The San Diego State football program unveiled new “Age of the Jaguar” alternate uniforms this week that will make their on-field debut when the Aztecs host James Madison on Saturday evening (10 p.m. ET on The CW).
The red jerseys and pants feature the same design as their black home and white road looks, which were updated ahead of the 2025 season and feature the Aztec calendar on the sleeve caps and down the sides of the pants, a contrasting collar and custom number font.
It marks the first time since 1980 that San Diego State has worn red jerseys, as well as the first time in program history that they’ll be paired with red pants. The Aztecs went 2-4 at home that season and promptly returned to an all-black design after firing head coach Claude Gilbert.
The black helmets, meanwhile, feature an Ocelotl – the Aztec word for jaguar – on one side and the player’s number on the other. According to Aztec mythology, the Ocelotl represents Tezcatlipoca, the god of the night sky, memory and time, as well as the warriors who wore jaguar pelts into battle because they believed the animal’s strength and spirit would transfer to them.
The Ocelotl was one of three glyphs introduced by San Diego State last year as the university worked with Mesoamerican scholars and an artist from Mexico to further integrate Aztec iconography to its athletics branding. It was joined by Ehecatl (wind) – which represents Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent and god of intelligence and self-reflection – and Calli (house), which represents Tepeyollotl, the god of animals, caves, echoes and earthquakes.
This is also the first time since 1980 that the Aztecs will wear black helmets, not including the red-to-black gradient designs they wore from 2001-05. They’ve notably worn their iconic red Aztec calendar (or Sun Stone) helmets in every game since the start of the 2015 season, though they moved from a high-gloss to low-gloss finish in 2021 to make the design more prominent.
“(I’m) excited for it,” head coach Sean Lewis told reporters during his media availability on Wednesday morning. “With the new glyphs, there was an opportunity to do something special that had never been done. We felt the timing was right with, obviously, the first year in the Pac-12.
“We’ll wear it for special times, denote a special game to wear the Jaguars, the ‘Blood In, Blood Out’ reds. Then maybe for championship opportunities to make that color palette very, very special to us … To intertwine all of that and have the support of the administration and backing to have a powerful idea come to life was cool.”
Photos courtesy of @AztecFB on X/Twitter.