LAS VEGAS — The University of Hawaii football team is about to go retro.
The Rainbow Warriors are bringing back black helmets and black jerseys this season. That will be part of a wardrobe that also will include white and green jerseys.
“It’s time to change the uniforms,” UH coach Nick Rolovich said of the Under Armour clothing line.
The black attire coincides with the return of the run-and-shoot offense. The new helmet and jersey colors were introduced at the Mountain West Conference Media Summit on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
“We’re going to bring back the old traditions of when UH used to wear black back in the day,” said defensive lineman Zeno Choi, who represented the Warriors at the meet-the-media event.
In the past, the black helmets were actually a dark green. This time, the helmets are black. Rolovich said the Warriors will wear black helmets for all their games. The Warriors had worn white helmets and white jerseys for road games.
Na Koa, the team’s money-raising group, led a drive last year in which individuals bought matte-green helmets for the players. The Warriors kept those helmets, painting them black for this season.
“It kind of pumps me up that we get to wear the black,” said Choi, who participated in a throwback game in which UH wore black three years ago. “It’s good to bring that back. Maybe it’ll bring the energy back up. It’s good to bring back old memories and, hopefully, win some games with the black jerseys and bring them back permanently.”
Slotback John Ursua, who also attended the media event, said: “It’s a good opportunity to have that same look as successful UH teams that played in the past.”
Mainland fans can view UH games
Mainland fans will be allowed to watch UH football home games for free on their cell phones and tablets this season, according to Bret Gilliland, deputy commissioner of the Mountain West Conference.
Last year, the Mountain West pulled the plug on free streaming because viewers in Hawaii were able to circumvent Spectrum’s pay-per-view barriers and receive the free transmission intended for mainland fans.
“It has to do with what we call geo blocking,” Gilliland said. “We have to protect the Spectrum contract with Hawaii and subscribers who pay for that.”
Geo blocking is procedure in which you can prevent free streaming to an area based on Internet Protocol addresses. For instance, a circle could be drawn around the islands preventing anyone from Hawaii from receiving the free transmission through the internet.
But Gilliland said some Hawaii residents have IP addresses that were outside the state. “Some of it is intentional, some of it may be happenstance that their provider, whomever they’re getting their internet from, has an IP address that will allow them to see it when they’re on the islands,” Gilliland said. “Which is something we do not want to do. We don’t want to violate the agreement with Spectrum.”
But Gilliland said it was determined a cell phone and tablet can be geo blocked. Gilliland said UH streaming will no longer be offered through the internet, which can viewed on a computer. But people outside of Hawaii, including those visiting out of state, can pick up the games on cell phones and tablets.
Gilliland said this resolves the problem of unauthorized viewing while promoting UH football games outside of Hawaii. “We’d like to have that content out there,” Gilliland said.