College football uniform perfection....almost

Football being what it is, (in bed with NIKE), we almost saw college football uni perfection on Saturday, November 24, 2012. Mark this one down kids. Notre Dame vs. USC. Granted, my Golden Age was one great big uni perfection across all sports and we will never see that again, but this one came as close as it gets in the modern age.

This game was played at USC, but even if it was played at Notre Dame, we would have been treated to near perfection. Why? REAL GRASS folks! This sucker was all grass stains, dirt, blood and sweat. No names on either teams' jerseys. Grey facemasks. Simple, bold, clean colors and designs. The golden dome of ND with it's new shiny paint and the classic USC trojan. Real block bold football numbers. Black cleats with white laces all over the place on the ND side. I can even forgive the black socks because of the cool stripes. AND, even one USC player had black cleats! The stadium was packed, the bands were playing loud, the students were all crazy and nuts. This game was why I watch football. I couldn't take my eyes off this game.

Take a look at a ND vs. USC game from the Golden Age first.

 And now feast your eyes on last Saturday's game.

The perfect (college) football helmet

This one's pretty straight forward kids. Simple, clean and bold. Not overdone with some ugly logo like most college's do (ex. Boise State's old helmet, TCU) or over designed letter (Wisconsin). Not cheesy script lettering like Florida Gators and Ol' Miss do. If you're going to do script lettering, do it right like UCLA or Cal. STOP with the crazy gimmicks like Maryland's flag helmet or ND's half Golden Dome, half fighting leprechaun. If you are going to do a unique helmet, do it right like Oregon and Rutgers did. ALWAYS a grey facemask (Oregon gets the pass here. Hey, the designers at NIKE finally nailed this helmet). I can live with white if it's the right fit for a college team (ex. Oklahoma, Michigan State), but grey is never wrong. Numbers on the helmet are a big plus with me (Alabama, Georgia Southern, Penn State before they abandoned them). The elite college helmets: Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Michigan State, USC, UCLA, Georgia Southern, Oregon. The really nice tier is Tennessee, Iowa, Michigan (sorry Wolverines, get back to the grey facemask and numbers on helmet like you did in the Sugar Bowl and your are back in the elite tier), Cal, Arkansas, Rutgers, Georgia, Syracuse, Texas A&M, Miami. And some honorable mentions: Purdue, Indiana, Colorado, Washington State and Penn State (go back to grey facemasks and numbers on the helmets Penn State. You finally went back to white laces, now finish the look!).

It's in the Details

This will be a recurring theme with me. Since it's football season, let's stick with that for now. Today I'll cover the foot region, namely cleats and socks. Black cleats. White laces. White socks. Stripes on socks are preferred, but not necessary. If you tape your ankle, do it the spat way like Lenny Moore or Walter Payton or Lem Barney. Today, Penn State is the only team that officially wears black cleats and white laces. I'm seeing a lot of Notre Dame players doing it this year though. It pops up here and there on other teams, but nothing consistent. When it's paired with white socks, the look is classic! And if there are stripes on the socks....takes my breath away. In the NFL, white laces with black cleats are rare now. There are exceptions and man, does it look good when it happens. Oh, but give me the 60's again!