As I much I love the Gray Ghosts there is new jersey that usurped it as the "jersey we wear during the home game closest to the anniversary of Memorial Stadium"I’ve said this before - the gray ghost uniforms were meaningful. We wore them for homecoming and the were a nod to Grange.
The slanted Illinois and the shoulder striping from the uni's this year are things I would like us to put away in the closet.
Late season nuke.....
Lololol very true for this groupLate season nuke.....
The final call will be "how does this look on TV."So I’m not sure I A+++ love it like I think many here will. I don’t know how I feel with the majority of the “logo” being white for pairing with the blue jersey. But I probably imagine white letters on orange with blue outlines was the best option for this script. But the whole color thing is why I think the 2024 ILLINOIS helmet is perfect for the orange and the white jerseys, but not the blues. Whereas, I think the arched Illini was perfect for the blues.
But, I do think the script Illinois has a place in our football program, and I’m glad they are breaking it out for this game. So it’s an A for that.
This is why uniform preferences are so subjective. I LOVE the shoulder stripes. They add a retro feel and our school colors really lend themselves well to stripes like that. I honestly feel like our current uniforms are the best ones I’ve seen in my time as an Illini fan.The current shoulder striping is just plain awful. The "stripes to nowhere" just don't fit into any clean, modern football jersey design.
Not a fan of the script. Hard no for BB, now football.
I wish we’d have one helmet design we use 80-90% of the time and only swap it out on rare occasions. The constant change makes it difficult to have a recognizable identity.So now, with our five helmet designs (and assuming we’ll never use the Grange era unis again), I’d like to see the following:
Slant Illinois — Primary road helmet
Block I - Alternate road helmet
Script Illinois — Primary home helmet
Arched Illini — Alternate home helmet #1
Butkus era — Alternate home helmet #2
The arched Illini and Butkus era helmets would each be used once per season, earmarked for big games. The 2025 season might look like this:
Western Illinois — Script Illinois
@ Duke - Slant Illinois
Western Michigan - Script Illinois
@ Indiana - Slant Illinois
USC - Butkus era
@ Purdue - Block I
Ohio State — Arched Illini
@ Washington — Slant Illinois
Rutgers — Script Illinois
Maryland — Script Illinois
@ Wisconsin - Block I
Northwestern — Script Illinois
I think that’s changing across all sports. The the more uniform designs a team has, the more merchandise they can sell. Nike and Oregon figured this out before everyone else did.I wish we’d have one helmet design we use 80-90% of the time and only swap it out on rare occasions. The constant change makes it difficult to have a recognizable identity.