ALBUQUERQUE — The silver lining of Danny Gonzales taking over as the University of New Mexico’s football coach is, quite literally, silver.
The Lobos are going back to a traditional look for their uniforms next fall, bucking the trend of the last five years and bringing back silver helmets for home games next season.
“I like it a lot better. It’s a much better look,” said UNM quarterback Tevaka Tuioti after Tuesday’s practice at Dreamstyle Stadium, the first of 15 workouts the Lobos will hold over the next five weeks. “People have been talking about them changing it up, but I can’t wait to see it.”
The official unveiling of the new unis is still a ways off. The 2020 season opener isn’t until Aug. 29, but the word is out: Silver helmets are back. Multiple sources said the Lobos will wear cherry jerseys and pants with silver helmets at home and white jerseys with either cherry or silver pants on the road.
It’s a look familiar to most fans who have followed the Lobos since the Nixon administration. The team alternated between white and red helmets between 1960 and 1973, switching to silver for the first time in 1974, when a red Zia symbol adorned the side with cherry and turquoise stripes down the center.
The Lobos kept the silver lids through the 2014 season, experimenting briefly with white helmets for a few games in 2011. The look changed considerably in 2015, when then-head coach Bob Davie’s program threw itself head first into the uniforms race and started wearing a wide array of different looks.
It introduced anthracite and white helmets in 2015, alternated between the two depending on uniform combinations between that season and 2019. The jerseys have ranged from cherry to anthracite and white, with numbers and striping in cherry, turquoise and silver.
At the time, Davie said it was just the nature of the recruiting game, one kicked into the stratosphere by the Oregon Ducks and their ever-changing aesthetic. Even traditional schools like Notre Dame, Ohio State, UCLA, Texas, Penn State, Iowa and Oklahoma have tinkered with alternate jerseys or logos just to keep things interesting.
In truth, the silver helmets never went away. The Lobos wear them every day in practice, exchanging them on game days for the lid of choice. When not in use, all of them disappear into a cramped storage room attached to the team’s locker room inside the stadium.
Gonzales was hired in mid-December, and from the get-go, he talked about wanting to mix things up in an attempt to win back fans. With attendance for home games at a generational low, the program is doing everything it can to generate a pulse around the state.
If that means something as simple as a uniform tweak, Gonzales said he’s into it. When he was a Lobo in the late ’90s and an assistant coach in the early 2000s, the teams always had a similar look up top.
“It’s tradition to have silver helmets. It’s a cleaner look that everyone around here seems to like,” he said in January. “I grew up a Lobo fan, and that’s the uniform I’ve always known.”
It’s not exactly clear what logo will go on the side. The last five seasons have been dominated by the familiar Lobo shield, the same one that adorns the midfield at the football stadium and center court in The Pit. A few exceptions have been brief returns of the Zia symbol, a variation of the old Lobo profile logo and an interlocked NM.
A least one person associated with UNM dating back 50 years is taking a “so what” approach to the planned changes.
“I couldn’t care less what the players wear as long as they all match,” said Lobos defensive coordinator Rocky Long, a player during the days of red helmets and a coach during the heyday of silver. “I don’t pay much attention to that sort of thing. It’s important to the players and it’s a recruiting thing, so I get it. As long as we all look the same, doesn’t matter to me.”
Gonzales said he understands the appeal a team’s look can have on the players and particularly prospective recruits. During his last two seasons at Arizona State, he said, the Sun Devils had more uniform combinations and helmet designs than he could count.
“They had an entire separate wing just for the uniform stuff,” Gonzales said. “We don’t need that here, but I’m a traditionalist. I like the old look. We can always mix it up, but the silver helmets are our identity — at least for a lot of the fans.”
The Lobos will conduct one practice in Santa Fe later this month. The entire team will work out at Ivan Head Stadium on March 28, a Saturday. ... Tuesday’s practice drew about two dozen spectators. All workouts are open to the public, free of charge. The only rules are to remain in the paved area outside the south end zone if you prefer a ground-level view, or to remain anywhere in the 37,000-seat grandstand if you choose to wander around. The coaches ask that fans not walk along the sidelines because the players are using virtually every square inch of the field. ... Spring ball culminates with the annual Cherry/Silver Game on April 4 at the stadium.
The UNM men’s basketball team is hoping to capture lightning in a bottle when it opens play in the Mountain West Conference Tournament on Wednesday afternoon in Las Vegas, Nev.
The Lobos (18-13) are the No. 7 seed and will play No. 10 San Jose State with the winner getting a date with No. 2 Utah State on Thursday.
It was UNM’s win over Utah State in the regular-season finale Saturday that gave the team a sense of hope.
It also may have provided a blueprint for what comes next.
With five minutes to go in that game, Utah State point guard Abel Porter was ejected for a flagrant-2 foul on Lobos guard Vance Jackson. Porter’s exit allowed head coach Paul Weir to implement a three-guard, pressing lineup that helped close the game on a 15-7 run to get the win.
Weir plans to scale back the lineup that pairs power forward Corey Manigault with Jackson and guard Makuach Maluach because it “never really has been what we wanted it to be,” Weir said. Scrapping Manigault in favor of a three-guard look is something fans can expect to see a lot in the MWC Tournament.
Wednesday’s 3:30 p.m. tipoff will not be televised, but it will be available for livestreaming on the Mountain West Network.
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Silver lining: Lobo football going back to traditional lids - Santa Fe New Mexican
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