Have there been new Virginia football jerseys right under our noses for months?

A few weeks ago we shared images from Twitter that looked like there were new helmets in the background of a picture of the Virginia football coaching staff. The athletics department replied to our inquiry about the helmets by saying that there are frequently “mock-ups” of uniform concepts in the football offices.

But has Coach Mendenhall already been tweeting pictures of new jerseys out?

In May, we all saw this tweet, as the staff began to rebuild UVA’s connections with in-state schools.

The uniforms on the in-state Wahoos there feature the “block V” patch on the throat of the collar that were featured on the Frank Quayle-era throwback jerseys in past years.

You can see that patch in game action on former Cavalier Oday Aboushi.

After that initial tweet of all the in-state players, Mendenhall has been tweeting images of Virginia players sorted by region.

In each of these regional posters, the jerseys are the same basic style as the Quayle-era throwbacks, with one major exception: the throat patch is a V-sabres instead of the block-V.

There is a possibility that the “new” “patches” in these photos is just a photoshop job to unify the brand image for UVA football. Look at the “patch” on Tim Harris in the 804 poster.

That’s ... not where the V-sabres should be. And the blue jerseys in the background of the photo in June still had the Quayle-era block-V design.

Only time will tell whether we’re chasing our tails on this, or if we’ve actually gotten a glimpse of Virginia’s uniform future.