Dressing for Success, Huskies Will Wear All-Black Uniforms for UCLA Game

The UW hasn't gone this wardrobe route for five years, since the pandemic season.

The Huskies will wear all-black uniforms for the UCLA game. / UW

Friday night's Washington-UCLA football game will be a formal affair, a Black-Out outing, which is something akin to black tie only -- with the Huskies dressing up in spiffy new helmets, jerseys and pants that come in that evening shade.

In this day and age of rich athletic apparel agreements, the UW will be back in all-black togs for the first time in five seasons, since the Huskies played a 2020 Arizona team at home that wasn't coached by Jedd Fisch, when a sophomore wide receiver named Puka Nacua caught a short pass and zipped 65 yards for the first touchdown in a 44-27 victory at Husky Stadium, and when the place was totally devoid of admiring fans because of the COVID pandemic.

"Black-Out, from what I was told, so that's awesome," Fisch said, sizing up the approaching game to begin the week. "Great uniforms coming out and excited about that. Adidas did a fantastic job there."

For the Huskies, they'll try to make a fashion statement after coming off their worst performance of the season -- a 35-6 loss at Penn State, where they were blinded by a White-Out, with more than 100,000 fans all dressed in that plain and simple color. Before that, the UW dealt with a Black-Out game at Rutgers and a Red-Out game at Indiana, both of which they lost.

Penn State's Beaver Stadium before kickoff, with a White-Out crowd of more than 100,000 and a fireworks show. / Skylar Lin Visuals

While some old-school fans might think it's blasphemous to stray from a school's traditional colors, in this case some order of purple and gold for the Huskies, the players are totally into multiple wardrobe choices, hence one of the reasons so many other guys gravitate to Oregon, the NIKE school with unlimited uniform ensembles.

For the Huskies, this will mark their 22nd outing in their past 54 games since that 2020 season in which they've pulled on all-black, all-purple, all-white or a replica 1991 national championship uniform to take on various opponents at home, on the road and in postseason play (see chart below).

For those keeping score at home, the UW is 14-7 while dressing up differently for combat over that time.

The Huskies will return to the all-black look, helmet included, for just the second time since Jimmy Lake's ill-fated coaching stint, counting this coming game. They are about to go without their traditional gold helmets for just the third time since dealing with that shortened COVID-interrupted season.

They're 9-3 in all-purple colors , which have been worn at home except for the 2022 game at Oregon, when the Ducks chose an all-lemon uniform giving the UW the opportunity to bring their solid colors to Eugene, and against Texas in the 2022 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, and in the 2023 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, all victories.

DRESSING FOR SUCCESS
2020 -- UW 44, Arizona 27	All-black uniforms, helmets included
2020 -- Stanford 31, UW 26	All-purple uniforms
2021 -- UCLA 24, UW 17	1991 replica uniforms
2021 -- UW 21, at Arizona 16	All-white uniforms
2021 -- Oregon 26, UW 16	All-purple uniforms
2021 -- Washington State 40, UW 13, Apple Cup	All-purple uniforms
2022 -- UW 39, Michigan State 28	All-purple uniforms
2022 -- UW 28, at California 21	All-purple uniforms
2022 -- UW 37, at Oregon 34	All-purple uniforms
2022 -- UW 51, at WSU 33, Apple Cup	All-white uniforms
2022 -- UW 27, Texas 20, Alamo Bowl	All-purple uniforms
2023 -- UW 41, at Michigan State 7	All-white uniforms
2023 -- UW 36, Oregon 33	All-purple uniforms
2023 -- UW 15, Arizona State 7	All-purple uniforms, helmets included
2023 -- UW 22, at Oregon State 20	All-white uniforms
2023 -- UW 34, Oregon 31, Pac-12 championship game	All-purple uniforms
2023 -- UW 37, Texas 31, Sugar Bowl, CFP semifinals	All-purple uniforms
2023 -- Michigan 34, UW 13, CFP title game	All-white uniforms
2024 -- at Rutgers 21, UW 18	All-white uniforms
2024 -- UW 27, Michigan 17	All-purple uniforms
2024 -- at Indiana 31, UW 17	All-white uniforms
2024 -- UW vs. UCLA	All-black uniforms, helmet included

Conversely, the Huskies are just 4-3 in their all-white uniforms for the road -- in fact, losing their last three outings in that rather bland game-day choice, including the CFP national championship game to Michigan in January.

It might be time to dump the Penn State look-a-like uniform, unless they begin to resemble the Nittany Lions while wearing them.

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