I just wonder if we will ever have a "usual" look once all pieces have been debuted. Of course there can be games where we have "special" looks. I just don't want to wear something different every week just for the sake of doing it. As my dad would say I just want to have a look where a casual viewer channel surfing would click over to our game and immediately know that's Illinois.
The most important part of this, to me, is the helmet. I'd love to see us just pick one and stick with it for 9-10 games out of the year. Personally I'd love to see that be the orange one since its the most unique. White, like black or silver with some other schools, is becoming so en vogue that it's not that special. So for home or road I'd love to see orange be the "standard" look. How many other school's have that as their main color dome? Florida, 'Cuse, Clemson, Oregon state, Okie state (maybe?), Bowling Green?, sometimes The U? A few others might have an orange version but not their go to.
I've heard people say that for the home tops they like to go orange when it's hot and blue (if we ever actually get them) when its cold, which makes sense. But I'd still like to have just one that's there say 80% of the time. Other schools, in far warmer climates, get away with darker jerseys in the early months of the season (granted they get more night games than we probably do). I'd like to see blue emerge here for us simply because it pairs with all the pant combos (I know that goes against my whole argument of having just one look, but you'll never stop them from branching out totally). Plus if we've ever had a signature look it's been orange helmets and blue tops, our classic look if you will.
Pants... I can't quite put into words how much I dislike the white pants. I know people like them because they look clean and crisp (or my least favorite argument that they make us "look faster") but they're just so bland. I want to see as much Orange and Blue as possible and having an entire half of the uni just be blank so much of the time is a bit sad to me. We're lucky enough to cheer for a school with two colors, not just one color and white like Wisky, MSU, PSU. Let's use them to their full potential! Orange pants would be my choice for the standard pants look with blue for the special occasions, (big ten championship game if we ever get there). Goes back to my young childhood where we'd go O/B/B for the big games, loved it.
For the road I actually love the new white tops, like most of us do. But to use the white pants with that just goes back to looking too bland. Love the Blue pants for the road. I'd like O/W/B for the road but O/W/O or even a blue lid would look good sometimes too.
Sorry for the novella but I just don't even recognize us most of the time when I see us on the field. We're in that limbo between having a classic look and trying to be Oregon. And I think we've lost enough over the last 10 years to put the superstitious thing to bed, NO combo will help us win better than any other, but we can at least play looking like the U of I.
