Inside UCF football's mission to find the perfect uniform combination every week
ORLANDO, Fla. - There are 75 possible uniform combinations UCF football can choose from for game day, so how do they narrow it down to just one look?
As the Knights look to get their first win in Big 12 Conference play on Saturday at Kansas, FOX 35 News Anchor Ryan Elijah caught up with the equipment team to see how they decided on unveiling the "Lightmode" uniforms for the highly anticipated matchup.
Lightmode features an all-white pants and jersey combo with gold numbers, the reverse of last year's all-black look – dubbed Knightmode – which UCF wore against Cincinnati.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 29: John Rhys Plumlee #10 of the UCF Knights hikes the ball during the first half of a game against the Cincinnati Bearcats at FBC Mortgage Stadium on October 29, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Imag
"We had such a good reaction from our Knightmode uniforms last year, the ones that we wore against Cincinnati, that we were like, ‘Well, what can we wear on the road?’" UCF Equipment Manager Brad Anderson told FOX 35 News.
That's when Lightmode was born.
Anderson said they planned the uni combo over the summer, which is when leadership begins to outline the uniforms for the whole season. The uniform combos are finalized the Monday before each game day and are unveiled on social media that Thursday.
Thursdays have become sort of a tradition for Knight Nation, which looks forward to the reveal on UCF's social media accounts.
"It's just a piece of content that people get to look forward to get themselves ready for the next game," said Eric DeSalvo, associate athletic director for content.
This week's Lightmode reveal featured a video that was a play on the iPhone's dark and light mode settings.
"Just flipped the switch," the UCF football account wrote on social media.
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The reveal received about half-a-million views across all platforms, UCF said. Sometimes, it's double.
"It's huge, because not only is it getting our fans excited and it's also showing off our brand to many, it's also helping recruits see that we do really cool stuff here at UCF," DeSalvo said.
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The Knights will wear the Lightmode uniforms for the first time on the road against Kansas on Saturday at 4 p.m. on FOX 35.