Uniformity: Is BYU keeping the LaVell patch? A VTF INVESTIGATION

Welcome to Uniformity, a special place of the internet dedicated to our healthy obsession with anything and everything to do with BYU uniforms. Here we’ll discuss updates to new uniform sets, explore the rich history of Cougar gear and pontificate on what the future could behold.

This week we embark on what will undoubtedly be the longest part of the offseason schedule. Fall camp is here. We are seeing football related activities on our timelines. We are talking about important football topics, like who is going to be the quarterback or how much longer do we have to suffer without the most lethal kicker in the universe, Jake Oldroyd? Football is very much here, but at the same time we still have a few weeks before it actually matters.

In the interim we here at VTF have been pulling together all of our investigative resources to answer a very serious football-related question. That being, will BYU be wearing the LaVell Edwards patch on their uniforms again? Considering how the team honored the late coach by rolling out one of the worst offensive seasons in recent history, it might not be a bad idea to give the patches another try.

A few days ago when BYU had their official photo shoot, a few images started to spill out over the internet of players wearing their game day jerseys that included the patch.

Here we have three quarterbacks and running back Beau Hoge (I love it when running backs use single uniform numbers...looking at you Luke Staley) and all but one of them has the LaVell patch. The only player missing the patch is freshman Zach Wilson.

In another video that was tweeted out by the team we see a bunch of players that still have the patch (Corbin Kaufusi, Aleva Hifo and Dayan Ghanwoloku) and a few others that don’t (Micah Simon).

So what’s the deal here? Is this enough evidence that the Cougars will be wearing the patch again this year? As much as some might want this to be permanent, evidence would suggest that the patch won’t be returning.

If you look at the BYU Football social feeds you will see that the team has been releasing retouched photos from the shoot that feature some of the players wear the patch in the photos above. Only in the retouched photos posted to Twitter the patch as been removed. Just take a gander at this image of Corbin.

And check out these photos touting the returning production on this year’s squad. There are a lot of images of the players but not one is wearing the LaVell patch.

My guess is either 1) the new uniforms that will be used this season haven’t arrived on campus 2) they already have the new uniforms for this season but the didn’t want to break them out for the photo shoot or 3) these are the same uniforms they’ll be using but they just haven’t removed the patched yet.

Either way, the BYU photo staff is putting in a ton of work to remove those patches after the fact. If they are pulling a fast one on us and keeping the patch then those poor photo editors sure put in a ton of work for nothing. We’ll find out for certain in a few short weeks.