New Maroon Pants: Just for Practice, or For Game Use Also?

               Last night, the Bulldogs debuted a new pair of maroon pants at their scrimmage at Davis Wade Stadium.  The pants are plain on the right side but feature an outline of an oversized M-State logo on the left side.  They’ve raised several questions on social media and message boards, with a surprising amount of people dismissing them as “old, leftover practice pants.”  While the practice pants part might be true, these are most certainly not old or leftovers.  They are a brand new design, similar to the white DWS 100 pants worn last year; the main difference is that the logo is slightly more slanted and is further down on the leg.  Full Photo Gallery

                If you look closely, you’ll notice that the pants feature the new Adidas PrimeKnit (ShockWeb 2.0) pattern.  Adidas debuted these pants this summer, so this dismisses any “leftovers” argument.  As to whether or not these will be restricted to practice, we’ll have to wait and see.  It does seem strange to debut them in a scrimmage, but it would also be strange to wear new pants in practice when you could use leftovers, as they had been doing.

                My guess?  This was their way of “unveiling” the new pants.  State needs maroon pants this year, and while I don’t like the oversized logo, an outline looks better than a filled-in logo.  I expect them to show up throughout the season, likely starting with the game at Southern Miss.  They could be doing like the rainbow baseball uniforms in 2013 and restricting Adidas’ crazy concepts to practice, but I doubt it.

These pants only continue the inconsistency between the DWS 100 (101 now?) uniform elements:

Helmet: Maroon, White, and Gray

Jerseys: Maroon, White, and Black

Pants: Maroon and White

It would make sense for MSU and Adidas to sit down and get a consistent uniform together, but that just doesn’t seem to be their style.  For now, we’ll continue with a great helmet, throwback jerseys, and crazy Adidas pants.  And don’t forget multiple alternate jerseys…

Finally, here's my mockup of the 4 possible regular uniform combinations for the Bulldogs this year: