One thing I’ve not mentioned is that Coach Morris has had his team wear a different SMU uniform almost every game. I’ve seen red chrome helmets, blue matte helmets, the classic white SMU helmet with the red pony (some with the outline of the DFW skyline), chrome facemasks, red facemasks, helmets with jersey numbers on the side, all blue uniforms (shirts and pants), solid red uniforms, blue with white pants, red with white pants, all black uniforms, and I think maybe even some shade of gray.
Like Bielema, he uses this as a recruiting tool and as a reward for his players. Now, maybe he’ll view things differently at Arkansas. But for those of you that want us to stay plain, he may not be your guy.
We’ve been wearing kid friendly uniforms since 2008. Where are the championships? How do we know that today’s players don’t like the D-Mac unis? It costs a lot of money to change unis every week. I’d rather spend the money on the best assistant coaches we can find.
At the end of the day, every school needs to brand itself. The best brand in college football is Notre Dame. Everyone knows it immediately. OSU had that brand, until they messed up their helmets this year. I get the reward and market philosophy, but that red hog is our brand, and we need to make sure we don’t screw that up.
The white hog on the red helmet is our brand, while the red helmet hog is the brand on everything else. No I don’t like the forward facing hog. It looks like a red wolf.
While I am somewhat of a “traditionalist” for uniforms (especially the helmet) there is some truth to this. I will never forget during the 1994 basketball run (yes I said 1994, kind of a big year for basketball for the Hogs) a friend spent the whole year complaining about the uniforms and how they hung down to their knees. I told him, “I don’t care what they wear, just win!”
I am not quite that open on football uniforms (again helmet is the biggest thing to me), but if the kids like them, whatever. Just win!!
I simply don’t believe the uniforms are the big thing when it comes to getting recruits. I’m sure many will talk about cool (or whatever word they use) uniforms, but relationships with coaches, proximity to home, winning tradition, chance of early PT, family near the school, facilities, conference tie-in, TV exposure, & a bunch of other things come in much higher on their decision making list.
Uniforms are not only the school’s brand, in the case of the Razorbacks, the mascot & nickname are the major thing that people associate with the school. I don’t mind an occasional special uniform, but a red helmet (it can be matte, chrome or regular) with a white running hog are iconic. I know we’re not Alabama, Notre Dame, or Ohio State, but they’re who we want to be seen with. It seems to me more often than not schools who resort to too much uniform gimmickry are the schools with a history of losing.
I know Oregon sold its soul to Nike & does something different every game. But it’s a Nike marketing arm, not a university program.
Actually, I think the idea behind the different uniforms is to make money. People, mostly younger generation & collectors, go purchase the replica uniform once they see it on the field. So, I think, using different special uniforms, make money for the team/athletic department. Not sure how much Nike bears the cost or reaps the rewards of such an arrangement.
I personally like the classic style that DMac & Felix wore, but I understand the reasoning behind the different uniforms.