BYU football: Cougars need to officially adopt royal blue as primary color
At BYU football Media Day, the Cougars unveiled LaVell Edwards patches. Those patches just won’t do on navy blue uniforms.
At this point, it’s no real secret that BYU football’s head coach doesn’t love navy blue.
Kalani Sitake has gone on record saying he prefers the royal blue look. That’s the color he spent most of his playing career with, and that’s the color which is synonymous with BYU football.
It’s the color that everyone pictures LaVell Edwards in. Royal blue and white. On the sidelines, arms crossed, scowling. Trying to picture him in navy blue is out of place. Like picturing Karl Malone in a Lakers uniform. Sure, it happened, but it doesn’t feel like it was part of his legacy.
Yet, here we are. After navy blue was adopted in the early 2000’s, BYU football went through the blue/white/tan phase that spawned some of the best uniforms in program history (tan outlined numbers) and the worst (the bibs).
Former head coach Bronco Mendenhall removed the tan when he was hired in 2005, opting to restore tradition to the program.
Things remained that way, outside of an occasional blackout or royal alternate, until last season.
What changed last season for BYU football?
Well, technically nothing. Navy is still the official primary color for BYU. But you wouldn’t know it by watching the Cougars last season.
BYU football wore white in seven games, royal blue in two games, black in one game and navy blue in just three games.
This isn’t entirely uncommon in college football. Oregon wears a ton of different uniform combinations. So does North Carolina. So do a number of other programs. But it is very uncommon for BYU football.
Mendenhall’s shtick was “Tradition, Spirit, Honor,” so much so that he actually put it on the back of the jerseys in what can only be described as incredibly ignorant. So here in year two of the Sitake era, what can we expect from the Cougars?
BYU AD Tom Holmoe has been fairly non-committal when it comes to a color change. As a reporter for BYU’s campus paper I went to his semi-annual media Q&A just after Sitake was hired. One could tell he was certainly open to going back to royal blue.
I’d go so far as to say he would prefer royal blue.
But, his problem is the cost. LDS Church leaders/BYU administrators probably think it’s silly to re-brand the entire campus for a football team.
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And I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, they aren’t really wrong. It probably is a little silly.
But it just has to happen.
Especially with the LaVell patches that will be on the jerseys this season. Unless there’s a navy blue version we haven’t seen, the patches are white and royal blue. Might look a tad odd on the navy jerseys.
Unless. . .
What if BYU football never uses navy jerseys this season?
After only using them three times last season, it isn’t entirely out of the question. Or maybe navy is used just once. Plus, with Sitake wanting to utilize BYU’s Nike endorsement, there’s a chance we could see more alternate unis in 2017 and beyond. Maybe white and royal blue? Or smoke gray and royal?
The point is, the Cougars have options.
But in the same way Mendenhall made changes when he came in, BYU should allow Sitake to do the same – and do so officially. It’s great to see the coaches in royal polos, and see the bookstore decked out in royal gear. But let’s make it official.
This would be the perfect year – and yet another great way to honor the late coaching legend.