Texas is about to step into one of college football’s most recognizable settings looking a little different than usual. When the Longhorns meet LSU on Saturday night in Baton Rouge, they’ll be wearing burnt orange on the road for the first time since 1971.
That alone makes the uniform decision notable, but the backdrop gives it extra weight. Texas is headed into Tiger Stadium, where LSU has long protected one of the sport’s signature looks by wearing white jerseys at home for SEC games. The Tigers’ tradition traces back to Paul Dietzel and the school’s 1958 national championship season, and it remains part of the identity every time LSU takes the field in Baton Rouge.
For Texas, the switch means the Longhorns will be in their familiar colors in a place that rarely feels familiar to visiting teams. According to Texas sports information director John Bianco, the last true road game in which Texas wore burnt orange came in September 1971, when the Longhorns beat UCLA 28-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That game was a rare color-versus-color matchup, with Texas in burnt orange and UCLA in powder blue.
The road look also comes with a little football history attached. College football’s uniform rules were different then, and in 1982 the NCAA changed its jersey policy to require home teams to wear dark colors.
That temporarily interrupted LSU’s white-at-home tradition. From 1983 through 1994, the Tigers wore purple in Baton Rouge.
Gerry DiNardo changed that when he arrived as LSU’s head coach in 1995. He pushed the NCAA Football Rules Committee for a rule adjustment that would allow white jerseys at home under certain conditions, and LSU wasted no time celebrating the return of the look by beating No. 6 Auburn 12-6 in its 1995 home opener.
Since then, the tradition has held, with LSU typically wearing purple only for selected nonconference home games. Even Steve Sarkisian knows what to expect from the Tigers’ wardrobe.
"All I’ve known is LSU in white jerseys. It always looks weird to me when they wear a purple jersey," Sarkisian said Monday.
Texas was actually supposed to make this same uniform change in 2020, when the Longhorns were scheduled to visit LSU in September. The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out that matchup, delaying the moment until now.
And now the timing matters. Texas enters at 7-2, with postseason stakes attached to Saturday’s game and a chance to strengthen its College Football Playoff position. The Longhorns will chase that in Death Valley, under the lights, in burnt orange.
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