Could Virginia football be returning to an old look for the #NewStandard?

We’re big fans of uniform coverage here on Streaking the Lawn.

When Ben Smiley tweeted during one of his visits to Charlottesville, there were uniforms in the background that looked like they could be new #swag for the Hoos. And of course we covered the official unveil video for the new looks back in April.

In keeping with that tradition of obsession and eager speculation, here’s the question on our mind today: is all that’s old becoming new again?

ACC media day begins today in Charlotte. The official ACC Twitter account tweeted out a welcome message with a photo of the league uniforms.

UVA is back right, next to VaTech. The Reddit CFB Twitter account had a similar picture with a better view of the Virginia uniform.

Here’s a close-up from that shot:

Reddit CFB

What’s important here is that all of the uniforms on the other ACC mannequins are those teams’ default home combinations.

Here are some things we know for sure. The orange uniforms are definitely one option in the rotation, as are white helmets. And the program has been looking at various possible combinations.

We’re also starting to see promotional materials with players in the orange jersey/white pants combinations.

Now for the speculation part. Bronco Mendenhall has made “establishing an identity” one of the core elements of his rebuild vision for UVA football. It would seem strange to have professional photos taken of key players, then publish them from the official program Twitter account, in something other than what the official/default look will be for that identity.

And whenever Mendenhall has talked about the goals underlying uniform choices, he has emphasized the importance of bringing in elements of the program’s history. The Quayle-era blue jerseys were an adequate stand-in for 2016 and 2017.

But the true peak of Virginia football was the late 1980s and early 1990s. The program’s first bowl game was 1984. The first seasons with back-to-back bowl games were 1989 and 1990. There was the first—and still only—stint at #1 in 1990. Moore-to-Moore, Secules-to-Mattioli, Terry Kirby, Chris Slade, Jim Dombrowski.

All of them wore the same uniform at Scott Stadium: a white helmet with one orange and one blue stripe; an orange jersey with white numbers; and white pants with orange and blue stripes.