EWU’s new red turf a hit with players
By Steve Bergum (Spokesman-Review)
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/aug/28/ewus-new-red-turf-hit-players/
“Boise wears blue uniforms on their blue turf,” Baldwin explained, “and it seems to work for them. We’re going to look at some different uniform options, ourselves, to see if one color gives us an advantage over another on our red surface.”
Baldwin said the offense and defense will alternate wearing red uniforms at practice in an effort to see if red-on-red makes it harder for defenders to pick out ball carriers, or harder for quarterbacks to find receivers or locate safeties on the other side of the ball.
“We’re going to change it up this week,” he said. “I told our guys I’m looking for their feedback. I want to know how it looks to their eyes and how they feel before we play our first game on it. If we can create any kind of additional home-field advantage by wearing a certain color uniform, we’re going to do it.
“Why wouldn’t we?”
The Eagles have used several different home uniform color combinations in recent years, ranging from red jerseys and black pants to all red and, in a couple of instances, all black.
Mitchell, who inherits the starting quarterback position left vacant by the graduation loss of four-year starter Matt Nichols, is looking forward to the uniform experiment.
“I think Boise wears all blue for a reason, and I think their home record speaks for itself,” he said. “So, I definitely think it’s a good idea to get the red jerseys out here and find out what they look like and whether there’s an advantage to wearing them.
“If not, let’s just go to all black and come out here and sweat.”
According to Baldwin, the Eagles could opt to wear the white jerseys they normally wear on the road.
“But I don’t see that happening,” he chuckled. “We haven’t made any final decision, yet, but there’s a good chance you’ll see us in all red. That would be my guess, if I had to guess.”
