Ohio State Football Uniforms: New Uniforms Reflect Buckeyes' Style of Play

Ohio State will always be a conservative football program.

The style of play is straight out of the 1960s—lots of running plays and good defense and special team.

It has grown to the point where SEC fans use it as an example of why the Big Ten can’t handle the speed of their conference.

So when they have a chance to wear some exotic new uniforms for Saturday’s showdown against reeling No. 15 Wisconsin, they once again hand the ball off.

Instead of doing something different with their Nike Pro Combat unis, like Oregon does almost every week, or like Maryland, Boise State and Georgia did on opening night…they decided to go retro.

1961 retro.

Here is the Associated Press with a description of what the Buckeyes will be sporting on Saturday:

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The Buckeyes will be wearing new uniforms. The school's rich marketing deal with Nike means they'll be "honoring" Ohio State's 1961 national championship team (Football Writers Association) by taking the field in uniforms featuring steel-gray helmets with a deep scarlet stripe, scarlet jerseys and gray pants and socks.

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My first thought when glancing at the picture…why don’t they have some sort of actually person modeling the jersey?

A faceless manikin doesn’t exactly make your jersey look very cool.

As for the actually jersey—meh.

They feature the white block lettering on OSU’s bold scarlet jersey with an odd looking gray sleeve and collar. Solid gray pants round out this odd get-up.

The sleeve looks really weird, and it throws off the rest of the uniform. Nike wanted to get the “pro combat” theme, but it really contradicts the whole “1961” vibe they were originally going for.

If you want to celebrate the ’61 team, then do it.

In 1961, the Buckeyes finished 8-0-1 under Woody Hayes, and fullback Bob Ferguson was Heisman runner-up behind Syracuse's Ernie Davis.

They didn’t wear oddly colored sleeves that look like camouflage.

The Buckeyes should have separated the retro look from the futuristic “pro combat” look—combining them simply doesn’t work. 

With the newest uniforms, like the latest Ohio State drive...it's run, run, run, punt.