Boston College Football: Gold Alternate Uniform Review

When I got into Alumni Stadium on Saturday and saw Baldwin running around the field in a gold uniform, I kinda figured that the team was going to run out wearing a new uniform. The Eagles mascot must have made a quick change in the locker room before running onto the field, but still managed to ruin the surprise. Good job, good effort, Baldwin.

I've now had a few days to think about the football team's unveiling of the gold (khaki? Grey Poupon?) uniforms and wanted to capture my thoughts. First, let's take a closer look.

The Eagles ran onto the field with their new gold alternate jerseys, maroon pants and triple-striped, road helmets. It's the first time that BC has donned the gold alternate jerseys, though last year's NCAA Football game tipped Under Armour's hand a bit. We knew at the very least that the concept was out there, though they hadn't been worn up until this point.

The maroon jersey letters had the same stained glassing effect as the home and road uniforms with the effect in white. The shoulders also had the same effect but it was hardly noticeable when (also) done in white.

Overall, I thought they looked better on TV than they did in person. The biggest critique I've heard is that these aren't really gold at all and more of a khaki or, the best I heard, Grey Poupon. Sounds about right. Wake Forest wore gold uniforms on Saturday. As for BC, well ...

In some pics it looks like the players sweat through their jerseys, but I think that may have had more to do with the white stained glassing of the shoulders making the majority of the jersey look a slightly different tinge from the shoulders.

I appreciate the effort here to mix things up, but I don't think this idea was executed as well as it could have been. These uniforms were nothing but the home maroon and road whites but with an update to the color palette. It was an attempt to build off the success of the hockey program's gold alternate National Championship uniforms, but with one notable exception.

What makes hockey's gold alternate uniforms so special is that it's not just an update to the program's uniform color palette. It's also a modern update to a throwback uniform. That's what I think was missing from BC's ensemble on Saturday. Gripes about the color of the jersey aside, this wasn't that big of a departure from the team's current uniforms. I think had UA decided to go with the khaki top and designed a new and unique jersey -- that may or may have paid homage to a previous era of Boston College football -- they would have went over much better.

I didn't like that the team wore the triple-striped, stained glassed helmets at home for the first time and felt the khaki top would have paired much better with the traditional, single maroon striped home lid. The other difference between the football and hockey alternate uniforms is that the hockey helmet is maroon, not gold. Almost felt like there was just too much gold / khaki / mustard here. Perhaps these jerseys would look better with a maroon lid with a Philadelphia Eagles style helmet or the old school, block B C logo in gold.

Aside: Going forward, I'm going to refer to the triple-striped helmet as BC's Mendoza line lids considering the Eagles fell to just 2-6 while wearing the triple-striped, 49ers helmets without the 49ers logo helmets of FAIL. The lids remain in a got to go situation. I get that the new helmets aren't the reason for the decline of the football program, but all I can think of when I see them is the Spaz era of BC football; specifically last year's 4-8 campaign. Got to go.

I also feel that these uniforms would be better as road alternates than at home. College football home games are all about showing your team's colors. The result in this game was a team wearing white (Clemson) against a team wearing off-white / khaki (Boston College). I agree with UniWatch's Phil Hecken that these uniforms would have looked much better had Clemson worn orange tops.

I don't totally love these, but I don't hate them either. I appreciate the program trying to mix it up, but felt that the idea could have been executed just a tad bit better. Overall, I'll give Under Armour and the program a B- on this one.

Next up: breaking out the red bandanna patterned helmets on the annual home game closest to September 11.