2011 College Football New Uniform Tour: Part Four

Here is the final look at all of the new uniforms worn in college football for 2011.

Click on the links below to view the earlier installments.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I'll wrap everything up with a look at the changes we saw this season with Notre Dame's uniforms.

Enjoy...

South Florida

South Florida debuted these late in the season and they were very quietly one of the most audacious uniforms every worn at the college level. Despite the fact that it's basically the same Wounded Warrior uniform as South Carolina's, the Bulls went all out on this---and it was a mistake.

Rutgers

The Scarlet Knights wore a matte black helmet with a red logo earlier in the season, then switched it up to a white logo later, only to unveil these white domes with American flag logo. Copy-cat design at its worst, folks.

Cincinnati

The Bearcats came out in the Liberty Bowl with matte black helmets, complete with their normal logo on the left side, and Alabama numbers on the right side. Seemingly out of nowhere, this became a huge trend this year.

Ohio

Here's those black uniforms the Bobcat players were so excited about earlier in the season. Even with a white helmet they still look like Hawaii.

Tulsa

Not only did Tulsa get a new home uniform and helmet this year, but they unveiled a psychedelic helmet and an interesting throwback uniform with an even more interesting throwback helmet. That "T" in that position almost looks like more of a punishment than anything else.

Houston

Houston wore throwbacks against Marshall, and wouldn't you know it---they looked really nice.

UCF

Central Florida busted out the gold jerseys that they've worn in the past. Can you imagine how awful Notre Dame would look with a gold helmet added to this? Have we not learned anything from the basketball team? And while we're at it, why does the women's basketball team at Notre Dame think the school colors are black and green?

Southern Miss

I believe Southern Miss started the trend of having a logo on one side of the helmet and a number on the other. This new lid for their bowl game had a new eagle logo (their third of the season) and player number on the other side. Of course it's matte black bro---it's what's in right now!

Boise State

Remember how Boise State was outlawed from wearing all-blue at home this year? Well, they wore orange and then this new gray jersey instead. Solid, Broncos...solid.

Colorado State

Another gold jersey, except this time it looks half decent with white pants. Don't you even think about saying Notre Dame should wear a gold jersey, don't you do it!

TCU

TCU wore these new silver helmets, which look okay. I tend to really like their black and purple helmets a lot so these don't seem as sharp as maybe other believe they are.

Wyoming

Wyoming has a bevy of uniform and helmet combinations nowadays. In addition to having their helmet logo colored in yellow, brown, and white, the Cowboys also sported an American flag edition and a Wyoming state flag edition as seen here. A for effort I suppose, because I love vexillology, but not such a high grade for practical purposes.

Kentucky

How do you beat Tennessee? The answer is easy---black uniforms. At least Kentucky kept their blue helmets so it wasn't a complete black-out. Players will start getting sick of the black uniforms soon, right?

Mississippi State

The Bulldogs wore a bunch of gold trim all over their uniforms including their spikes, numbers, and helmet logo for the Egg Bowl. I really like the undershirt with the player number on it---Notre Dame should do something similar since the monogram is currently on the sleeves.

LSU

It's really tough to beat LSU's normal uniforms so these were bound to look bad in comparison. Overall, it's not terrible, but I can't for the life of me understand why so many jerseys have such stupid looking armpit design. The creator of this idea needs to be fired immediately.

Ole Miss

Ole Miss wore gray jerseys which they've done a few times in the past. Since it's so close to white this look can be pulled off. In this instance it's better to use a dull gray instead of a shiny silver, which the Rebels school colors definitely support.

2011 Season & Notre Dame Review

There has been a growing trend in college football for roughly 10 years that welcomes the sporting of multiple uniform combinations, special helmets, rivalry jerseys, and the like.

Led by Oregon, this new wave of style has been increasing each season and truly separates college football from the more static NFL, where the rules are far stricter and less creative.

Perhaps when we look back 2011 will be a watershed season that saw the greatest variation of uniform style and change---with traditional teams like Michigan and Notre Dame leading the way in kicking down traditional barriers---but in the short term we are likely to see more and more innovation.

For the Fighting Irish, this past season saw a lot of uniform changes and that will be documented below. However, I do expect Notre Dame to return to a much more normal way of doing things over the next few seasons.

I repeat, 2011 will not be the norm.

We'll likely see some tweaks here and there at neutral site games and in the Shamrock Series, but expect to see the Irish in the traditional blue and gold at Notre Dame Stadium and on the road.

Notre Dame opened the season in their traditional home blues, with the only difference from 2010 being the flat gold pants instead of the metallic sets worn since 1986.

Also note, throughout the Brian Kelly era the Irish have almost exclusively worn black socks at home instead of navy blue.

Game 2 brought the entire new throwback Under the Lights uniforms against Michigan. With this change came the shamrock helmet, white jerseys with kelly green numbers and shoulder stripes, old gold pants, long white socks with kelly green stripes, and new white cleats with green trim.

The Irish also introduced a shamrock towel in this game as well (as seen on the Voodoo Child).

After the Michigan game, the Irish settled into their traditional uniforms before bringing out the famous new gold helmets for the USC game.

Half way through the season the Irish had already worn three different helmets.

The Maryland game really brought on some radical changes.

First, a new one-off helmet with a shamrock and dark green facemask was created that had no basis in history. The Irish then paired that new helmet with the green jerseys they've worn since 2005, while bringing back the metallic pants that hadn't been worn all season, long green socks, and the UTL white cleats.

A few players even sported a new flesh-colored undershirt with "Irish" script on the inside of one arm and the fighting leprechaun on the other.

In the last game of the season, the Irish came out with a bowl patch and names on the backs of their jerseys.

You also can see a good view of the leprechaun towel the team had been using all season, as well as the specially made blue/gold/white bowl game cleats (see Motta picking the ball up). Adidas also had the Irish in a new pair of black socks with a bit of an unusual striping pattern on the back.

Finally, Notre Dame also wore three different sets of gloves throughout the 2011 season.

In total, the Irish wore 4 different helmets, 3 different pants, 3 different cleats, 3 sets of gloves, 5 different pairs of socks, and 2 different towels.

We'll see what next year brings, but don't expect such extravagance in 2012.