 2015"
Utah's standard uniforms with the mountain accents on the sleeves are fine, but these flashbacks to the past were such a good luck that the Utes should consider going to a look like this full-time.
6. Virginia Tech (vs. North Carolina)
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The "black for black's sake" trend in sports uniforms has been well overdone, but sometimes a set like that can be well done. Virginia Tech did just that in its final home game with what was a special uniform honoring legendary coach Frank Beamer.
The uniform featured a No. 25 on one side of the helmet—the number Beamer wore as a player—and highly detailed commemorative decals. Beamer's players specifically asked to wear the black and orange uniforms before the coach's final game at Lane Stadium.
"Virginia Tech will wear special uniforms for Frank Beamer's finale. https://t.co/4u3vhcOVn3 pic.twitter.com/cpZ1VfQ2yX
— theScore (@theScore) November 16, 2015"
"We’ve been waiting all season for a chance to wear these uniforms," Virginia Tech defensive end Ken Ekanem said, per the team's website. "This is a perfect time. They’re special uniforms, and with this being Coach Beamer’s final home game it’s going to be a special day."
5. Tennessee (vs. Georgia)
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Tennessee's switch to Nike this football season was an aesthetic success. The Volunteers had cleaner sets of uniforms that also included the famed checkerboard end zone art at Neyland Stadium in their striping.
The one set that stood out for Tennessee this season, though, was the "Smokey Grey" alternates it wore in a thrilling comeback victory over Georgia. The set, which included a mountain design on the helmets, was named the college football uniform of the year by the popular UniSwag Twitter account:
"When will we wear them again....wait and see for yourself. Uniform of The Year 🔥🔥 #Vols pic.twitter.com/vN6am94vcf
— Robert Gillespie (@UTCoachG) January 12, 2016"
"I think our fans loved it. Our players loved it. Our prospective student-athletes with recruiting loved it," Tennessee coach Butch Jones said on the uniforms, per Ryan Callahan of 247Sports. "I think it’s been the talk of the country, and I think it’s a great symbolism of the great state of Tennessee, with our mountains and the Smoky Mountains."
4. Oregon (vs. Michigan State)
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When it comes to Oregon's ever-changing uniforms, college football fans either love them or hate them. And while the Ducks busted out new looks each week during the 2015 season, one set stood out above the rest—the all-white "Combat Duck" uniforms they wore against Michigan State in Week 2.
"Oregon's uniforms for the Michigan State game are 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/HbQqWx2mXs
— Athlete Attire™ (@AthleteAttire) September 12, 2015"
The black and lightning-yellow-trimmed numbers popped well off the all-white jersey, and the modified duck logo on the helmet was one that Oregon went back to several times in 2015 with different color schemes. The "Fighting Ducks" wordmarks on the pants made for a clean look from head to toe.
Oregon went with black and yellow sets, apple-green ones and even a uniform that paid tribute to those who settled its home state, but none of them were quite as nice as the ones Oregon had on against Michigan State.
3. San Diego State (All Season)
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San Diego State grabbed a ton of attention before the 2015 season kicked off when it announced its new uniforms that screamed its Aztecs nickname.
"Official release on #AztecFB's uniforms (video, gallery): http://t.co/4b21wJr4do pic.twitter.com/Jlo8gSQyXP
— GoAztecs.com (@GoAztecs) August 4, 2015"
Both the red helmets and the red sleeve caps on SDSU's new sets featured a highly detailed Aztec calendar. It was definitely a bold choice for the program, but the uniforms did a great job of being different without going completely overboard—as the case is for some Group of Five programs.
The switch to the calendar-inspired uniforms paid off in a big way for the Aztecs. SDSU won its second Mountain West title in four years this past season with an 11-3 regular-season record and a Hawaii Bowl blowout victory (42-7) over Cincinnati.
2. North Carolina (All Season)
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In the last couple of seasons, Nike had gotten a little carried away with North Carolina's football uniforms, with black becoming a main part of the scheme.
But Carolina went back to basics this season, incorporating the argyle pattern that has become synonymous with the school's powerhouse basketball program. UNC still had black alternates, but like the case was with the standard sets, everything looked better with the classic look of the argyle.
"Brand Refresh Release from @Nike for #UNCFB #OurBlue http://t.co/msBv9HcVyX pic.twitter.com/aehymhf2RE
— GoHeelsTV (@GoHeelsTV) April 21, 2015"
The Tar Heels started looking better on the field in more ways than one during 2015, winning 11 straight games in the regular season to capture the ACC Coastal division title.
1. Navy (vs. Army and vs. Pittsburgh)
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The annual Army vs. Navy Game gets a college football stage to itself on the Saturday after conference championship week, and the Navy Midshipmen used that opportunity to roll out some of the most unique uniforms in recent memory.
"New #NavyFootball uniform is out! First custom helmet for each position in @NCAAFootball history! #RaiseTheSail pic.twitter.com/WnRmwKFW2i
— Navy Football (@NavyFB) November 30, 2015"
Each position group for the Midshipmen was assigned its own set of helmets, which Navy said were hand-painted to represent "seven of the historic ships that make up the U.S. Naval Fleet." For example, quarterbacks had aircraft carrier helmets to symbolize "the 'quick strike' weapon of the Naval fleet."
The jerseys and pants were great, too, with the iconic "Damn the Torpedoes" quote on both the gloves and the pants. From top to bottom, these were hands-down the best uniforms of the 2015 season, and Navy should definitely consider wearing these every year from now until the end of time.
Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
