2022 was a phenomenal year for Mississippi State’s football uniforms. The Bulldogs had a fantastic “fauxback” alternate uniform, experimented with the script “State” logo on the helmets for the first time ever, and wore gray pants in 5 wins. Overall, State wore 6 unique helmet designs and 11 unique uniform combinations in 2022- both program records.
6 Helmets, 3 Jerseys, 4 Pants, 11 Combinations
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Helmets
Mississippi State wore 6 unique helmet designs in 2022, a program record, breaking the record of 5 set in 2012 and 2014.
Physically, Mississippi State only actually wore 2 different helmets in 2022; the designs were evenly split between 3 maroon helmet designs and 3 white helmet designs.
The maroon helmets featured a glossy finish and were always worn with no center stripe and white facemasks.
The Bulldogs actually had brand new white helmets in 2022 that featured a glossy finish. After wearing matte white helmets in 2012 and from 2015 to 2021, this was the first time that State had worn white helmets with a glossy finish since 2008. The white helmets were always worn with a single maroon single stripe in 2022, and were worn with either white or gray facemasks.
Maroon M-State: 7 games. 4-3 (.571) Record
White Script State: 2 games. 1-1 (.500) Record
Maroon Script State: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
White M-State: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
Whtie MS: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
Maroon ML Flag: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
Jerseys
The Bulldogs wore three jersey designs in 2022: the standard maroon and white jerseys and the alternate maroon Dowsing-Bell fauxback jerseys.
Maroon: 8 games. 6-2 (.750) Record
White: 4 games. 2-2 (.500) Record
Maroon Fauxback: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
Pants
Mississippi State wore four pants designs in 2021: the standard maroon, white, and gray pants and the alternate white fauxback pants.
Gray: 5 games. 5-0 (1.000) Record
White: 5 games. 2-3 (.400) Record
Maroon: 2 games. 1-1 (.500) Record
White Fauxback: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
Combinations
The Bulldogs wore 11 combinations, setting a program record. Only 8 of those were unique color combinations, so 2015 and 2016 still hold the record for most unique color combinations worn at 10.
Maroon-Maroon-White: 3 games. 1-2 (.333) Record
Maroon-Maroon-Gray: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
Maroon(Script State)-Maroon-Gray: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
Maroon(ML Flag)-Maroon-Gray: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
Maroon-Maroon-Maroon: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
White(Script State)-Maroon-White: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
White(MS)-Maroon(Fauxback)-White(Fauxback): 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
White-White-Gray: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
Maroon-White-Gray: 1 game. 1-0 (1.000) Record
White(Script State)-White-White: 1 game. 0-1 (.000) Record
Maroon-White-Maroon: 1 game. 0-1 (.000) Record
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After years of tweaks from 2014 to 2020, Mississippi State's football uniforms have remained largely unchanged the last three seasons (this season's helmet experiments aside). Fundamentally, the base design has not changed since the switch to the Adidas Primeknit A1 template in 2018; the maroon jersey design with white-gray-white stripes has been worn since 2017, and the white jersey design with maroon-gray-maroon stripes has been worn since 2016 - a total of 7 seasons. It may not seem like it, but in the modern world of constantly changing uniform design, Mississippi State has kept this look for a long time, and it's served them well. In fact- it's served them more than well. By many measures, 2022 was the greatest football uniform season of all time for Mississippi State. The perfect conclusion for this era of Mississippi State football uniforms.
But 2023 will be a new season. With the Zach Arnett era beginning in Starkville and Adidas set to introduce a new football uniform template this fall, the time is ripe for a new uniform set for Mississippi State football. What will this set include? We don't know for sure yet - but a few things to consider:
- New Adidas Logo: Adidas is rolling out new branding starting in 2023 that omits the "adidas" lettering below the three stripes. You'll start to see this on some new baseball and softball uniforms this spring- and any new football uniforms released in 2023 will likely have the new branding as well.
- No More Banner Wordmark Logo? Since 2009, Mississippi State has worn the "Mississippi State" banner wordmark logo on the center chest above the numbers on its primary uniforms. Rumblings are that this may no longer be the case in 2023. What I would love to see replace it is a simple block "STATE." However, the word is that we may instead see a simple "M-State" logo underneath the collar instead. While this seems disappointing on the surface, if the "M-State" logo is on the chest, that opens up more of an opportunity for the script "State" helmets to be worn more, which is something that I think we'd all be for.
- Embracing the Double Stripe? As noted above, Mississippi State has worn white-gray-white stripes on the maroon jerseys and pants and maroon-gray-maroon stripes on the white jerseys and pants for the past few seasons. In 2023, there's a good chance that the gray gets removed, simplifying the striping to double white stripes on maroon and double maroon stripes on white. This should create a much cleaner look and bring the Bulldogs' striping patterns more in-line across sports; baseball has utilized the double stripe to great effect the last few seasons under coach Chris Lemonis. Hopefully, this would not mean the demise of the gray pants. The combinations worn in 2015 and 2016 prove that gray pants work even if there is no gray on the jerseys or helmets, so I would hope that the gray pants with maroon-white-maroon stripes are retained. If not, 5-0 is a hell of a season to go out on.
- Return of Black Alternate Jerseys: Mississippi State has not worn black alternate uniforms since they wore black helmets for the first time ever in the 2020 victory over Missouri. In 2023, black alternates appear set to return after a replica version of them leaked on eBay. These jerseys feature a black base with silver accents, including a block "STATE" on the chest, standard block numbers, the new three-stripe Adidas logo, and M-State logo on the back collar area. The silver numbers appear to feature a subtle cowbell pattern. It's unclear what helmet or pants design would be worn with these uniforms, but just based on the jersey, it should be a really slick look, and one that adds to Mississippi State's recent history of excellent alternate uniforms.