When the new Syracuse football uniforms arrived at Manley Field House, equipment manager Kyle Fetterly asked sophomore linebacker Vincenzo Giruzzi to wear the new gear.

After trying it on, Fetterly told Giruzzi to tell anyone he saw the rest of the day to do the same. Fetterly expected a few to show up, but he remembers quite the contrary. He saw so many players arrive in droves in a timely fashion.

‘It’s usually like pulling teeth to get these guys to try on new jerseys and pants,’ Fetterly said. ‘As soon as (Giruzzi) came down and tried it on, it spread like wild fire. It was a zoo down here. (The uniforms) are so comfortable that guys were dying to come down here.’

Nike, the company that Syracuse University contracts for all athletic merchandise, designed the new jerseys made of Cordua stretch. Fetterly said this material sticks tightly to the body but gives the players the ability to move freely.

He also said the material can be slippery. Therefore, opponents may have extra trouble bringing down the Orange.

‘It is so comfortable,’ said senior tight end Joe Kowalewski in a press conference earlier this month. ‘The old ones were so tight and hot. These are great. They are stretchy and they fit you tight, but they aren’t like closing you off.’

‘Now that we have it, it brings a lot of energy to the players,’ added senior tailback Damien Rhodes. ‘It feels like we got what we have been asking for. We feel like if you look good, you play good. We feel like we are out there looking good and looking fresh and we are going to play fresh.’

During the June 1 press conference, Kowalewski sported a white jersey with a blue-orange-blue stripe on his shoulders and orange pants with a blue stripe along the side. Rhodes wore a blue jersey with an orange-white-orange stripe on the shoulders. His white pants included a blue-orange-blue stripe along the side.

SU will either wear the white jersey or the blue jersey with the white or orange pants.

The jerseys have an SU logo on the yoke, a Big East logo on the right side above the chest, and a Nike logo on the left side above the chest. The numbers are colored orange on the blue jerseys while the numbers are colored blue on the white jerseys. Each pair of pants displays the SU logo on the upper left.

These various combinations make it possible for SU to wear four different uniforms throughout the 2005 season. No one has disclosed, however, which uniforms will be worn for which games.

‘We’re kind of holding that within the dark caverns of Manley Field House,’ SU head football coach Greg Robinson said. ‘I don’t know if everything has been determined anyway.’

Syracuse won’t wear the orange jerseys like they did during select home games from 2001-2004. Nor will the Orange have names on the back of the jerseys due to the stripes taking up room. Names appeared on the backs of jerseys since 1978 with exception to the 1994 campaign to show team unity.

Due to player requests, SU will wear black cleats as a way to pay homage to Syracuse greats like Ernie Davis, Jim Brown, Floyd Little and Larry Csonka. Neff Company placed the player’s numbers on the orange helmets to make the numbers look three-dimensional.

‘As long as we got the orange helmet we’re in good shape,’ said Chris White, SU’s wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. ‘When you recognize a helmet like you do, that means you got something going there in terms of tradition.’

The uniform change is all part of athletic director Daryl Gross’ campaign to ‘respect the past and represent the future.’ With a new coaching staff, a new field, and a new athletic conditioning facility, new uniforms is just one small measure to indicate a new beginning for the football team.

Fetterly recalls he and Gross bouncing ideas off one another with Nike officials to design a retro yet modern looking jersey to fuel excitement to the football program.

‘I just worry about what they are going to wear,’ Gross said. ‘Coach Robinson does the rest with how they play.’

When it’s all said and done though, the uniforms obviously won’t be the most important factor that determines the Orange’s success in 2005. More important variables

like summer practice, weight lifting, and implementing Robinson’s west coast offense and defensive schemes will be the things that count.

‘When there’s modification to the uniform, the players notice them,’ said Reggie Terry, the Director of Football Operations and Player Development. ‘They’re excited about the changes. That’s general in human nature. The kids are more excited about what will happen between those white lines.’

Published on July 4, 2005 at 12:00 pm