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The natural question that occurred to many Syracuse Orange fans when they heard the community was calling for an Orange-Out against the Louisville Cardinals this Friday, was...will our football team, which is called the Orange, also be wearing orange?
Don't be silly, dum-dum.
SU Athletics Chief Communications Officer Joe Giansante stopped by Brent Axe's radio show to talk about the Orange-Out and confirm what you already assumed.
"Brent, you know would better than I. The last time Syracuse wore an all-orange uniform was 2005, right? Generally, the regular uniform has been orange pants, blue top and an orange helmet. We'll be in the orange helmet for sure. There's lots of different things that go into the uniforms and, as you know, when we unveiled the three new uniforms we indicated that an orange uniform is coming at a later date. And for a team to be able to wear that uniform, everything has to be done right. You have to have the numbers, the duplicate numbers...the right sizing...it's a large process to get a whole compliment in. So they'll only be worn, Brent, if they're completely ready to be worn."
Oddly, when Brent pressed Joe to definitively say that the orange uniforms would not be ready by Friday, he wouldn't actually confirm it...
"I don't have the exact knowledge of...if by game time, if they'll completely be ready, but I think the three full uniform sets that were bought, were bought and introduced, and the orange [sets] are going to always be a uniform that's going to be added. Both pants and top. And those things can come in at different times. They could come in together, they're being shipped from overseas. That's a longer process in order to purchase and get those in. So, look, if they're not orange uniforms, [if] they're not ready for the game, our guys will be wearing as much orange as they possibly can. Orange helmet, orange shoes and socks, and undershirts and recognizing that."
So...the orange uniforms are maybe out there but no one knows exactly? And maybe they'll show up months from now or maybe they'll show up Thursday? Strange...
Giansante then gets a little defensive about the fact that Syracuse doesn't actually have an orange uniform and we shouldn't get worked up about it because plenty of other schools hold INSERT-COLOR-Outs and don't wear uniforms that focus on that color, specifically-citing Auburn as an example. My response to that would be THE WORD ORANGE IS LITERALLY IN OUR NAME AND NOT LITERALLY IN THEIR NAME, but, you already knew I was going to say that.
One interesting note I got out of Tuesday concerning uniforms. While interviewing Giansante, Brent says at one point that we know the players choose the uniforms during the week. You may have assumed that to be true as well. Turns out...not actually true:
Interesting tidbit from media ops tonight: Captains do not pick uniforms each week. Players learn what they're wearing late in week.
— Stephen Bailey (@Stephen_Bailey1) October 1, 2014
Makes you wonder who actually makes that call.