Nebraska Football: Futuristic Alternate Uniforms for Cornhuskers Confirmed

When the news came out that Nebraska was going to be wearing “futuristic” alternate uniforms for a home game in 2012, most observers (including yours truly) thought it was an April Fools' gag. After all, not only is Nebraska one of the most tradition-rich and iconic images in college football, it is also one of the most conservative and change-averse athletic programs and fan bases in the country.

But apparently it’s no joke. Athletic director Tom Osborne confirmed in an interview with the Omaha World-Herald that Nebraska will be joining the alternate uniform trend. While Osborne told the World-Herald that he had to “tone down” some of the ideas from Adidas, Nebraska’s official athletic supplier, it's clear that the uniforms aren’t going to just be a throwback like the 2009 game against Louisiana-Lafayette where NU paid homage to the 1962 NU squad.

We have a few clues, but no real, solid evidence. But let’s do a little speculating as to what we might be seeing.

MONOCHROME

In following the lead of Nike’s Pro Combat series, don’t be surprised to see Nebraska in a color-on-color look to give the feel of a space suit or a superhero. Even iconic programs like Georgia have gotten the superhero makeover from Nike (although that might be a bad example, as Georgia’s Pro Combat foray was almost universally loathed). If Adidas is going for a true futuristic look, do not be surprised if NU comes out in a red-on-red uniform of some kind.

HELMET CHANGES

Certainly a change to the Nebraska helmet would seem like the third rail for any uniform modification, even for one game. But consider this portion of the World-Herald interview with Osborne:

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[Osborne said] Nebraska resisted all changes to the white helmet with the thin “N” logo … [b]ut he called back a few minutes later, saying he couldn’t confirm that the helmet would stay exactly the same.

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If that’s not confirmation that there will be at least something different with regard to the helmet, I don’t know what is.

Last year, rumors of Nebraska sporting a black helmet just about broke the internet, and there was discussion in the World-Herald article that a black helmet was part of the original proposal from Adidas.

But a dramatic change seems less likely. If we use Nike as a model, they have rarely made massive changes to an iconic helmet that wasn’t part of a throwback commemoration. The closest they have come is a modification to the Georgia facemask.

Of course, Under Armour made a little bit of a change to Maryland’s helmet last year as well. If Nebraska’s black helmet rumor broke the internet, Maryland’s flag-based uniform melted it in to a bubbling pile of circuits.

But that’s Maryland, and this is Nebraska. Expect some minor modifications, but not a massive overhaul to Nebraska’s helmet.

BLACK FOR BLACK’S SAKE

The one alternate that seems to be a consistent demand is to see Nebraska in black uniforms. Wide receiver Quincy Enunwa made his pitch for the pitch black to the World-Herald.

“Of course everyone wants that,” Enunwa said to the World-Herald. “Everybody’s been doing it. You always see those Photoshop pictures of us in black.”

This time I think the idea has some legs. If I had to guess, I would expect to see Nebraska in some kind of black for its alternate. A really innovative approach would be to incorporate the skull-and-crossbones motif from the Blackshirts into the alternate uniform design.

THE BIG PROGNOSTICATION

So if Adidas were asking me what to do for an alternate uniform design, here would be my suggestions:

• Monochrome black—If you’re going to go alternate, go completely Darth Vader with black shirts, black pants, black shoes and, yes, black helmets.
• Helmet design—Leave the basic design of the helmet alone with a high-gloss black shell and a thin red “N” on each side. You’ll need to outline the N in white so it will stand out on the black shell. Have the face mask remain red. Remove the stripe and on the back of the helmet at the base, put a white crossbones logo with the player’s number in red in the intersection of the crossbones.
• Shirt design—Jet-black shirt with the crossbones "N" logo at the base of the collar. The players’ numbers would be in a thick, rounded font (something like this) on the front, back and shoulders. The numbers would be black, outlined in red, then white. The numbers themselves would be a matte twill with black crossbone logos sublimated throughout the numbers. On the shoulder sleeves would be a repeat of the crossbone logo on the back of the helmet. On the inside collar of the shirt would be stitched the “Nebraska Football: A Winning Tradition” logo from the shirt patch.
• Gloves—Similar to the Blackshirts gloves from last year, but with a black base and the crossbone N logo as the graphic.
• Pant design—Jet-black pants with a thin red stripe down each side and the crossbone logo from the back of the helmet repeated on each hip.
• Shoes—Special Adidas design, shiny black with the Adidas three stripes in white trimmed with red.

Sure, this would be a little “over-the-top,” a design that Osborne said he wanted to avoid. But it would be memorable and, at least in my opinion, awfully sharp. The fun thing is that we’ve got months to speculate and play amateur fashion designer for the scarlet and cream. Nike just rolled out their new NFL gear with a great deal of success. Let’s see how Adidas has done handling Nebraska’s money-grab.

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