It’s been a rough week for Orlando and the state of Florida. Hurricane Ian devastated much of the state, and UCF has found a very nice way to touch on that in the team’s uniforms this week.
The Knights are set to pair white helmets with black jerseys and white pants against SMU in their rescheduled game on Wednesday, and the stack UCF decal will feature the state of Florida flag shimmering within the logo.
It’s a very simple and awesome way to show support for the whole state in the wake of the storm. The idea for the decal (which we had previously seen once against Marshall in the 2019 Gasparilla Bowl) originated on social media late last week, with some fans calling for the Knights to break out the look once again.
I was very skeptical of this fan request. Ordering and applying new decals on a whim is far from easy, especially in the post-COVID era with its many supply chain issues. But it looks like UCF managed to pull it off.
The decal will be especially noticeable given that the game is set to be the only football of any kind on TV on Wednesday night. The Knights will have an unusually large audience for what otherwise would have not been much of a standout game on its original date, and these decals are a great way to represent the state while doing so.
Our first look at the white pants
This is our first time seeing UCF’s new white pants this season and, once again, the Polaris stars down the side make much more of a difference than you’d think. It’s a simple but really effective way to tie the pants in more to the rest of the uniform.
When you’re a team that wears a lot of combos, it can be difficult to toe the line on pants design between going completely clean (like in UCF’s old set) to allow for each combo to look good or end up over-designing and limiting looks (like the 2013-15 set).
The stars are subtle and work well with all other components of the uniforms.
We’ve now seen each part of UCF’s new uniform set except the black helmets and knightmode jerseys. It’ll be interesting to see when they make their debut.
Combo Notes
- UCF will now have worn black jerseys at home in 2022 more times than it did all of last season
- This is just the sixth time since 2007 that the Knights will not wear a helmet stripe
- UCF has now worn the stack, reverse stack, chrome gold stack, script knights and state flag decals through just five games
- The Knights now have worn White/Black/White just three times in the modern uniform era, most recently against Boise State in 2021
