Notre Dame Helmets: Fighting Irish Get It Right with Golden Domes for USC

I'm not normally one to praise Notre Dame, but I have to give the Fighting Irish some credit for the new helmets they'll be wearing against USC on Saturday night.

No, they don't sport dreadful designs or cacophonous coloration schemes or anything like that. Instead, the Irish will be wearing plain, gold helmets, shaded to match that of the school's famed Golden Dome.

It's refreshing, really, for a football team to debut a new look that doesn't offend the aesthetic sensibilities of its viewership.

College football fans everywhere have already had their corneas burned out by a veritable brigade of ugly uniforms trotted out by Nike and Under Armour this season. Notre Dame hasn't exactly escaped this trend, though the shamrock helmets they sported against Michigan in September were decidedly more tasteful than, say, Maryland's odious ode to the state flag against Miami.

Of course, wearing gold helmets is nothing new for the Irish. They've long sported head gear adorned with flakes of 23.9-karat gold. However, head coach Brian Kelly apparently hasn't been pleased by the hue achieved by the long-standing tradition of having students paint the helmets before games:

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"We've been frustrated with the helmet. It just has never gotten to the right color. We want it to be the Golden Dome. I mean, that's the representation for me. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but that's the gold that we were looking for. Still has the flake, the gold flake in it. The only difference is our managers won't paint these."

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Whatever the difference may be, it's nice to see a football team make a change that is all at once subtle, tasteful and honorific. I certainly understand the the impetus to pump out ugly unis as a means of advertising programs, particularly those without the rich heritage of a school like Notre Dame.

But that hasn't kept some historic programs, like Georgia, Ohio State, LSU, Stanford and even Army and Navy, from getting in on the act.

Hence, I'd like to offer my sincerest thanks, as a college football fan who values uniforms that don't make the game difficult to watch, to Kelly, athletic director Jack Swarbrick and the rest of the folks in South Bend for leading the charge against jaundice-inducing jerseys.

Now, put them to good use and beat the Trojans.