Illinois' New Helmets: Ehhh.

Submitted by superstringer on

Reports that Illinois has new headgear -- bright orange, a blue stripe, and a big block blue I.  their secondary helmets will be matte blue:

http://www.thechampaignroom.com/2013/7/16/4529244/illinois-football-new-helmets

This is disappointing.  The bold orange is nice and all.  But a few months ago, there was talk of a new helmet with a basic blue background, but orange and white, zig-zag feathers coming off the front -- a Native American headress -- that was 100% cool.  Perhaps too in-your-face Native American, for the NCAA.  I had higher hopes here.

Well... we'll always have Maryland (starting in 2014).

(Although I am on record as saying, Rutger's battle chrome helmet is waaaaay cool - easily second best in the conference now.  Or will be, in 2014.)

ChiBlueBoy

July 17th, 2013 at 2:10 PM ^

David, you ignorant slut. My opinions regarding uniforms are more valid than yours. Primarily because I'm old and hate everything.

Also, a question. Will Illinois be giving out sunglasses before games? Because I couldn't look at those for 60 minutes and not suffer sight loss and migraines. Maybe they should just stick the players' heads in gigantic flaming oranges.

FallFraturdays

July 17th, 2013 at 1:47 PM ^

Definitely should have gone with that one that looked like a head dress!  With the feathers on the crown of the helmet.  Those would've really popped on tv.  Or a blown up Redskins-style face that takes up the entire side of the helmet.  I like the zig-zag look, haven't seen it before.

M-Dog

July 17th, 2013 at 6:34 PM ^

The one on the bottom would be the coolest helmet in all of football.  But it's not PC so that kills it.  

Too bad.  Maybe they could claim that it represents some kind ot Parisian Can Can costume.  You know, in honor of Champagne.

EGD

July 17th, 2013 at 2:07 PM ^

I like the new helments, but it would have been better if they'd just replaced the i at the end "Illini" with an apostrophe.

The Geek

July 17th, 2013 at 2:32 PM ^

stumbled across this article: here from the Alton, Illinois Telegraph published last Thursday.

 

Uniforms in the Big 10, overall, are pretty blah. Nothing exciting about any of them, save for the always-stunning classic look of Michigan’s maize and blue with those iconic helmets. The rest of the league, though, is average at best. So for the Illini to finish dead-last in the poll says a lot.