by Mike Gibson

The Ideal Temple Uniform

Kyle Friend and P.J. Walker were happy with this helmet design.

In the grand scheme of things, uniforms and helmets rank somewhere between 4-99 in terms of importance.

Winning, of course, is No. 1, followed by finding a long-term place to play and maybe recruiting. Beyond that the branding of the program both on and off the field IS important.

In recent weeks, head coach Geoff Collins has hinted at a new look for the program in his twitter feed. Past head coaches have put their own stamp on the program’s look with mixed success.

Hard to read the word Temple with a black-cherry background.

Wayne Hardin got rid of the ugly Owl on the side of the helmets and chose to spell the word “Temple” in large block letters and that stuck for awhile.

“We’re Temple; we want people to know who we are,” Hardin said.

Al Golden brought that back when he took over in 2006.

“That’s the football brand, Temple,” Golden said. “The school brand is the block T but when I played at Penn State when we saw Temple on the helmet that’s the brand we respected because those guys played tough and hit as hard as any team we played. So I wanted to bring that back for my guys.”

Steve Addazio ditched TEMPLE entirely for the ‘][‘ without providing any explanation.

My two cents: I like both the ‘][‘ and the TEMPLE look and have argued for a “King Solomon” solution in this space in the past. Split the baby. TEMPLE on one end as a tribute to the football brand and the ‘][‘ on the other as a tribute to the school brand.

Matt Rhule almost nailed it when he came up with the version seen at the top of this post combining a version of the two. My only problem with that is the chin strap obscured the ][ to the point of annoyance. Put the ][ on the other side, keep TEMPLE on one and you have perfection.

Otherwise, keep it Cherry and White with the broken stripes down the pants and you have one of the cleanest and neatest looks in college football.

Now it’s Geoff Collins’ turn. In 24 hours, we will find out what he has decided.

Friday: The Reaction

11 thoughts on “The Ideal Temple Uniform”

L Blaze
July 11, 2018
8:05 am

The broken stripe on the pants is unique to the program. The diamonds on the neck border as well, but that touch isn’t noticed except when there are close-ups.

The helmet with different sides works for me. Just keep it cherry…the white for situations where the other team may have a similar color and no stripe…think the OU games in future seasons.

And lose the black ensembles. The cherry pants could disappear similarly.

Reply
- George
  July 11, 2018
  9:13 am
  
  Cherry should be the dominant color. When they make us wear white for road games, keep the helmets Cherry and the pants Cherry with the broken white stripes.
  
  Reply
joninohio
July 11, 2018
11:40 am

Good design demands easy readability. Period. I agree Mike, that owl head was hard to see and therefore a bad choice on the helmet. Personally I like the T best – simple, nice design as a logotype, different from other school’s Ts and distinctive. Also, the blocks down the pants are unique but as a similar design, maybe they could be changed to diamond shapes? But as you said, winning is paramount. Go Owls.

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- Dave
  July 11, 2018
  6:14 pm
  
  Does anyone remember diamond-striped pants circa 1970? Or was I hallucinating again?
  
  Reply
  - Mike Gibson
    July 12, 2018
    9:37 am
    
    Not hallucinating. Designed by coach Hardin.
KJ
July 12, 2018
12:40 am

The T or TEMPLE in block, either works just fine.Keep the blocks down the pants.., what has to go is the slogan, “We are the T”…, the best uniform is the one that beat PSU. How can anyone argue against?

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KJ
July 12, 2018
1:00 am

just finished watching 60 minutes of Jahad Thomas and Isaiah Wright tape. IW is a bigger, stronger and faster version of JT. IW should be in the backfield splitting duties with Armstead. why, because he’ll get a guaranteed 15 touches per game compared to 5 as a WR (not counting special teams).

Wright, a touchdown waiting to happen, needs more touches per game. He would be even more effective than JT. The Temple O needs more explosive plays, get the ball to your best players, and put Wright in the backfield. Look at what happened when JT and Armstead split time, production!

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- Mike Gibson
  July 12, 2018
  9:34 am
  
  That’s why I was pulling my hair out when Nitro was the emergency tailback in the ECU game. Wright should have gotten those carries, even though that game turned out ok. Now Wright might be our most talented tailback if he got the opportunity. Let’s give him that opportunity this year. Hate to see the talents of our players not getting used (Sharga most of last year and Nutile missing most of the first seven games comes to mind).
  
  Reply
Mike Gibson
July 12, 2018
9:30 am

I’d like to thank Rutgers’ fan JoeP for this tribute on the RU rivals’ site (this is all I could read because I couldn’t get past the pay wall): The inexact “science” of recruiting
…head; I almost added ‘except for the cuse and Temple (though Mike Gibson/PAPrep’s Temple blog is outstanding because the guy is a skilled…
Post by: JoeRU0304, Monday at 10:53 AM in forum: The Round Table…

Thanks

Reply
larry
July 12, 2018
10:12 pm

Don’t care for the gray or black in the new uniforms. We’re here to ” fight fight fight for the Cherry and the White. That is the identity of Temple’s brand.

You don’t see Penn State wearing grey uniforms.

Reply
joninohio
July 13, 2018
10:26 am

Agree larry. Mike, could you post a picture of Hardin’s diamonds-on-the-pants uniforms? I don’t remember that.

Reply