Auburn was the first major football program to partner with Under Armour when the Tigers hit the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 2006. Over the next eighteen years, Auburn’s aesthetic history was retained through subtle evolutions.
Join us as we revisit every uniform worn during Auburn’s time with Under Armour—every detail, every tweak, every game day look—preserved and presented as only the Auburn Uniform Database can.
2006
The 2006-2007 athletic calendar was the first season for Auburn after switching from Russell Athletics to Under Armour.
Most of Auburn’s uniforms changed mightily across the board. Even though the overall design of the traditional football uniforms stayed the same, there were plenty of details that changed with the transition.
First off, the Under Armour logo sits on the left chest, whereas the Russell Athletic logo was located on the right. Because of that, the SEC patch was forced to switch sides opposite the manufacturer logo.
The nameplate font changed from a sans-serif font to a more traditional serif font that better matched the numbers. This new uniform set would also see the AU logo placed on the left hip on the pants for the first time.
One oddity of the 2006 season was showcased during the Cotton Bowl.
Rather than adding the bowl patch to the jersey with the other patches already in place, Auburn put the Cotton Bowl patch where the SEC patch had been sitting throughout the year. That type of bowl patch placement is something you don’t see nowadays.
Speaking of the Cotton Bowl, rumors swirled in the days leading to the game against Nebraska that Auburn would debut brand-new orange-colored pants in Dallas. The rumors continued to grow before head coach Tommy Tuberville broached the topic after practice.
Tuberville stated, “I know there are some rumors out there that we’re going to wear orange pants and that stuff. I don’t know how that gets started. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to wear the same uniforms – all white.”
Auburn would do just that – wear white – and defeat Nebraska 17-14 to finish the season with an 11-2 record.
2007
The 2007-2008 season marked the 75th anniversary for the Southeastern Conference. With that, all athletic teams wore a commemorative patch to celebrate.
Football teams wore a slightly different version of the patch than other teams. Football patches included the 1933–2008 ribbon while the other sports simply wore the large 75 logo.
The Tigers also made a nearly unnoticeable change to the uniforms – the numbers were now tackle twill sewn onto the garment. They were screen-printed the year prior.
The season also marked Auburn’s 50th anniversary of the 1957 National Championship team. Auburn took the opportunity to celebrate the milestone by wearing “throwbacks” for the homecoming game against Vanderbilt.
The uniforms went unchanged for the special occasion, but the helmet looked a little different.
The AU logo that had donned Auburn football helmets since 1966 was removed, leaving the shells blank as they were in 1957. The navy facemask was replaced with grey masks as was accurate to the period for the select players that actually wore facemasks.
This marked the first game that Auburn wore white at home since 1968 against Georgia. The 1957 team wore navy and white jerseys, though the navy tops were without any stripes.
The white jerseys featured the sleeve stripes that are still worn today. Wearing the white tops allowed Auburn to be period-accurate without having to order brand new uniforms – the only expense was outfitting the team in grey facemasks.
2008
With the SEC’s anniversary season concluding, Auburn returned to wearing the pennant-styled SEC patch.
Auburn also made a small tweak to a longstanding design on the helmets that very few would have noticed.
For many years, the Tigers have worn player numbers in the center of the orange stripe. Starting in 2008, the numerals were moved to the left, just beside the smaller navy stripe. It would stay in this placement until 2021. The font was also changed to better match the jersey numbers.
Tragedy struck Auburn Athletics on November 9th, as long-time Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Support Services Virgil Starks passed away from cardiac arrest. Starks was just 46 years old. He was a favorite among athletes and was seen as a father figure to many of the football players.
A memorial logo was designed for Auburn’s teams to wear in honor of Starks. The new decal featured a graduation mortarboard cap accompanied by VS, Starks’ initials. It was worn during the final two games of the football season against Georgia and Alabama. The men’s and women’s basketball teams continued to wear the VS memorial logo as a patch for the remainder of their seasons.
For homecoming, the Tigers hosted the Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks. UT-Martin at the time wore Auburn-like Russell Athletic uniforms, complete with the same striping pattern on the helmets, jerseys, and pants. The Skyhawks had, however, been much more willing to add new elements to their uniform arsenal, like orange jerseys and navy pants.
With the game against their uniform look-a-like approaching, UT-Martin requested to wear their alternate orange tops in Jordan-Hare Stadium. Auburn obliged and sported the road white jerseys in their home stadium. After nearly 40 years of wearing navy for every home game, Auburn wore the white tops for one game in two consecutive seasons.
The 2008 Auburn football season was an unsuccessful one, ending with a 5-7 record, no bowl bid, and a change at head coach.
2009
The Gene Chizik era begins.
Auburn made a small change to the uniforms for the 2009 season, again changing the SEC patch on the jerseys and helmet decals.
The old pennant-style logo featured a hidden football design. The new conference patch kept the pennant shape but added the circular SEC lettering in place of the football. The helmet decal reflected the same change.
During the October 31st game against Ole Miss, safety Zac Etheridge injured his neck in a scary hit with a teammate. To honor his injured roommate, Ben Tate traded in his usual #44 jersey for a #4 top when the Tigers traveled to Georgia.
After a 7-5 season, Auburn earned a bid to the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida, against Northwestern. It would be the first time these two schools met on the gridiron.
Auburn would place the bowl patch above the Under Armour logo once again. The Tigers would win 38-35 in a wild overtime game.
2010
The new decade brought one of the greatest seasons in Auburn football history and one of the best college football players of all time.
The Cam Newton-led Tigers ran through the 2010 schedule to a perfect 13-0 record and national title. Newton would take home the Heisman Trophy – Auburn’s third – as Nick Fairley was awarded the school’s 2nd Lombardi Award for the best lineman in college football.
Uniform-wise, things stayed the same from the previous season with the newly updated SEC pennant logo showcased on the jerseys and helmets. The Tigers would replace the helmet decal with a large BCS logo for the title game against Oregon. The jerseys featured the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game patch in the familiar location above the Under Armour mark. Under Armour would provide custom gloves and cleats for the game as well.
While things didn’t change on the field aesthetically, there were many rumors and opportunities for something different to hit the gridiron.
When Auburn faced Clemson on September 18th, the marketing department deemed the game to be a “True Blue” game, encouraging fans to wear their navy apparel in the stands. Many believed that this moniker meant the football team would hit the field sporting new navy elements or even an all-navy uniform. An image of a navy helmet with orange and white stripes and AU logo circulated the internet causing even more of a stir.
All concerns were subsided when Newton and the Tigers hit the field that Saturday night sporting the traditional white/navy/white combination for the nationally televised game.
The time between conference championship games and the title game was over a full month. That gave Under Armour plenty of time to promote their premier team participating in the game, hoping to bring the Baltimore-based company their first national title. Under Armour aired a 30-second ad that featured an athlete in Auburn gear lacing up their new cleats.
On close inspection, the athlete was wearing pants that differed from what Auburn traditionally wore. Whereas Auburn’s usual pants have a navy/orange/navy stripe that differs slightly from the helmet and jersey stripes, the pants showcased in the commercial spot were a direct match to the other elements.
Even prior to the season, Auburn was experimenting with the uniforms. When the Tigers took the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium for the annual A-Day spring game in April, eagle-eyed viewers noticed something was amiss.
With the enhancements of televisions and the onset of the SEC Network and other broadcast channels, Auburn wanted to test out how larger AU decals on the helmet would translate on camera. The Tigers would sport decals that were only 3/8 of an inch larger, but they made enough of an impact for those in the stands to take note.
Auburn also took the opportunity to make the midfield logo larger. Neither of these experiments lasted, however.
2011
Following the national championship season, Auburn made the jump to the latest Under Armour template, the chassis on which the uniform is built. And the results were unflattering, to say the least.
The new template came with numerous changes. The previous uniforms featured mesh fronts and backs with polyester shoulders and sides of the jersey. The new jerseys removed a lot of the mesh – it now sits at the tail of the jersey on the front and back.
The most notable change to the jerseys included the shoulder stripes. Thanks to a double set of panel stitches across the collarbone and shoulder blade areas, the stripes were now much smaller than previously. Because the jerseys were also much tighter and ultimately had a smaller footprint, the player numbers were downsized considerably.
The nameplates on the back that house the player’s surname were also much smaller now thanks to the new template. Many people wanted to think this was because of Auburn’s tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen’s last name. The fan-favorite Lutzenkirchen skyrocketed in popularity during the 2010 season as many learned to spell and pronounce his name. The lengthy surname made for larger nameplates on the previous template but was not the reason for Under Armour to make the change. All Under Armour teams that eventually moved over to this new template suffered the same issues when it came to nameplate and numeral sizes.
Another unfortunate consequence of the new template came with the pants. Under Armour designed their new pants to feature a unique set of panels down the back of the leg that came to a point on the side of the knees. This panel shape made the Tigers’ traditional striping pattern taper at the kneecap.
The backside of the pants also had “War Eagle” added to the back of the belt loops, a look not well received, often referred to as a “tramp stamp.”
Auburn would struggle through much of the season to post a 7-5 record before being invited to the Chick-fil-A Bowl once again. The Tigers were matched up against Virginia for a game in which both teams wore their colored jerseys.
Auburn wore navy tops while Virginia wore orange in what would be Auburn’s first color-on-color matchup since 1972 against Tennessee. The Cavaliers would sport orange helmets for the first time in 34 years themselves. The Tigers once again added the bowl patch on the left chest above the maker’s logo, but also sported the bowl decal on the back of their helmets. The CFA Bowl logo replaced the SEC decal for the game.
This game also marked one of the first instances in which Auburn players wore customized gloves with a design on the palm. Many Nike teams in the years prior had worn gloves where if the hands were overlayed just right, it created a full image. Ohio State did so with a large red O and Alabama had similar gloves with the script A logo.
2012
The new season began with Auburn and Clemson facing off back in Atlanta for the Chick-fil-a Kickoff Game. It would be Auburn’s second straight game in the Georgia Dome and the second consecutive color-on-color game – the first time that’s happened since facing Clemson and Georgia Tech in 1968.
Auburn entered the game with a few new tweaks to the uniforms. First, the SEC pennant patch had been replaced with the SEC-circle logo. With the SEC seemingly retiring their pennant logo, Auburn had to update the rear helmet decal. Rather than making a wholesale change to the look of the helmet, the Tigers instead simply replaced the SEC pennant logo for the NCAA pennant logo, complete with the hidden football design that hadn’t been seen since the 2008 season.
For the Atlanta game, Auburn wore the Kickoff Game patch on the left chest and added the logo to the helmets. This time, rather than simply replacing the conference decal, the CFA Kickoff Game decal was worn above the American flag decal on the right side.
Auburn celebrated its first Military Appreciation game this season when Texas A&M came to town for the first time. The Tigers would add a decal to the helmet and paint red, white, and blue ribbons onto Pat Dye Field.
While the ribbons have made many appearances over the years, this remains the only time that Auburn has worn the military appreciation decal on the helmets.
The season was ultimately a disaster, as the Tigers finished with a 3-9 overall, 0-8 conference record, easily the worst in the modern era for the program. Though the team struggled on the gridiron and were set to undergo yet another coaching change, things were tough outside of football.
On June 12th, three reserve players were attending a party at an off-campus apartment complex when gunshots rang out. The three players were struck. Ladarius Phillips and Ed Christian were killed. Erik Mack would survive his injuries.
When the Tigers returned home for the first game inside Jordan-Hare Stadium against Louisiana-Monroe, offensive lineman Chad Slade was wearing a different number. Slade, who usually wore #62, was sporting #68 for Christian.
“I wanted to honor him in the first game in Jordan-Hare by wearing his jersey number,” Slade said following the game.
Sophomore wide receiver Trovon Reed traded in his usual #1 jersey for Phillips’s #37 for the November 3rd game against New Mexico State. Phillips was roughly 100 pounds heavier than Reed, but Reed was adamant about wearing the jersey to honor his late friend.
“I don’t care if it goes to my ankles,” Trovon said. “I’m going to wear it just for him.”
2013
The beginning of the Gus Malzahn era saw no changes to the uniforms. The Tigers stuck with the truncated-stripe template, the circle SEC patch on the jersey, and the NCAA pennant decal on the helmets.
Except for one detail – the “tramp stamp” on the back of the pants was removed after just two seasons.
Auburn would start the season unranked before rising to incredible heights, running the table, defeating Alabama in the greatest football play ever, grabbing a historic SEC title over new conference foe Missouri, and making the program’s first-ever trip to the Rose Bowl.
Even though the uniforms remained unchanged, one oddity took place early in the season. With the Tigers playing five of the first six games at home, and the lone road game being at LSU, Auburn sported their home navy jerseys for the first six games of the year. It wasn’t until the program made its first trip to College Station, Texas, to face Texas A&M that the Tigers broke out the white road jerseys for the first time.
It was the latest into a season that Auburn had first worn the white jerseys since 1982 when Auburn faced Mississippi State in the seventh game of the season.
After the A&M game, Auburn returned home to host Florida Atlantic. Auburn billed the game as a Breast Cancer Awareness event. For the occasion, the Tigers wore pink ribbons on the helmets for the first time and painted ribbons onto the playing surface.
When it came time for the BCS National Championship Game – Auburn’s second appearance in four seasons – the Tigers wore white for the matchup against Florida State. Auburn once again wore the large BCS decal on the back of the helmet in lieu of the NCAA pennant decal. They also placed the Rose Bowl Championship Game patch in an odd place on the jersey.
Since 2007 (and many seasons prior), the bowl patch has been placed on the left chest above the Under Armour mark. That changed for the title game when the Tigers wore the patch below the UA logo. It made for a crowded look with the manufacturer logo, the team name, and the numbers. There was still room to place the patch in its usual spot, making this placement was off-putting to say the least.
2014
Unlike the season following the 2010 national championship, Auburn did not receive new uniforms for the 2014 season. Things remained the same – same template, same conference patch, same NCAA decal on the helmet, even the same poor bowl patch placement.
Prior to the season, Auburn celebrated the previous year’s accomplishments. For the annual A-Day spring game, the Tigers sported a commemorative logo on the back of the helmets. A similar design was also placed on the field.
The one modification made during the year came in the Outback Bowl against Wisconsin. Freshman tight end Jakell Mitchell was shot and killed at an off-campus apartment complex during the bowl practice period. The shooting happened at the same location in which two other football players were shot and killed just a few years prior.
In memory of Jakell, the Auburn Tigers wore special #31 decals on the back of their helmets during the bowl game.
The Tigers would also place the Outback Bowl patch in the same position as the BCS title game patch, below the Under Armour logo. Throughout the tenure of Under Armour uniforms, these remain the only two instances in which Auburn wore the bowl patches in this awkward placement.
2015
The nightmare that was the uniform template worn during the previous four seasons was finally over as Auburn adopted Under Armour’s latest and greatest design. The new template, which the company called “ungrabbable,” fixed many of the issues that plagued the previous set.
The small shoulder stripes and nameplates were fixed while the pants stripe no longer tapered to a point at the knee. Auburn football finally looked like themselves again.
The Tigers took the chance to make a few small changes to the overall look of the uniform. The belt (yes, the belt) was changed from navy to white. It was the first time that Auburn had worn anything other than a navy belt since 1990.
The helmets saw two tweaks. First, the traditionally flat navy facemask was updated to a “titanium” finish that had some more sparkle to it. The new finish gave off an almost turquoise look when hit the right way by the sunlight. The new facemasks would only last for the season, never to be seen again.
Auburn also utilized a new orange stripe down the center of the helmet, moving from a standard finish of decal to a metallic finish. The new stripe gave off a darker shade of orange at times, causing many fans to voice their displeasure with the look. While the orange stripe showcases the metallic finish more prominently, it isn’t the only decal on the helmets with some shine. The AU decals and the navy stripes for many years have had a very subtle metallic finish to better pop during the game broadcasts.
When Auburn revealed the new uniforms, they showcased a new set of cleats and socks. The general idea was to help make the players more uniform across the board in terms of accessories worn. All players would wear the same color gloves, base layer shirts, socks, and cleats. The first game saw orange accessories hit the field to much controversy. Many disliked the flash of additional color, while others thought it balanced well with the navy jerseys.
The uniformity policy didn’t last long, however, as the Tigers eventually reverted to simple white accessories for much of the season.
The Tigers started the season off in yet another Chick-fil-a Kickoff Game against Lamar Jackson’s Louisville squad. Auburn once again sported the game patch; this time being worn on the right chest above the SEC patch. The logo was also worn on the helmets on the left side above the NCAA pennant decal.
On May 16th, longtime SEC commissioner Mike Slive passed away after fighting prostrate cancer. In his memory, all SEC teams sported memorial decals on their helmets for a game or two. The decal featured the familiar SEC logo with a blue ribbon reading “Slive” placed over the middle E. Auburn would wear the design for the road trip to LSU and then at home against Mississippi State.
A rough 6-6 season placed the Tigers in the Birmingham Bowl at Legion Field against Memphis. Auburn wore the bowl patch in the same location as the CFA patch, above the SEC patch on the right chest.
2016
The 2016 season saw one major change for the Auburn football uniforms – and all SEC uniforms, for that.
To honor student-athletes that have already acquired their degrees, the SEC debuted a special version of the conference patch. The new patch featured the standard circular SEC logo but with a banner below with text reading “Graduate.”
The graduate patches were first worn at the dawn of the season by Arkansas, but by the sixth week of the season, all teams were utilizing the new patches.
An up-and-down season and cards falling into place landed the Auburn Tigers in New Orleans, Louisiana, to face the Oklahoma Sooners for the first time since 1972. The Tigers wore white jerseys for the second straight bowl game. Auburn would once again place the bowl patch on the right shoulder above the conference patch following the previous year’s poor placement.
The Sugar Bowl patch is one of the larger patches worn during bowl season. Auburn added an equally large decal on the back of the helmet in place of the NCAA pennant logo.
2017
The 2017 season saw several changes to the helmet.
Auburn joined much of college football and added 3D bumpers to the front of the helmet where the facemask attaches to the shell. The new 3D bumpers featured a raised piece of rubber attached to a flexible material that was either stretched over the screw posts or fixed to the bumper with an adhesive.
Auburn left decals on the rear bumper for the season but eventually adopted rear 3D bumpers before the bowl game.
Each year since 2002, Auburn had worn a pennant-shaped decal on the back of the helmets. The design changed slightly over the years from an NCAA logo to the SEC and back to the NCAA. But Auburn finally joined their fellow conference members and adopted the circular SEC logo as a helmet decal. Unlike the three-colored jersey patches, the new SEC helmet decals featured orange letters over a navy circle.
When Auburn and Georgia met for the second time during the season in Atlanta, both teams sported an additional decal on the helmets. It was the first time that the participating teams in the SEC Championship Game wore the game’s logo on their helmets. Auburn and Georgia would both wear the new decal on the left side of their helmets. For the Tigers, it fits well next to the new SEC decal.
The Tigers would finish the season with two consecutive games in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta with another Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl appearance. Auburn would again place the bowl patch on the right chest with a large decal on the helmet.
Under Armour would also provide Auburn with new cleats for the bowl game, the C1N Auburns designed by Cam Newton. The former Tiger would wear the same design in pre-game warmups for a few games before the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
Auburn would struggle in the bowl game, slipping and sliding on the Mercedes-Benz Stadium turf with the new cleats. The struggles in the game and the outcry online of the issues resulted in these cleats never being seen again.
2018
The 2018 season was almost completely uneventful as it comes to Auburn football uniforms. The Tigers stuck with the 3D bumpers on the front and rear of the helmet full time and the new SEC decal remained on the back of the helmet.
Auburn started the season back where the 2017 campaign ended – Atlanta. The Tigers faced the Washington Huskies for th first time in program history in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It was Auburn’s third consecutive game in the new Atlanta stadium.
With two straight losses coming in the stadium while wearing navy jerseys, Auburn, the designated home team, selected to change things up and wear their road white tops this time around. The superstitious move worked, as Auburn defeated the Huskies 21-6.
It was also the first time that Auburn played in the Chick-fil-a Kickoff Game without sporting a patch on the jerseys.
The one noteworthy item came during the October 13th matchup against Tennessee. Auburn donned pink ribbons in support of cancer prevention on the back of the helmets in correlation to Bruce Pearl’s AUTLIVE Cancer initiative. The Auburn University Marching Band even joined the celebration with pink capes and flags for a special AUTLIVE Cancer halftime show.
It was the first time since 2013 that a pink ribbon – or any cancer-related decal – was worn.
Auburn would cross off another team on the list of programs never faced in the bowl game. Accepting a bid to the Music City Bowl in Nashville, the Tigers were matched up against the Purdue Boilermakers.
The bowl patch would once again be placed on the right shoulder, sticking with the recent trend. The Tigers would also make the tiniest of tweaks to the helmet, replacing the standard American flag decal with a chrome-finished one.
2019
In 1969, college football celebrated the 100th anniversary of the sport. Numerous teams sported special 100 decals on their helmets. Auburn was not one of those teams and continued to stick with the then-new AU logos.
2019 marked the 150th anniversary of college football and saw a much more coordinated approach to the celebration. Each FBS team wore a 150 patch on the jersey. And this time, Auburn joined in on the fun.
The new 150 patches were sported throughout the season.
The new year also brought a new Under Armour uniform template. Because of the interesting shape made from the panels on the front of the jersey, this template is often referred to as the “file tab” template. The “file tabs” look to be designed specifically to house the Under Armour logo and any conference patch a team may wear. The main body of the jersey now carries the same pattern that the previous design had on the shoulders.
As far as the design goes, Auburn once again kept the uniforms untouched. Almost. The white jersey has featured a navy collar each season since 2004. That changed this season as the road tops now showcased a white collar.
Tragedy struck the Auburn community on May 25th. Longtime Voice of the Auburn Tigers Rod Bramblett and his wife Paula were driving home near campus when their vehicle, stopped at a red light, was rear-ended at a high rate of speed. Paula was killed on impact while Rod died at the hospital hours later.
The incident rocked the Auburn community. The athletic department honored Rod Bramblett by producing and wearing a memorial decal with Rod’s RB initials. The design was first worn by the Auburn baseball team for the magical run to the College World Series and later by the football team throughout the season.
A 9-3 season saw the Tigers land in the Tampa, Florida-based Outback Bowl to face the Minnesota Golden Gophers for the first time. Auburn would buck tradition of the last four seasons and place the bowl patch on the left chest. With the Under Armour logo, the SEC conference patch, and the 150 patch, the addition of the bowl patch created an overcrowded jersey.
On December 1st, Auburn’s first Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan passed away after a long battle with cancer. The night before Auburn’s next game, the Outback Bowl, the Tigers announced a new helmet design to honor the late Auburn legend.
Auburn removed the AU logo on the left side of the helmet, replacing it with a navy and orange #7. No Auburn player had worn the number 7 since Sullivan last did in 1971. For one day, the entire roster would wear the retired number.
The Tigers went one step further and, much like 2007, replaced the navy facemasks with a grey one. Sullivan’s playing days came during the earlier era of facemasks being widely adopted throughout football. It wasn’t until 1974 that facemask manufacturers were able to effectively produce masks with a pigment. Auburn wouldn’t adopt a colored mask until Doug Barfield took the helm.
2020
2020 was wrought with turmoil and unrest. Football was almost an afterthought at times. But give credit where it is due, those in charge were able to put together a modified schedule and games were actually completed.
Auburn removed the 150th-anniversary patch only to replace it with a new patch. In response to the social justice unrest throughout the country and the conversations that it sparked, many teams used their uniforms as an opportunity to announce their support of the movement. While numerous schools designed team-specific patches or decals to be worn, Auburn took a simple approach.
The Auburn Unity patch showcased two interlocked hands – one white, the other black. The patch was worn by all Auburn team sports throughout the 2020-21 athletic calendar, with some teams wearing it longer.
With the special patch sitting on the right chest, it once again forced any additional patches to be placed on the left side. And that’s exactly what the Tigers did when they made the New Year’s Day appearance in the Citrus Bowl against Northwestern. Both teams also wore Citrus Bowl decals on the helmet, with the Tigers placing it to the right of the American flag decal.
The Tigers did use the bowl game as an opportunity to make very minor changes to the helmets. For players that wear a visor attached to their facemask, Auburn has traditionally worn navy decals applied to the tabs that poke out above the top bar of the facemask and navy clips to attach them to the mask. For the Citrus Bowl, Auburn went all-in on the white details, making the tab decals and clips white for the first time. The visor clips also featured AU logo decals for the first time, rather than a molded Under Armour mark. Auburn even went a step further and changed the clear facemask clips that mount the mask to the helmet shell from clear to white, further tying everything together.
The Auburn community was dealt another blow when, on June 1st, former head coach and athletic director Pat Dye passed away. To honor the Auburn legend, the Tigers wore a memorial PD decal on the helmets with a similar design placed on the field. The circular design featured “Sixty Minutes” around the top and bottom with sixty orange and blue stripes around the exterior. Both were meant to represent the famous quote Dye had during his introductory press conference when hired as head coach in 1981.
When a reporter asked him how long it would take to beat Alabama – after all, the Tide had an eight-game winning streak in the Iron Bowl. Dye simply responded; “sixty minutes” was all it would take. The Tigers lost the 1981 rivalry bout, but quickly proved Dye’s tongue-in-cheek response to be correct, defeating Alabama 23-22 in 1982.
Head coach Gus Malzahn would join in the memorial and sport a button-down shirt and tie – a traditional Pat Dye sideline look – for the season-opening game against Kentucky. Malzahn would sport an old-school block-A logo cap for most of the season in honor of Dye as well. The ballcap would be traded in for a visor in the season finale, Malzahn’s last as head coach.
2021
Bryan Harsin would take over the head coach position after Malzahn’s firing. Almost immediately, Harsin made his mark on Auburn’s uniforms.
The player numbers on the back of the helmet were no longer small and one colored. The new numerals were considerably larger and now navy with orange outlines.
The Auburn Unity jersey patch was removed but returned as a helmet decal. The handshake icon was placed above the new large numbers. This forced the SEC decal to move to the right side of the stripe. The American flag decal would sit above the conference logo. Auburn would also replace the new chrome USA flag with an EmbossTech textured decal with more depth than the flat decal.
For the first road trip of the season, Auburn traveled to Penn State and would debut white facemasks for the first time in program history. Later in the season, Auburn would bring back the orange facemasks for the Ole Miss game, the first time they were worn since the 1983 season. The orange masks would return for the Iron Bowl.
Auburn would accept a Birmingham Bowl bid to face Houston. The Tigers would place the bowl patch on the right shoulder of the navy blue jerseys.
2022
The 2022 season brought a few more changes.
After a few years of sporting the 3D bumpers, Auburn would revert to flat decals. The new bumper decals were navy with orange outlines, designed to match the AU logo on the helmets. The decals on the chin straps were also tweaked to match.
Harsin brought in yet another program first when the team captains would wear patches on their jerseys. The captaincy patches were similar to the NFL’s style with a colored C on a rounded background. The home jerseys had a navy C on an orange background while the white tops had an inverse design.
The Tigers would also add two temporary decals to the back of the helmet. Auburn would sport the Hilinski’s Hope Foundation decal for the LSU and Georgia games. The green ribbon includes a 3 on the tail in honor of Tyler Hilinski. Tyler played quarterback at Washington State. He committed suicide in 2018 after his junior year, shocking the Washington State and college football communities. The Foundation works to support mental health among student-athletes.
For the final two games of the season, Auburn would pay tribute to the Virginia Cavaliers following the deaths of three football players. Devin Chandler, D’Sean Perry, and Lavel Davis Jr. were shot and killed by a former Virginia football player after opening fire on a bus of UVA students. The tribute decal would feature Virginia’s primary logo and the three players’ numbers.
Auburn would continue to wear the alternate facemask options this season. Both would be worn for two games – orange versus Penn State and Arkansas; white on the road at Georgia and Ole Miss.
Bryan Harsin would be fired following the Arkansas game, ending a tumultuous two-year tenure and a 9-12 record.
2023
Following Harsin’s firing in October, Auburn would hire Hugh Freeze as its next head coach. With yet another coaching change, there was potential to see another shift in Auburn’s uniforms, big or small.
Auburn stayed put with the same helmet decals and uniform template for 2023. The only uniform change came with the captaincy patches. The new patches were a simple letter C sewn directly to the jersey. It’s the same letter as used for the player nameplates and was once used by the baseball team to designate captains.
The orange and white facemasks returned for another season. Auburn would wear the white facemasks for all but one road game and for the bowl game. The lone diversion came at Texas A&M when the orange facemasks were paired with the white tops for the first time since 1983.
This was the only time the orange masks were sported this season. This was also the first time that Auburn had not worn the navy facemasks with the white jerseys for a single game since adopting the blue cages in 1984.
Auburn would face Maryland in the Music City Bowl in Nashville to conclude the season. The alternate facemask colors would make their postseason debut as the Tigers wore the white cages. The Music City Bowl patch would sit on the right shoulder above the SEC patch just as it had done a few years prior.
The Hilisnki’s Hope green ribbon decals would once again appear on the Tigers’ helmets for the Georgia game.
2024
The final season of Auburn wearing Under Armour uniforms brought a new template. This new chassis was drastically different than the previous designs in build. Of course, Auburn’s uniform design remained untouched.
The biggest change with this template came with the shoulders. Gone were the “shoulder caps,” a rounded panel that sat at the end of the shoulders to house stripes or numbers. The new shoulder panels wrapped around the side of the jersey a bit more, reaching onto the chest more than previously. This made room for slightly larger shoulder stripes that extended forward a little more.
The pants also saw a slight tweak. The usual belts were replaced with elastic waistbands, a common feature in recent years on other manufacturer products. Due to the nature of the construction, the stripes along the side of the pants had to terminate at the base of the waistband.
With the new uniforms also came yet another captaincy patch design. The Tigers returned to the NFL-inspired design, but this time would keep the look simple. The C would contrast the background, which would match the jersey color. So the navy jerseys had a white C on a navy square and the white jerseys were reversed.
A new decal was also added to some helmets this season. Thanks to the NCAA allowing coach-to-player communications this season, a green “C2P” circle indicated players wearing radio-equipped helmets. Auburn placed the decals on the middle orange stripe.
Auburn would continue to sport the alternate facemask colors, though keeping the orange mask paired with the navy tops and the white cages for the road white jerseys. The Tigers would also wear the Hilinki’s Hope decal once again against Georgia.
For nearly two decades, Auburn Football’s relationship with Under Armour was one of loyalty to tradition—anchored in classic navy blue and white. But in recent seasons, Auburn showed that tradition can be honored and treasured while introducing a few new subtle elements.
Auburn’s Under Armour saw SEC Championships, a BCS National Championship, a second title game appearance, a Heisman Trophy winner, and countless Iron Bowl memories—all while wearing unmistakably Auburn uniforms.
Now, as the Tigers prepare to turn the page to a new apparel partner, the legacy of this eighteen-year era is woven into the fabric of Auburn Football history alongside the decades that came before.
The next time Auburn Football hits the gridiron, they’ll do so wearing the Nike Swoosh.
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Clint Richardson2025-06-05 08:01:482025-06-08 11:28:54Auburn Baseball’s Complete Under Armour History
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Clint Richardson2025-06-05 08:00:482025-06-03 20:34:14Auburn Softball’s Complete Under Armour HistoryWant to see more like this? Be sure to follow the Auburn Uniform Database on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for even more uniform news. For ways to support the AUD, including affiliate links to Fanatics and Dick’s Sporting Goods, visit the Support page.
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