Black Jerseys Officially Coming in 2015

I am saddened to announce that what many of us feared is coming true: the black jerseys will return for Mississippi State this season.  This graphic was posted by user bri1275 on the CCSLC and was also tweeted out by user @clintau24.  It shows all of the Adidas teams' standard uniforms for the 2015 season, including Maroon, White, and Black DWS 100 unis for Mississippi State.  The unis lack shoulder numbers, but I'm assuming that's a mistake.  When the white DWS 100 unis were first announced, they also lacked shoulder numbers, but Scott Stricklin was quick to assure that they would in fact be included.  I'm assuming that the same thing is happening here.

As you can see, the black jersey has grey numbers with a maroon outline, and maroon stripes with a gray outline.  The Mississippi State wordmark and Adidas logos are both gray.  This only shows the jersey, so the helmet and pants designs are still unknown.  For the time being, I'm just pairing it with the regular DWS 100 helmet and pants.  The pants I think are a safe bet to be the same, but I would not be surprised to see a different helmet design.

Here's a photoshop of what the uniforms should look like, complete with the inevitable "Dak in Black" tagline.

The black uniforms are expected to be worn vs Kentucky on Saturday October 24th.

Adidas $$$$ Increasing? Also: Black Outlines, (Pants Logo?) to Remain in 2015.

Earlier this week, Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork went on statewide Head to Head Radio and discussed things such as financials and uniforms.  In addition to confirming that the Powder Blues would be back, Bjork shared that Ole Miss was looking to nearly double its current $2.05m deal with Nike.  The fact that Adidas pays MSU more than Nike pays Ole Miss was a major argument I used in this article, so of course I was intrigued by this.  Yesterday, Head to Head did a similar, albeit recorded, interview with Mississippi State AD Scott Stricklin.  Unfortunately, that interview was not as interesting and no unknown information was revealed from it.  However, curious as to a couple of topics, I shot a couple of tweets at Scott and he was nice enough to respond:

In the first, and perhaps more interesting, response, Stricklin claims that in response to a new Nike deal for Ole Miss, Adidas will respond with a "way better" deal for Mississippi State.  This makes sense, given the competitive nature of the schools, and is consistent with the idea that Mississippi State is a priority to Adidas.

Secondly, we have official, yet disappointing, news on the uniforms for 2015.  Stricklin says that the uniforms will be exactly the same as last year, minus the 100 year patch on the right chest.  This means that the black outlines will remain, but what about the pants logo?  By "unis", Stricklin could easily be referring only to the jersey, not the pants.

But how likely is it that the pants logo is removed?  I wouldn't be surprised.  One reason is because a poster on SixpackSpeak who was right about the black jersey (and also provided information on the "silver numbers" on said jersey) claims that it will be the case.  Given that it would be an easy fix, I hope and somewhat expect for it to be gone.  However, removing the pants logo still doesn't perfect the DWS 100 unis.  I explain how that would happen below:

As I've said previously, Adidas is the best option, far and away, for Mississippi State.  However, they have room for improvement.  A good bit of it, actually.  They commonly have bad ideas, and when they finally get a good one, they generally stop a step or two short (or one too many in the wrong direction) of perfection.  And the sad part is that its generally just a simple fix.  Examples include the "Ribbon Stripe" unis, which were a great concept but were poorly executed and wound up looking too much like A&M, and the Pinstripe baseball unis, which were prefect (and an Adidas creation) until Adidas over-thought it and added "Phillies Stripes", ruining the look.  As it concerns the DWS 100s, the black outlines made sense for it being a throwback (the pants logo was never a good idea, but we'll get to that later), but are illogical for full-time use:

The helmet uses three colors: Maroon, White, and Gray.
The pants: Maroon, White, and Gray.
The jersey: Maroon, White, and Black.

One of these things is not like the other.  The black outlines, or the color black at all for that matter, has no place on a full-time Mississippi State uniform.  And there is such a simple solution: replace the black with gray.  It would fit in perfectly; the helmet already uses gray outlines, as did the "Ribbon Stripe" unis.  Here's an idea at how it would look:

For the pants, the oversized logo should be removed.  After that, either the pants should be left blank, or, as I would prefer, have stripes added in the same style as the jersey stripes.  This would also allow for maroon pants; I shudder to even think what maroon pants with an oversized logo would look like.

This design would allow for plently of variations, which I have mocked-up over the last few months for various reasons.  A full collection can be found below:

 

So, while I am disappointed that moves will not be made to perfect the uniforms for 2015, it is nothing to constantly complain about.  We can always hope that the improvements will be made, but the uniforms are certainly fine as they are for now.  We can do (and have done) worse.....

Mississippi State Uni Tracker joins Twitter!!!

In its 4th year of uni tracking, the MSU Uni Tracker has officially joined Twitter!!!  This is something that I have always thought would be a good idea, and so far it has been.  Twitter provides a new way for fans to find the uni tracker and engage with it.

One of the early things that the Twitter account has accounted for is more comments from fans.  Several have mentioned their approval or disapproval of certain uniforms and have given ideas for future uniforms or uniform concepts.  Those ideas have inspired the following concept unis: a dark gray DWS 100, a gold DWS 100, a light gray DWS 100, and a light gray Nike "What If".

I'm looking forward to all of the advantages Twitter will bring to the uni tracking experience come this fall.  You can follow the account at @hailstateunis

UPDATE: What to expect in 2015

There's less than 100 days left until Mississippi State kicks off its 2015 football season at Southern Miss on September 5th.  With the season inching closer and closer, more and more information is coming out about the uniforms for the 2015 season.

It has been known for a while that the DWS 100 unis will return as the regular uniforms.  We still don't know exactly what they will look like, but at this point my best guess is: same jerseys with no oversized logo on the pants.  However, as it comes to alternates, the past week has given us some hints in the form of the "What to wear" schedule:

LSU- Whiteout
Northwestern St.- upper deck Maroon lower level White
Troy- upper deck White lower level Maroon
La Tech- Stripeout
Kentucky-Blackout
Alabama-True Maroon
Egg Bowl-Maroon

What's in store for 2015?- Part 2: Alternates

In 2015, when the DWS 100 unis take over full time (confirmed by Scott Stricklin on Twitter as recently as yesterday), don't expect them to be the only jerseys the Bulldogs take the field in.  In this post, I will give a couple of possibilities as to what alternate unis the Bulldogs might wear in 2015.

Obviously, you can expect Egg Bowl jerseys for the 5th year in a row.  Version 3.0 of the maroon jerseys with gold accents should hit the field this fall, and it's anyone's guess as to what they will look like.  My concept, seen below, would keep the DWS 100 stripes and reuse the chrome gold helmet from 2013.  Now, in the 4 years that the Bulldogs have worn Egg Bowl uniforms, they have never been consistent with that year's regular uniforms.  So don't expect them to look exactly like this.  Just hope that they do.

What else will Adidas throw at us?  It's been painfully obvious over the last few years that while Adidas fails miserably at modern designs, they are great at old-school looks.  There are plenty of examples of this across their college football, basketball, and baseball designs.  So, if Adidas does give Mississippi State an alternate jersey this year, I hope they go the traditional route.

Taking inspiration from uniforms Adidas has already issued to Mississippi State's baseball and basketball teams, I think a cream (vintage white) - based jersey would be a good look for the Bulldogs.  Oklahoma's wood alternates are the only example of cream jerseys in College Football that I can think of- so this would be a relatively unique uniform.  Of course, these are purely my idea- there have been no indications that Adidas will unveil a jersey similar to this at all.

This will be the last post in the 2014 edition of the uni tracker.  Baseball season is next- the season starts on February 13.  Expect the Bulldogs to unveil exactly what they will wear in 2015 sometime this off-season, as early as March and as late as mid-August.  I'll keep you updated when that happens.

What's in store for 2015?

It was known coming into the 2014 season that the 2012 version of the ribbon-stripe uniforms were in their last year.  What we didn't know is that they would already be overtaken by the end of the season.

Last March, the Bulldogs announced throwback jerseys for the 100th anniversary of Davis Wade Stadium.  The jerseys were based on the late 90s and early 2000s Jackie Sherill-era uniforms, with double white sleeve stripes with black outlines.  The jerseys initially had "Hail State" on the front, but the NCAA ruled it must be replaced with the "Mississippi State" wordmark logo, which vastly improved the look of the uniform in my opinion.

The "DWS 100" unis, as they soon came to be known, were originally planned to be worn against Southern Miss.  However, the uniforms were popular amongst fans, and were subsequently worn in wins vs then top-10 teams LSU, Texas A&M, and Auburn.  After being worn in three huge wins (and being featured in two Sports Illustrated covers), the jerseys skyrocketed in popularity and became the go-to jerseys for the Bulldogs.

Adidas claimed not to be able to produce white versions until the next season, so the regular (ribbon stripe) white jerseys were worn for the remainder of the season.  The regular (ribbon stripe) maroon jerseys were worn twice, as opposed the 7 times (all 7 were wins) that the DWS 100 jerseys were worn.  The Bulldogs did finally break out white versions of the DWS 100 unis for the Orange Bowl. 

Scott Stricklin, Mississippi State Athletic Director, has said that the DWS 100 uniforms, or a version of them, will be the regular uniforms in 2015.  This is not a surprise, given the popularity of the DWS 100 unis and the fact that the Bulldogs were getting new uniforms in 2015 anyway.  The question is, what exactly will they look like?  Will they be the exact same as the DWS 100 unis, right down to the oversized logo on the pants?  Or will there be slight differences?  And if so, to what extent?

CONCEPT- WHAT IF- Mississippi State Switched back to Nike

Many know the story of the slanted “MSU” logo that Nike owns, not allowing Mississippi State to use it to this day.  A new logo set was created in 2009 and is in use currently.  Mississippi State is in a contract with Adidas until 2020, so this is strictly conceptual, but I put this together today to show what Nike might do if it got Mississippi State back.

The design is based on the DWS 100 unis from this year, which themselves are based on MSU’s Nike unis of the late 1990s.  Black is removed from the uniforms, something I hope happens with the current uniforms.  Gray is added in place of it, and as a result, the sleeve stripes mirror Kansas State’s.  A similar striping pattern adorns the pants and white helmet.

The slanted “MSU” logo is added back to the helmets; three different designs are used.  The first is a maroon helmet with a regular, shiny finish and a white facemask.  It would be worn only with the maroon jerseys.  The second is a maroon helmet with a matte finish and a white facemask.  It would be worn only with the white jerseys.  The final helmet would be white, with a maroon facemask and maroon double stripe.  It would be worn only with the white pants, but with both jerseys.  A maroon Egg Bowl jersey with gold accents is also included.

Also posted here: What if- Mississippi State Switched back to Nike