Tag Archives: Temple football uniforms

07.13.18
by

The Big Uniform Reveal: It Looks Good

swaggyt

Conventional wisdom on social media after The Big Reveal on the new Temple uniforms yesterday was: “Well, if the kids like it, that’s the only thing that matters.”

Really?

Identity does, too.

Few of us are kids anymore but all of us once were.


A cautionary note is provided
by our friend Karma.
Since (and including)
the 2015 win over Penn State,
the Owls are 19-3 wearing
predominantly Cherry, 7-7 wearing white
and 1-4 wearing black. They are 0-0
wearing gray, but we will find
out how they fare with that color soon

The thought never occurred to me once when I was a kid that I wanted a new uniform or I was waiting for what I new uniform looked like.

Maybe thinking evolved over the last 40 or so years, but when I look at uniforms like the ones at Alabama, USC and Penn State, I’m more convinced than ever that uniforms have little to no impact upon a recruit’s decision to attend a certain school.

Those schools have a clean, traditional and some—not me—would say “boring” look but it has not affected them.

Nor should it affect Temple, which has had a pretty distinctive look of its own for the past decade or so of mostly success.

Cringeworthy is what I think when I see what Maryland has done with once pretty nice uniforms and that’s what I was afraid to see when the Owls made their big reveal on Thursday. After all, the Under Armour CEO is a Maryland grad and UA and Temple collaborated on this new look.

Fortunately, crazy did not happen. The Big Reveal actually looked pretty good, keeping the predominantly Cherry and predominantly white look while adding a touch of gray and black. A cautionary note is provided by our friend Karma. Since (and including) the 2015 win over Penn State, the Owls are 19-3 wearing predominantly Cherry, 7-7 wearing white and 1-4 wearing black. They are 0-0 wearing gray, but we will find out how they fare with that color soon.

Don’t tempt Mother Nature.

Temple did not stray far from its traditional look, adding a tweak here and there.

The basic identity of Temple is still reflective in the new look, but the identity of Temple is there and that matters every bit as much as what the kids think.

 

07.11.18
by

The Ideal Temple Uniform

friendship

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.

nohelmet

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