You know, I was looking over the photos from spring practice and I started thinking that I really liked the simplicity and look of the practice uniforms. And then it occurred to me...why don't we wear these all the time?Take the all-whites that the QBs are wearing. They're simple. Almost painfully simple in an especially turn-of-the-century kind of way. But after a few seasons of dealing with this and this, doesn't simple sound good? Here's what I'd do. Keep the helmet the way it is and let that be the "orange" of the look. Keep the jersey clean and free of lines, piping and stripes. Keep the number blue. That's it for that. As for the pants, I would be fine with the all-white as well. I prefer Andrew Robinson's blue socks with the funky piping to complete the whole look.
I don't know about you but I like it. I think it also sets a nice tone for the program in general. Back to basics, nothing fancy, just plain and simple, steak and potatoes. The anti-Oregon. Old school, baby!As for the flip-side, just swap out the white jersey for the blue one. I say keep the white numbers as compared to making them orange. If we've learned anything, we want to minimize the orange without pretending it's our signature color. And again, the blue socks seem to make the entire package complete.
Am I crazy? Would it make us look too much like Illinois? Perhaps, but I still like it. Anything that moves in the opposite direction of the weirder and wackier trend that seems to engulf most college football programs. Then again, we've put our faith in Nike to deliver good uniforms and so, my dream will remain just that. At least we're not going to do the all-orange unis again. Right? RIGHT?
