Utah, BYU players wearing Villarreal helmets Saturday

    Armando Villarreal continues to make his name known within the college football crowd, specifically its lockerrooms.
    A pair of college teams will be sporting his helmets this Saturday, when Utah and BYU celebrate their Homecomings wearing the head gear featuring the Imperial artist’s airbrush painting.
    Early this week, Villarreal shipped off the last of the painted helmet shells to be fitted over the protective gear for Saturday’s games.
    It’s the third helmet he’s done for Utah, who will meet USC in a Saturday night game in Salt Lake City.
    The helmets are certain to draw some emotion, as they feature a pair of Utah players who were killed while members of the team.
    Ty Jordan wore No. 22 for the Utes and was killed accidentally when cleaning a gun late in 2020 ahead of their bowl game. He’s featured on one side of the helmet, Villarreal said.
    After Jordan’s death, Aaron Lowe asked to wear No. 22 the next season, and did so until he was killed at a house party in September 2021 after an argument over parked cars. His likeness appears on the other side of the helmet.
    After both deaths, Utah retired No. 22, Villarreal said.
    Included in the helmet design, No. 22 is part of the Forever 22 heart-shaped design on the back.
    The memorial red and black helmet will be worn a second time by the Utes when they go on the road two weeks later to play Washington State, the last team both Jordan and Lowe played against before their deaths.
    The blue BYU helmet features their cougar mascot on one side and the a view of the college with mountains in the background on the other.
    He said his wife, Lora, helped him a lot on both helmets. She did the sanding and cut and laid out the masking before he painted them.
    Villarreal used photos supplied by the schools in airbrushing both helmets.
    Both games, #20 Utah vs. #7 USC and BYU vs. Arkansas, will be televised.
    The Utah/USC game has a 6 p.m. MT kickoff on Fox, while BYU and Arkansas meet earlier in the day at 1:30 p.m. MT on ESPN.
    At last year’s Utah game, Villarreal and his artwork on the Utes’ helmets was mentioned on air, and he and his family were shown on the TV screen.
     Villarreal and the family are attending Saturday night’s Utah game. He said they were treated like family last year after he painted helmets for the team featuring the USS Salt Lake City warship.
    Villarreal said the other college teams for which he’s painting helmets send a thank-you note, but Utah is different.
    “They are always so nice and welcome the whole family,” he said.
    “Working for Utah has been an awesome experience for me, my wife and the kids,” he said.
    Last year, they had front row goal line seats at the game, toured the Utes’ stadium, were asked to come down on the field and were treated to dinner.
    After sending off the 150 helmets for Utah and 106 for the BYU game, Villarreal said that’s the last of the helmets he’ll do this season.
    Earlier this fall, he also airbrushed 52 helmets for Tennessee and another 47 for Maryland.
    He quit his job recently with the city of Imperial where he worked the past five years, and is a full-time artist now.
    He just began working with a sports art company in Los Angeles, he said, and will also continue airbrushing helmets for Schutt Sports, who contracts his work with the colleges.
    “I’m just an artist now,” he said.