24 Days to Kansas Football: What Would Miles Wear?

With the football team only adding some retro throwbacks or nicely designed “faux backs” in recent years, there hasn’t been much of a need for uniform analysis when it comes to the football Jayhawks. That could change in the Les Miles era.

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Starting in the late Mark Mangino era, Kansas started to incorporate more red into its football wardrobe, but it was restricted for “big games” like the 2008 Orange Bowl. Cool Through the terrible Turner Gill, Charlie Weis, and David Beaty eras, Kansas basically had no big games, unless you defined “big” by amount of points scored against KU or the yardage the opposing third string QB would rack up. Kansas could trot out in any variety of blue, white, red, and grey, and the uniforms would almost certainly be the best part of the gameday experience. Hopefully, the play on the field improves with Les Miles at the helm and the aesthetic “good vibes” stay the same. So, what will Miles’ ‘Hawks wear?

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Well, history doesn’t give us too much to work with. LSU, being a traditional power, never really changed up their uniforms. They went with the standard white over yellow with a yellow helmet (Yellow/White/Yellow) almost every game that Miles coached. LSU of course broke out their purple shirts on some occasions, and they went retro on at least one occasion where they went white/yellow/white and it looked really sharp.

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His time with Oklahoma State is also steeped in tradition with white/orange/white being the dominant choice for home games and a mono white look on the road. Of course, this was before the days of multiple uniform combinations. Since Miles left, OSU have worn as many combos as there are days of the month.

So, with Kansas, a team that’s not afraid to look kinda weird out there on the field, Miles will have plenty of choices. He’s a players’ coach, so my guess would be that we’ll see plenty of different combos from the Jayhawks this season. Here’s what I’d like to see, and please keep in mind that this assumes that all combos from last season are available and also the fact that I don’t like it when KU wears a lot of red.

8/31 at home against Indiana State: Blue helmet/Blue shirt/White pants

9/7 at home against Costal Carolina: All blue

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9/13 at Boston College: All white

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9/21 at home against West Virginia: White/Blue/White

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9/28 at TCU: White/White/Blue

10/5 at home against Oklahoma: Blue/Blue/Grey

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10/19 at Texas: Blue/White/Blue

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10/26 at home against Texas Tech: Throwback (Mid-90’s look?)

11/2 at home against K-State: Blue/Blue/White- as traditional as possible

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11/16 at Oklahoma State: Blue/White/Grey

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11/23 at Iowa State: All White

11/20 at home against Baylor: All Blue

Big XII Title game/Bowl Game: WHO CARES? We’re in the post season?

What would you like to see from a uniform perspective? And yes, I know that we’d all like to see wins and competitive football, that’s a given. But, you might as well look good while you’re improving.