Wednesday, October 9, 2013

uniform tracker

Because I'm so fully on top of it when it comes to updating everything on the side, I thought I'd give myself one more project.  If I remember to keep doing it, this'll be a tracker of how well UVA has performed in each one of their uniform combinations.  If we can get a big enough sample size (30 years or so oughta do it, assuming I still have time to blog and be a grandpa) it should be a good indicator of which uniform we should wear for optimal performance.

Here are the possible combos, listed helmet-jersey-pants.  There's a G, B, or U next to each; they refer to my verdicts from last year's fashionista post, which were Good, Bad, or Ugly.  The first record is straight up; the second is against the spread so appropriate credit can be given for wins like the near-upset against USC in the first year of the London era.  They don't add up to the same thing because I can't find historical spreads for all games, mostly our older I-AA games.

(B) Blue-blue-blue: 1-3, 0-3
(G) Blue-blue-white: 1-4, 1-4
(B) Blue-blue-orange: 1-1, 0-2

(G) Blue-white-blue: 0-2, 0-2
(B) Blue-white-white: 5-2, 5-2
(G) Blue-white-orange: 0-3, 2-1

(G) Blue-orange-blue: 6-4, 5-3-1
(B) Blue-orange-white: 2-0, 1-0-1
(U) Blue-orange-orange: 0-1, 0-1

(U) Orange-blue-blue: 0-0, 0-0
(B) Orange-blue-white: 0-0, 0-0
(G) Orange-blue-orange: 1-1, 0-2

(B) Orange-white-blue: 0-0, 0-0
(U) Orange-white-white: 0-2, 1-1
(B) Orange-white-orange: 0-1, 0-1

(B) Orange-orange-blue: 0-2, 0-2
(B) Orange-orange-white: 1-0, 0-0
(U) Orange-orange-orange: 0-0, 0-0

Throwbacks: 0-1, 0-1

Compilations:

Blue helmets: 16-20, 14-18-2
Orange helmets: 2-6, 1-6

Blue jerseys: 4-9, 1-11
White jerseys: 5-10, 8-7
Orange jerseys: 9-7, 6-6-2

Blue pants: 7-11, 5-11
White pants: 9-8, 8-7-1
Orange pants: 2-7, 2-7

Some notes on history:

-- 2010 was definitely a sandbox kind of year.  The players tried out their new toy with every uniform combo at least once, but also declared a favorite (something new, because it's not old, as is always the case) by wearing orange jersey and blue pants three times.

-- 2011, on the other hand, might've been either the product of superstition or the product of "you lose uniform picking privileges on the road," since the team selected several different looks at home but mostly only one on the road.

-- Sadly, the only win we've seen in the beautiful, "traditional" blue-blue-white combo (earning that label for being created during the UVA heyday, the only one truly associated nationally with us being good at football) was this year's VMI campaign.  They had been a dismal 0-4 til then.

-- Blue-white-white, however, has been wildly successful.  It was the combo for most of the road games during 2011, including Florida State, and was also the look for last year's large, surprising, probably-TOB-chasing win over NC State.  Blue-orange-blue has also been a winning look.

-- Orange jerseys and white pants have the only winning records in their respective groups; the combo has only been worn twice together, though.  Duke and Eastern Michigan were the recipients of those beatings.

Note - complete through Georgia Tech, October 26, 2013

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! My favorite is the blue helmet with any other combo (except maybe orange/orange). I cringe when I see the orange helmets; my son and I were in the stands in the Georgia Dome when we broke those out. I was very confident up until the time we saw the new helmets, but after that all I could think of was "this isn't gonna be pretty". Let Syracuse and Clemson wear orange helmets. We wear blue (or white if we want to throwback to the GW era).

Anonymous said...

I have to say, these fashionista posts are bizarre, but always entertaining.

Jennine Stalder said...

Tracking down all the uniforms of the UVA team? That’s quite a big challenge. But I realize, it is worth to take this kind of challenge because it’s really satisfying to learn all the things about our favorite team – from their uniforms style throughout the years to their play-offs records.

Jennine Stalder @ UESports.com