BYU Football Recruits Weigh in on their Favorite BYU Uniforms

Heading into the 2006 Las Vegas Bowl, Oregon unveiled a new helmet before their matchup against BYU. It was a big story at the time and ESPN mentioned the new look various times throughout the broadcast. In the following years, Oregon leveraged their partnership with Nike and created as many as 500 uniform combinations in 2011. Oregon uniforms became a major recruiting advantage so other schools followed suit. Now, most schools have multiple uniforms in their arsenal and some schools make uniform selection a big part of recruiting trips. BYU Football isn't necessarily known for their flashy uniforms to the same degree as Oregon or Maryland, but BYU introduced three new uniforms in 2019. In total, BYU has played in 11 different uniforms as an independent and will introduce a 12th combination on Saturday. Since recruiting and uniforms are often mentioned together, I caught up with a dozen 2021 BYU football recruits and asked them to choose two or three of their favorite BYU football uniforms. Here are my takeaways:

1. Recruits enjoy uniform talk

If this were myth busters college football edition, I would confirm the myth that recruits love to talk about uniforms. Like BYU fans, the players and recruits care about uniforms. It might seem silly, but uniforms can create a small advantage in a recruiting world where schools pay thousands of dollars for every advantage they can get.

2. Variety is the best policy

Some fans are pro royal, others are pro navy. Variety is the best policy in 2020. Every single uniform combination received at least one vote in the survey. In my opinion, eliminating one color would take away the excitement that comes with variety. As William Cowper said, "Variety is the spice of life." 

Overall, there were more votes for royal than navy. However, it was a fairly even split between the two - about 60% of the votes were for royal uniforms. Exactly half of the recruits selected at least one royal and one navy combination in their top three.

3. Favorite combos

Like I mentioned above, every combination received at least one vote in the survey. These were the top three uniform combinations according to 2021 BYU recruits:

1. Whiteout with royal trim

Hard to argue with this pick, BYU's whiteout look with royal trim is a very clean look.

2. Blackout

BYU recruits really liked the blackout uniforms that the Cougars last wore in 2016 against Utah State. Unfortunately, these uniforms are currently out of commission and won't be used in the near future.

3. All royal

Are you noticing the theme? The recruits like the "color rush" looks that BYU puts together. One could also conclude that recruits simply prefer alternate uniforms over traditional uniforms.