It is not uncommon to see extremely short game pants in college football over the last few years. However, Miami defensive back OJ Frederique took the trend to new lengths on Friday.
He might as well have been wearing biker shorts.
I don’t really know why this has become a thing but I would imagine it has something to do with comfortability. However, it goes directly against the rules of college football to wear pants this short.
College football pants keep getting shorter.
This latest trend is not new. Players have worn their knee pads above their knees for a few years now.
Quinshon Judkins rolled his pants at Ohio State.
Georgia’s linebackers wore their pants around the middle of their thighs.
Dillon Gabriel left his knees exposed at Oregon. As did/does Ohio State safety Caleb Downs.
You get the idea. Pants keep getting shorter. It started prior to this current season.
There are some more recent examples of this short pants trend and they all seem to come from the state of Florida. Maybe it has something to do with the heat. I don’t know.
This is West Florida’s kicker:
I know the short pants are a trend in football right now, but this is crazy.
— Ayden Crowley (@aydencrowley4) September 6, 2025
DII kicker from West Florida.@SickosCommittee pic.twitter.com/inJ4YXmUN4
This is Florida defensive end Tyreak Sapp:
Florida DE Tyreak Sapp's just gonna show up in a Speedo next week & see if the refs notice. 😳 pic.twitter.com/VPcs2UIloq
— College Sports Only (@CSOonX) October 12, 2025
Miami defensive back Keionte Scott wore cutoff pants against Louisville on Friday.
Scott’s pants were short. OJ Frederique’s pants were even shorter.
The 6-foot-0, 185-pound sophomore wore the shortest football pants I have ever seen.
Do those even classify as pants? Probably not.
What about the rules?
I personally do not care what college football players wear. They are grown men. They can wear whatever they want as long as they are prepared for the potential consequences, like a hit directly to the knee cap.
However, the rules say otherwise.
Players must wear pants to cover mandatory equipment. Mandatory equipment includes hip pads, knee pads and thigh pads.
Some of these athletes wear basketball knee pads to appease the rule. Others cut up their knee pads to where they are practically nonexistent and wear them above the actual knee cap.
Although the rules on pants exist, they are not often enforced— as you can see from the photos above. The NCAA Football Rules Committee has proposed stricter enforcement, with a hypothetical penalty and forced timeouts. Deion Sanders voiced his support for that kind of change. He also called for fines.
“Let’s do something about the uniforms,” Coach Prime said. “We’ve got guys in biker shorts. That makes me sick because I’m a football guy — I played this game at a high level and I have so much respect for this game. How can we allow guys out there in biker shorts, no knee pads, no nothing, literally pants up under their thighs, and that’s cool? I think there should be a fine implemented for that stuff…”
We’ll see whether the NCAA decides to actually do something or not. In the meantime, OJ Frederique is testing the limit of just how short his pants can go.