Auburn – Samford Uniform Preview

In the last home football game of the year, Auburn will be welcoming one of their very own back to the Plains. 1971 Heisman Trophy Winner and current Samford University Bulldogs head coach Pat Sullivan will be returning back to Auburn, the first time as a coach since 2011, the last time Samford visited Auburn. In fact, Auburn and Samford are common opponents. According to Winsipedia (one of my favorite sites), Auburn leads the overall series 26-0-1.

Onterio McCalebb wore #22 for the 2011 Samford game in honor of T’Sharvan Bell, who was injured the week before.

As for Samford, they’ve had pretty much the same look for the past few years. Even after a switch from Russell to Nike in 2013, the football uniforms were relatively untouched. Obviously the biggest visual change is the Nike swoosh is now showcased on the left chest of the jerseys. But also, the Southern Conference logo underwent a redesign during the 2013 offseason. Take a look at this photo and notice the shininess of the numbers. As best as I can tell, those Russell jerseys used screen printed numbers, which are ultimately fazed out of production nowadays (as they should. They’re cheap and look bad). Now take another look at today’s Nike uniforms. Ah, nice, durable tackle-twill numbers. Much better!

Samford keeps it pretty simple, with only two jerseys and two pairs of pants, each consisting of a blue and a white version. According to a quick Google search, Samford also had a red jersey option available when they were with Russell, but it doesn’t seem that they’ve worn a red top since the switch to Nike. As far as I can tell, Samford only pairs their blue pants with their blue jerseys (or at least they did when with Russell). They, thankfully, don’t wear the white jerseys with blue pants. It wouldn’t be an awful combination, but those all whites are a wonderful look. Would hate to see that tarnished.

Back in 2011, Samford played a game on September 10th, and decided to use that game to celebrate “Heroes’ Day”. As far as military appreciation or similar games go, this one seemed to be done well, especially with the uniform changes. According to this Samford Crimson article, the original plans for Heroes’ Day changed after the April 27th tornado outbreak throughout Alabama. In an attempt to honor America as well as those affected by the tornadoes, Samford pulled out one of the coolest memorial decals I’ve seen. Yea, it’s simple. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

As far as the match-up with Auburn, uni-wise, goes, I wouldn’t expect it to be any different than the 2011 game. Auburn in the traditional white-blue-white and Samford in their blue-white-white.

If anything else, it’ll be a good night to welcome home an Auburn legend.

War Eagle!