Under DeBoer, the UW Won't Have a Uniform Approach to Game-Day Threads

The subject was brought up, making Kalen DeBoer smile, and basically asked something along the lines of the following: Do the clothes make the man on the football field?

While the players tend to get excited over shiny new threads, team traditionalists roll their eyes every time the University of Washington strays from its standard purple and gold look, especially regarding the helmet.

The Huskies have showed up in the past dressed all in white, black and most recently adidas-designed purple and coincidentally never seem to play well when they tinker radically with the color scheme.

Against Arizona State, the fifth-ranked and unbeaten UW came out with its new look and struggled for the better part of three and a half quarters before pulling out a difficult 15-7 victory over the Pac-12's last-place entry.

"When we see what happened Saturday and we're wearing a different uniform, you start drawing conclusions," DeBoer said. "I really don't believe in that. I do fall in line with just being a traditional, in the history and all that, and that's what we are at Washington.

"I'm not a superstitious guy so I don't think it falls in line with anything as far your production or the results."

Still, it's hard to overlook the 2016 showdown with USC when the 9-0 and fourth-ranked Huskies came out dressed all in black, proceeded to lose 26-13 at home and lost standout linebacker Azeem Victor to a broken leg. Some said they were cursed.

In 2021, the UW pulled on 1991 national championship throwback uniforms, regular colors nonetheless yet a break from the regular football wardrobe that season, and not only fell to UCLA 24-17 at home but lost linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio and running back Richard Newton to season-ending injuries.

Schools such as USC, Texas, Ohio State and Penn State, for the most part, never stray from a uniform standard. Those tend to think that's messing with the football gods.

Yet players everywhere have expressed a desire or willingness to dress up for special game-day occasions, something that became trendy once NIKE created seemingly dozens of uniform and helmet choices for Oregon.

Other equipment companies now sell their creativity in landing contracts, with adidas and the UW in agreement that together they'll try something different for one game each season.

Legendary and late Husky coach Don James was one of those guys who wouldn't stray from a certain look. He did away with purple helmets previously used for a decade when he took over. James also determined that his players would wear standard striping on the helmets and football pants that never wavered throughout his 18-season run in Montlake (1975-1992).

Last weekend, some fans said the Huskies didn't quite look the same at all with a head-to-toe purple presentation. They thought the gold numbers were hard to read, too.

To the contrary DeBoer, similarly a detail guy, remains unconvinced his players were off their game last Saturday because of their fashion selection. In fact, he came up with a counter argument.

"I don't read into that too much — we won the game," the Husky coach said. "I think that's what matters. The defense, I thought, played really well. So if you look at it from that perspective, the defense might really like wearing those uniforms."

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