Virginia Tech announced uniform combinations for the Hokies' final two regular season football games. Tech will wear all-black for Saturday's game vs. North Carolina, and a retro kit at Virginia on November 28. The black helmets feature an orange No. 25, the number Beamer wore as a player, on one side, and the VT logo on one side.
Closer Look. All black vs UNC. #GoHokies pic.twitter.com/hWl2uYyU92— VT Equipment (@VTEquipment) November 16, 2015
Black lid Hokies will wear against Virginia, No. 25 view (Virginia Tech Athletics).
Black lid Hokies will wear against Virginia, VT logo view (Virginia Tech Athletics).
For Frank Beamer's regular season finale at UVa, a maroon helmet, white jersey and maroon pants combination will replicate the Hokies' road look from Beamer's inaugural season in 1987. The photo below via hoosfootball.com is from the 1987 Virginia Tech-Virginia game. If the photo is accurately dated, the uniform color combination is slightly different than the one Virginia Tech announced.
Photo of Hokies' 1987 uniform via hoosfootball.com.
Retro helmet Hokies will wear against Cavaliers on Nov. 28.
According to the release, Beamer approved his players' uniform suggestions.
"My goals for these player have been the same for decades," Beamer said in the release. "I want them to get a quality education, have a positive experience and mature as people in our program. This has been a very responsible group that has worked extrememly (sic) hard. They haven't asked me for one thing this season. When they approached me and asked to wear the black uniforms for our final home game, I had no problem with it. If it makes it more fun for them, I'm good with it."
"We've been waiting all season for a chance to wear these uniforms," said defensive end Ken Ekanem in the release. "This is a perfect time. They're special uniforms, and with this being Coach Beamer's final home game it's going to be a special day."
"The look is pretty awesome," added fullback Sam Rogers in the release. "The guys like it and the team is pretty excited about it."
Comments
And the 20 seasons after that. We've only done the white on maroon look, what, twice in the last five or six years?
These look awsome. Hope the team gets fired up and destroys the Tar Heels. Go Hokies.
Glad they were able to incorporate a way to get all players to wear '25'. That is a nice nod to Frank along with the patch.
Is today too early to start tailgating for this thing?
It's never too early to start tailgating for a noon game.
Starting my tailgate right now on the plane to NYC. Will trust the cabby to get me to my hotel.
Curious as to if the black jerseys will have Beamer's name on the back too...
That would also add to the commemoration to Frank.
#ThanksFrank
I'm not a fan but if the players really wanted to wear these jerseys, then I'm down with it.
My sentiments exactly.
It makes no sense to wear black uniforms for a noon game but c'est la vie
But it's November and it'll probably be cold.
It's a shame they had to put Joel Caleb in the carbonite freezer just to display these uniforms
Had to find a way to feature him
Shane forced to get creative
Shane wanted to rotate uniforms every series...sometime in mid-series. He also wanted a boxing glove on a stick to be the featured logo on the helmet.
maybe he comes back like captain America some hundred years later?
Not being a smarta$$ here...I just figured out why they use #15 for the uniform reveals. I thought, wow the coaches must really like Caleb or feel sorry for him. Then it hit me...it's the year! I'm embarrassed it took me 10 games to get here.
Nothing looks better at noon than Halloween costumes...perfect!
So does anyone know if we will be able to buy the jerseys? Still kicking myself for not buying the black jersey from the Boise State game...
As long as we win, I don't really care what uniforms we wear.
Excited about the throwbacks vs LOLUVa though as a nice sentiment for Beamer.
Heard LOLUva will be wearing throwbacks too, turn back the clock to their 2003 Home Unis to honor the last squad to beat VT.
So they'll be wearing this one?
I know you were joking, but I had to look it up anyways...
So the unis for the loluva game will look kinda like this?
Same color combination, different helmets and pants. I think all three parts will have stripes.
So like this?
Not a bad look.
Edit: I see that they've now added pictures to the article, but they have white pants, not maroon...
I actually REALLY like the sleeve stripes instead of the big shoulder stripes. Not a bad jersey at all.
To be honest, I'm confused as hell. The release said maroon lid, white jersey and maroon pants. However, the only photo found is maroon helmet, white jersey and white pants.
Well, they did get it from a loluva site, do you really expect it to be accurate?
I checked the Ruhland Unibuilder database, and it looks like we actually didn't wear a maroon/white/maroon combo at all in 1987. But I'm thinking it will be the combo shown above from around the same era (late 80s/early 90s).
I'm getting a feeling that the uniform question is similar to the "GameDay is coming for Labor Day". People were misinterpreting the words that were used, or using terms interchangeably that weren't interchangeable (including the VT athlethic department).
The phrase that the press release keeps using is "road look". It doesn't say that they're trying to mimic any specific uniform. So whether it's white pants or maroon pants, I think we're seeing uniform pieces that we've seen earlier this season.
perhaps this is just a way to throw people off the NO PANTS combination we've heard so much about.
#TEAMNOPANTS
Too bad David Wang graduated last year. There could be jokes.
Aren't all of the uniform parts ordered prior to the season?
So there's a good chance that they're just taking the pieces they already have to make a combination reminiscent of the early Beamer coached days. Especially since we haven't done the white on maroon look much recently. Most of our away games have been white on white, except for GT (orange on white), and ECU (white on maroon with the orange helmets).
Yes. I believe I read in Andy's Q&A with Whit Babcock that all uniforms are actually ordered the season before. I can't find it right away but if I remember correctly they're ordered in November or December for the next season. So if that's correct, someone in Blacksburg knows what this whole re-branding move is going to look like already.
Team must be in mourning for the departure of Coach Beamer. amiright?
I really can't believe some of the comments on other platforms about this.
"The coaches should worry more about the game plan than planning uniforms"
I've read comments like that on here too. And the comments usually had several turkey legs.
This was before Franks announcement though
I don't understand the point of mentioning this on TKP. To me it seems logical to: 1) ignore them altogether, or 2) address those folks on said other platforms.
There are other platforms?
I think Joe means address the comment where the comment was seen. Like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
The image is blocked at my work but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it's a "joke over your head" gif. At least return the favor for me setting you up for the easy legs ;)
GTA
I know... I was being sarcastic as in, no other platforms matter except here. ;-)
Derp So Hard University. My bad, as a sarcastic person I can't believe I missed that.
Sadly I've seen nearly identical comments on here too. People say that stuff all over the place.
loving the black -since technically the traditional colors were black and grey... all you old people, deal with it.
and hate week needs to start a week early, dammit.
Its not just older Hokies that don't like black
I'm in the minority as well but I love incorporation black and grey as uni colors. The grey unis vs Bama were pretty nice as well.
I would like to see a Military Appreciation Day uni that incorporates the Corps, the Pylons, black/gray, and Hokie Stone. If properly executed, that could be outstanding. I could also see it being over-done and becoming a trainwreck, but it really could be excellent.
I agree. I would love to see more charcoal gray and metallic colors worked into our uniforms. I like a lot of the metallic gray stuff Nike is doing with our logo and on our merchandise.
That logo and the metallic gray looks great with the dark maroon. Those kinds of concepts would look great on a uniform if done correctly. A subtle charcoal or metallic Hokie Stone pattern on the sleeves or shoulders could be done.
*images from shop.hokiesports.com
"all you old people, deal with it."
Oh, there ya go. It's on now.
Am I the only one more excited for the uniforms at UVA than the black? The black is fine with me but I love me some throwbacks.
Yeah, it's still the same shitty uniform just black. I HATE the shoulder stripes. The pro combats were very creative, I liked those. The helmet with 25 is cool though. Looking forward to the UVa unis way more.
Actually, I think the black is hideous. The definition on the maroon bit in the shoulder stripes is practically non-existant. The helmets are nice, but the rest of it is awful... Really looking forward to the UVA game ones, though.
Same here; I'm more excited about the "retro" uniforms for UVA as well. While I'm all for the black uniforms if that's what the players want, I love the throwbacks too. If it were up to me, I'd have done a throwback maroon uniform similar to the ones worn during our 1999 season for the UNC game, and then the road whites look for the UVA game.
i love both these combos, let's do this! Saturday can't get here soon enough!!!
Can't help but be a little disappointed these weren't worn against NCSU like originally planned. They would have looked awesome under the lights.
And as I said in the other thread, Nike was planning blackout uniforms for their top programs this year, much like they did with Pro Combat unis. Very glad to see we were a part of this promotion. Can't wait to see what the rebrand has in store.
Everyone keeps mentioning a rebrand. I'm out of the loop. Links?
Nothing official, but lots and lots of smoke, and Nike was working on some things last year into the summer that did get leaked (and expunged, as they were only to show ideas of where they were thinking they could explore, not where we should go). The main logo won't change, but there could be some changes coming to the Hokie Bird logo as well as athletic wordmark.
Hmmm...not Nike?
They sure do have a swoosh on them though.
Probably contract requirements with Nike. Or perhaps they were not given to us by Nike but rather we ordered them, so they are Nike product, but not part of a Nike promotion of some sort.
that sucks. I never liked the old black ones but i would surely buy this one.
I thought I read somewhere where the grey uniforms from the Alabama game weren't Nike either. They were made by someone else but the Nike logos were on them to fulfill contract requirement.
Or the second part of what you said is the case.
Yeah, the talk was that Nike had nothing to do with the grey uniforms, but the style was straight from Nike's style catalog, so it was a Nike product. I think it's just that Nike isn't wanting to do a promotion with us and we just ordered them using our uniform contract.
I would look great in these colors... I FREAKING HATE NIKE!!!!
For Frank's last game coaching we should be wearing the uniform he wore on his last game playing.
Isn't that basically what we're doing? Imitating the road uniforms from Frank's playing days is part of the plan for UVA.
Uniforms from the beginning of Frank's coaching days are what we're wearing at UVA.
You're right. I thought I had read it that we were wearing uniforms from Jerry Claiborne era.
If the internet can be trusted, a picture from the 1968 Liberty Bowl:
(The Ole Miss player there is Archie Manning, BTW.)
Looks like a maroon-white-white combo.
I want the TV logo.
I think the Frank Beamer patch/sticker will stand out better on the black helmet and jersey. Last game it was so hard to see on the maroon part of the helmet.
Seeing these uniforms just made this Monday in my most stressful week of occupational therapy school yet amazing. I'm pumped.
Anyone else not a fan? We look like oregon state. Looks like we just painted black over our regular striped unis, not desinged for it. Not like the boise state pro combats. Those were sleek.
Doesn't seem fitting for Beamers home finale
I hope there are several recruits at the UNC game. Those black jerseys are something high school kids would absolutely love.
Am I the only one slightly disappointed that we don't have this, instead?
This cannot be upvoted anywhere near enough. Black...it'll get after ya.
Nothing says blackout like blaze Orange stripes and numbers /s.
I like the look ok, but I don't think I would have gone with a stripe on the helmet.
It would've been cool and symbolic (or possibly weird) to have a Black Effect in Lane to match the uniforms and make a statement about Frank's last home game.
I'm interested to see what y'all thought about these, because I really, really liked our 2004?(at a memory glance)-2007, particularly the #allmarooneverything and all white uniforms. and I was actually on board with the 2008-2009 stuff as well, those were short lived.
Those were the days. Lived watching our all maroon look when we beat up on Clemson at home
You mean day? Days implies that we are in the same conference as Clemson.
Days. We wore all maroon against Clemson in 2006 and all white in 2007 and hammered them both times
I love them, usually anything with black incorporated looks bad ass.
Psyched out about both sides using retro jerseys in the UVA game. I'm about to get my 80s on!
The caption says that we're wearing the black helmets against Virginia. Need to edit that.
Sure enough...
Other than the white stripe on the helmet, I really like it
I think the uniforms look great. I'm just worried about the karma aspect. Blackouts have never been kind to the home team.
ECU won at home this year. Wearing Black. Against the Hokies.
Something something whore mouth.
These helmets are bad ass, and the maroon flake on the black looks good!
Long tread. WGAF? Win the game and just post Pics from Victoria's Secrets.
I like the uniforms, but I think if they had used more maroon with the black it would be better. I guess the thought was maroon is too dark to pair with black, but the black and orange looks like Oregon State, Ok St, etc. I think this jersey with maroon numbers on the jersey/helmet and Maroon shoulder stripes with smaller accents of orange could have been really sharp.
They would have definitely needed some sort of accent around the numbers, because maroon on black would be an NCAA violation. The numbers have to be clearly visible for the refs. FSU got in trouble last year because they did gold numbers on their white jerseys.
But even if the numbers were outlined in orange or white, I think it would still look weird, because the maroon wouldn't be different enough from the black.
Can someone with more time than me please make a GIF of the frank sticker? I want him to lower his left arm, extend his right and drop the mic. Then we spam college gameday with it on twitter after we knock of UNC...
Update on the retro look:
Also known as Pants Watch 2015.
The most important pants watch since the Miami game of 2014.
So, basically, what has been our default away uniform for the last few years.
Or, if they add a stripe to the helmet, it's the exact same uniform we wore in Lane North two years ago
Not the exact same. Shoulder stripes and outline on the numbers is different. Probably other small things, but it's true that little has changed in the overall design.
I'm talking about what we're gonna wear.
I know it's not going to be the exact same as 1987, because they're not making special uniform parts for the game.
They have the ability to change the numbers, but the other difference is the white facemask.
Anyone know if the blackout jerseys will be for sale anywhere? Still kicking myself for not buying the 2010 Black pro combat
Noooooo. Thanks for the answer!
keep an eye on the surplus auction? Always various obsolete used jerseys for sale every month. Of course, they never post pictures ahead of time so you'd have to go look on a preview thursday or early saturday morning to find out. That and be in blacksburg...
My bet is that the jerseys get auctioned off for charity, like Herma's Readers. No way the school misses the opportunity to generate some $ off of these. Not being a "retail item" is different, because that would imply stocking them in stores and making them available for purchase online. But the one-offs usually get specifically auctioned, just not through surplus.
fair enough. I just know I've seen different style jerseys at the surplus sales. Now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing any that would be categorized as one-offs.
We should have some of the various jerseys showcased. I thought some schools gave a jersey to recruits? Give them a choice. My guess is black and orange with some strategic white very subtle maroon would be #1 and #2 would be far behind. Hope Whit or the new coach takes control of the uniform issue. Talk to other schools and some of the schools just do what the stupid alums like .... unfortunately I think that is VT. Others are way more aggressive about getting unis that the kids think look cool. Not knowing or not giving a f*** is beyond abysmal IMHO. Given our in state recruiting of late not giving a f*** is no longer a tenable position.