2015 Mississippi State Football Uniforms Review

Two thousand fifteen was a big year for Mississippi State football.  In Dak Prescott's final season, the Bulldogs finished with an 9-4 record, the 4th time in 7 years as head coach that Dan Mullen has won at least 8 games.  Uniform wise, it was the dawning of a new set of primary uniforms.  An alternate jersey, along with several alternate pants and helmets were worn throughout the season.  By season's end, the Bulldogs had worn a school record 10 uniform combinations, only repeating two combos all season.

Primarily, 2015 was a transitional year for the Bulldogs uniform-wise.  Many changes were made before and throughout the season, but these are the big 5 that cement 2015's place in uniform history.

I. Change in Helmet Logo

This may have went unnoticed by some, but one of the biggest changes, and one that was actually adjusted mid-season, was the helmet logo.

For the first three games of the season, the transparent banner M-State logo was worn with a silver outline on a shiny helmet.  At first, I was in favor of the silver outline, but it soon became clear that silver and white were too similar in color and, like the logo from 2009 and 2010, only muddled up the logo.  So, for the fourth game of the season, with the 2015 debut of the matte helmet, the silver outline was removed from the helmet.  When the shiny helmet was worn again vs Troy, it too lacked the silver outline.



II. Primeknit Jerseys

While the DWS 100 uniform design was carried over as the full-time uniform design in 2015, this year's version was not a direct copy of last year's.  In fact, a multitude of small changes were made, though none of which were really the changes that we wanted (see: black outlines, pants logo.)  My original articles on the changes to the white and maroon jerseys can be found at those links.

The most notable of these changes were the background pattern (changed from Shockweb to Primeknit) and the straightening of the shoulder stripes due to the Primeknit template's shoulder caps.  A change that was apparently not approved by Scott Stricklin was the removal of shoulder numbers.  For the first three games, shoulder numbers were absent.  For the fourth game of the season, they were finally added to the white jerseys.  They were added to the maroon jerseys for the game vs Troy.

Luckily, the uni combos worn in the first three games of the season (Shiny-White-White and Shiny-Maroon-White) that contained the anomalies (silver outline on helmet logo and lack of shoulder numbers) were never worn again in 2015.  Any complicated "The same, but not the same" combinations were avoided.

III. Gray Pants

Maybe the biggest surprise all year was the addition of gray pants to the uniform lineup.  It had been leaked that maroon pants (bearing the over-sized M-State logo) would be worn sometime this season, but the gray pants were a gameday surprise for the game vs Troy.  With M-W-M stripes similar to the ones worn in the late 1980s, this year's gray pants were a hit with the fanbase.  Not simply because they were gray, but because they featured stripes, as opposed to the over-sized M-State logo that adorned all of the Bulldogs' other pants.  The shiny/maroon/gray combo became the most worn combo for the Bulldogs in 2015, being worn a total of 3 times (vs Troy, vs Alabama, and in the Belk Bowl vs NC State)  The gray pants were also worn a 4th time, vs Arkansas, paired with the white jersey and matte helmet.

IV. Black Alternates

This was less of a surprise; the black jersey leaked in an Adidas catalog back in June.  Paired with the matte maroon helmet and black pants, this year's black jersey was the better than the Bulldog's previous version, which was last worn in 2011.  Silver numbers and the presence of DWS 100 stripes improved the aesthetics of the jersey itself.  The pants, featuring a silver over-sized M-State logo, were ugly, but the matte maroon helmet worked really well with the all-black look.  I'd rather they didn't, but if they have to do an all-black look, this is the way to do it.

V. White Helmets

For the first time since 2012, and the first time since 2008 featuring a variation of the M-State logo, the Bulldogs introduced a white helmet.  Worn twice, at Mizzou and vs Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl, the white helmet was overwhelmingly despised by fans, mostly because it brought back memories of the less than successful Sylvester Croom era.  Honestly, featuring a white facemask and a chrome maroon M-State logo, the helmets looked good aesthetically  They really didn't fit the uniforms, especially the road whites which are muddled with black outlines.  When paired with maroon jerseys and white pants in the Egg Bowl (instead of a gold-accented uniform), fans really hated it.  I thought it looked sharp in a vacuum.  Outsiders agreed; I saw it mentioned as the best Egg Bowl uni matchup in a while because of lack of gold on the Bulldogs' unis.  It was too much Croom for fans though, and the team's performance in the game did not help change that idea at all.

Game by Game Breakdown:

Week 1: at Southern Miss- Shiny-White-White. Debuted new white jerseys and new helmet logo. Silver outline on helmet logo and no shoulder numbers.
Week 2: LSU- Shiny-Maroon-White. Debuted new maroon jerseys. Silver outline on helmet and no shoulder numbers.
Week 3: NW State- Shiny-Maroon-White. Exact same as LSU. Silver outline on helmet and no shoulder numbers.
Week 4: at Auburn- Matte-White-White. Matte helmet debuted.  No outline on helmet logo. Shoulder numbers added to white jersey.
Week 5: at Texas A&M- Matte-White-Maroon. Maroon pants debuted. Otherwise exact same as Auburn.
Week 6: Troy- Shiny-Maroon-Gray. Gray pants debuted. Shoulder numbers added to maroon jersey.  No outline on helmet logo on shiny helmet.
Week 7: La Tech- Shiny-Maroon-Maroon. Same as Troy, but with maroon pants instead of Gray.
Week 8: Kentucky. Matte-Black-Black. Black alternates debuted.
Week 10: at Missouri- White-White-White. White helmets debuted.
Week 11: Alabama- Shiny-Maroon-Gray. Same as Troy.
Week 12: at Arkansas- Matte-White-Gray. Gray pants make road debut.
Week 13: Ole Miss- White-Maroon-White. White helmets make home debut.  No gold in Egg Bowl for first time in 5 years.
Belk Bowl: vs NC State- Same as Troy and Alabama, with Belk Bowl patch.

Stats:

Helmets:

Matte: 4 games.  3-1 Record
Shiny: 4 games.  3-1 Record
Shiny w/ silver outline: 3 games.  2-1 Record
White: 2 games.  1-1 Record

Jerseys:

Maroon: 7 games.  4-3 Record
with shoulder numbers: 5 games.  3-2 Record
without shoulder numbers: 2 games.  1-1 Record
White: 5 games.  4-1 Record
with shoulder numbers: 4 games.  3-1 Record
without shoulder numbers: 1 game.  1-0 Record
Black: 1 game.  1-0 Record

Pants:

White: 6 games.  4-2  Record
Gray: 4 games.  3-1 Record
Maroon: 2 games.  1-1 Record
Black: 1 game.  1-0 Record

Combos:

Shiny/Maroon/Gray: 3 games.  2-1 Record
Shiny/Maroon/White: 2 games.  1-1 Record
Matte/White/Gray: 1 game.  1-0 Record
White/White/White: 1 game.  1-0 Record
Matte/Black/Black: 1 game.  1-0 Record
Shiny/Maroon/Maroon: 1 game.  1-0 Record
Matte/White/White: 1 game.  1-0 Record
Shiny/White/White: 1 game.  1-0 Record
White/Maroon/White: 1 game.  0-1 Record
Matte/White/Maroon: 1 game.  0-1 Record

Rankings:

A few weeks back, I conducted a series of polls (thanks to Twitter user @Evangates23 for helping me with the idea) using the @hailstateunis Twitter account to determine what fans deemed the best combination of the year.  Around 250 fans voted in each poll, so keep in mind the small sample size.

In round one of polling, I matched up the following combos:

Shiny/Maroon/White (69%)
White/Maroon/White (31%)

Shiny/Maroon/Gray (81%)
Shiny/Maroon/Maroon (19%)

All Black (57%)
All White (43%)

Shiny/White/White (25%)
Matte/White/White (75%)

Matte/White/Gray (69%)
Matte/White/Maroon  (31%)

Taking the winners from round one, I conducted the following polls in round two to determine the best home and road combos:

Shiny/Maroon/White (16%)
Shiny/Maroon/Gray (55%)
Matte/Black/Black (29%)

Matte/White/White (31%)
Matte/White/Gray (69%)

The final poll, which received 359 votes, pitted the best home and road combo against each other to determine the best overall combo:

Shiny/Maroon/Gray (48%)
Matte/White/Gray (52%)

In the end, the popularity of the gray pants was proven; the road look narrowly beat out the home version for the best combo of the year.  I agree with the voters; Matte/White/Gray was the best look the Bulldogs wore this year.  The matte helmet and striped gray pants went together perfectly, creating a look I hope to see again and again in the future.

That concludes my review of the Mississippi State Bulldogs' 2015 football uniforms.  Thank you to all of the readers and people who have followed and interacted with the @hailstateunis Twitter account.  To view yearly record of MSU football uniforms, click here.  To see to 2015 page, click here.