GUT Check: Florida vs FAU
A comprehensive uniform recap from the Gators season opener against Florida Atlantic
The Florida Gators opened the 2021 season in a packed Ben Hill Griffin Stadium against FAU, making quick work of the Owls. In the first game in a full stadium since 2019, Emory Jones put up….Florida fans may have had to do a double take, as the Gators wore white at home in the Orange/White/White combination. Here is your weekly GUT Check, where we take a look at all the uniform tidbits from Saturday’s game:
1. White/White/Orange at home
Most fans now know that when the Gators wore white at home on Saturday it was a unique occurrence and the first time in 20 years. I wrote about the decision to wear white at home last week here, but today we will take a look at some other statistics around the combination
This was the 5th time wearing white at home in the modern era, but the first time wearing white pants. All previous white at home games were in the orange/white/blue combination.
Saturday was also a repeat of the uniform worn at the end of last season, when the Gators lost to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl 55–20 while wearing orange/white/white. Believe it or not, this was the first time since the 2014 season opener the Gators wore the same combination to open the season as they finished the previous season.
Orange/white/white is has a fair success record since 1990, with a 62% win rate.
2. White endzones for first time since 1960s/70s
Perhaps an even bigger surprise than wearing white at home was the debut of new white endzones, courtesy of the Gators Turf Staff.
The white endzones featured a sold white background, orange endzone outline, blue letters, and a white field outline. This was the 6th different endzone design since 2018 and the 7th different field design since 2018 (Auburn 2019 featured the throwback circle F on the 25yd line)
The endzone design was similar to the endzone design from the late 1960s/1970s, especially during the Carlos Alvarez “Cuban Comet” years.
It is currently unknown whether Florida will continue the white endzones against Alabama on September 18th but I do not expect them to stay.
3. New orange gloves
For the first time since 2013, the Gators wore orange gloves, completing the white/white/orange. The gloves were all-orange with a blue Jordan logo and Gator skin print on the palms.
Florida previously used orange gloves sporadically throughout the 2013 season:
Accessories recap
- A few players wore orange accessories, paying a nice homage to the 2009 Gators who frequently wore orange accessories
- Kaiir Elam wore black sleeves, gloves, and cleats
- Emory Jones wore custom cleats from Jada From The Block LLC
- The Gators wore blue warmup shirts, featuring their number on the front and back
Other uniform tidbits
- Mullen wore a blue visor and blue polo. He is now 1–0 in both this season
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