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