Big 12 Threads: Outliers and Tradition

Every week, coaches and players of the Big 12 Conference have to answer question after question about the upcoming game. How do we move the football? How do we stop their star player? Who goes into the game in this situation?

It may not be on the forefront of head coaches’ minds across the conference, but someone in every football facility has to answer an all important question week after week; what are we going to wear out there?

Uniforms have been part of the sport since the very first game in 1869 between two schools that eventually became Rutgers and Princeton, with Rutgers topping the then New Jersey Tigers 6-4. A painting of the game on the NCAA’s website shows some players in white shirts, with others in dark shirts. Almost 148 years later, that distinction is a significant part of the modern college game.

NCAA Rule 1-4-5-a-2 lays out the rules teams must abide by when designing their uniforms. The rule essentially states that all uniforms must have a visible number and each team must wear contrasting colors. The rules lay out the bare necessities (think Alabama), but schools have the ability to so much more.

So far this season in the Big 12, seven of the ten schools have worn a different uniform combination for each game. Of course, teams like Texas, Kansas State and Oklahoma wear the same uniforms almost every game (though we’ll go into more detail about the Sooners later).

Because of that, there are a lot of different stories, opinions, and designs that each school can wear. From the tiny details on Oklahoma State’s collar and helmet, to the unchanging Powercat topped uniforms of Kansas State, the country’s most maligned conference boats some of the more interesting combinations each week.

Outliers

The Big 12 has been a conference of seemingly constant change in the last handful of years, whether it’s adding new members, disbanding entirely, adding a conference title game, and many other somewhat controversial subjects. Over that time frame, one thing that has been pretty consistent in the conference’s football landscape is the Swoosh.

Nike is the official outfitter of eight of the Big 12’s ten football programs, including the conference’s two flagship programs in Texas and Oklahoma. Nike does not hold all ten teams, as Kansas and Texas Tech have different suppliers. The Red Raiders use Under Armour, while Kansas uses Adidas.

Texas Tech’s choice in supplier dates back to 2009, when UA replaced Nike. At that point Tech’s main rivals in the Big 12, Texas and Texas A&M, had contracts with Nike and Adidas. A&M has become one of Adidas’ flagship collegiate brands and a way for the three stripes to have a presence in Texas. For Texas Tech, they serve similar purposes for Under Armour.

“They’ve been great with us,” Red Raider head coach Kliff Kingsbury said at Big 12 Media Days in July. “Not being a Nike school, where there is different tiers and things of that nature, we’ve been their school in Texas since the beginning. They have an appreciation for that.”

Kingsbury mentioned that Under Armour and former coach Mike Leach held a good relationship, but noted that being the UA brand in Texas has been extremely beneficial for the Red Raiders.

“They’ve given us a bunch of different uniforms, a bunch of different helmet styles, a bunch of different gear,” Kingsbury said. “We get treated with the top dogs that Under Armour has. That’s been special for Texas Tech in that relationship.”

Tech has shown off some interesting combinations in the past, especially on the helmet. In the 2017 season, they’ve stayed relatively plain, although they decided to wear white uniforms at home in their week two matchup.

Tech wore a red component this past weekend against Houston, wearing a red helmet over white jerseys and pants. For Kingsbury, that decision may have come as part of a request from Raider fans. “I always get asked to wear more red,” he said.

The Raiders are comfortable putting any one of their three main colors anywhere on their uniform. They have red, black, and white options for their helmet, jersey, and pants. Junior Red Raider Keke Coutee shares his head coach’s affinity for the red.

“Personally my favorite is the one we wore against Kansas (in 2016),” Coutee said. “The red on white with the red helmets, those are pretty nice.”

Coutee also appreciates the perks Texas Tech gets from their supplier.

“Every brand brings something different,” Coutee said. The Under Armour with the flash, the cleats and things like that, different designs, different custom made uniforms, they bring a lot of stuff to the table.”

Under Armour brings a lot to the table for Tech, but Adidas brings the Kansas Jayhawks more than their visually appealing red, white, and blue.

The three stripes began to add gray to Kansas’ uniform combinations, something not out of the ordinary for Adidas. Adidas has offered templates that uses non-official colors to other clients such as Nebraska, Texas A&M, and Mississippi State to name a few.

So far, Kansas has used a different uniform combination for each game, and Kansas head coach David Beaty has enjoyed each one.

“My favorite combination is what they pick,” Beaty said. “Our leadership has very few sole responsibilities, but one of which is they design the uniform weekly. Whatever they choose, it takes one thing off my plate I don’t have to think about.”

Uniforms don’t help win games, but they play an important part in the mindset of a player before a game. When asked about the notion of “look good, feel good, play good,” Beaty said he takes it into account when coaching his players.

“We are seeing an impact in it,” Beaty said. “Understanding the psyche of players is important. I think it’s something that has changed in our game over the past five years. Understanding what drive them nowadays is extremely important because other people are understanding it.”

Junior KU linebacker Joe Dineen echoed what his head coach expressed.

“I think it’s really cool what coach Beaty has done for us getting us a bunch of different uniforms we can wear,” Dineen said. “We don’t wear the same thing twice. That’s pretty cool. What’s also cool is he lets us choose what ones we want to wear for an upcoming week within reason, if they look good. I think ‘look good, feel good, play good is a huge deal.”

Kansas has look after look available to it, but Dineen’s preference was something on the simpler side.

“We wore an all red one that I thought was pretty slick, but my all-time favorite one is just the all-white with the white helmet,” Dineen said. “Just iced out. That’s my favorite one.”

Tradition

Change seems to come often in the Big 12, especially when talking about the last 20 years. There are some things that either have not changed, or have become so resistant to change that a minor alteration becomes a major storyline.

Three things that Big 12 fans could count on week to week were what Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas State wore onto the field.

In recent years, OU has added some alternate options while keeping their traditional look unchanged. Texas and Kansas State have added some minor tweaks every now and then, but the look worn on sidelines in Manhattan and Austin has held steady for almost three decades.

Aside from some tweaks such as number positioning on the side of the uniform, facemask color, and special helmet decals, Texas has become famous for its burnt orange look. A constant, unchanging burnt orange top at home and white top on the road, with white helmets and white pants are staples of the Longhorn football program.

Similarly, Kansas State’s gray-purple-gray has been around Manhattan for as long as Wildcat head coach Bill Snyder.

“It’s about tradition,” Snyder said at Big 12 Media days. “I think tradition is important. It’s about paying tribute to the young people who really built the foundation for what all the other guys are able to cherish and enjoy a great deal.”

The only time that Kansas State strayed away from tradition was last season against Oklahoma State when the Wildcats wore an alternate helmet to honor the military. That change was the first major alteration of the Kansas State helmet since 1988, according to The Wichita Eagle.

Changing something that has remained so consistent for so long is something the players even understand the difficulty of.

“Some people don’t really like our jerseys,” K-State junior D.J. Reed said. “I love our jerseys. Tight fit, they’re nice. It’s like USC. You can’t really change them. I feel the same way about Kansas State. They’re just some nice, old school jerseys, but they look good.”

Texas has uniforms that also stem from the time of a legendary head coach. Darrell Royal made sure that Texas has the right color for its uniforms, and since he put his hands on the program, the uniforms have remained largely the same.

There have been some small changes such as face mask color, the addition of names and words to the front and back of the jerseys, and the position of numbers on the side. However, college fans around the country have been able to easily identify Longhorn teams for many years.

“I think it’s history,” Tom Herman said at Big 12 Media Days. “I think that’s really important. I think iconic when you think of our uniforms. I think the really cool thing is that it just says Texas on the front. It doesn’t say the University of Texas, it doesn’t say UT, it doesn’t say Horns, it says Texas, because I feel like we represent the whole state of Texas and not just our university.”

Small changes, like the Texas on the front of the jersey that Herman mentioned, often annoy fans who prefer to see the Horns take the field in uniforms similar to what they wore against Kansas in 2015. Senior Naashon Hughes has an obvious appreciation and respect for the tradition, but some new flavor, in his opinion, never hurts.

“The classic look, it’s just so traditional,” Hughes said. “You can’t really get away from it. Even with the new uniforms that everybody else has, I probably wouldn’t want to see us as flashy as some of the other teams are doing, but I wouldn’t mind a little flare here and there.”

Texas tried to add some flare when the helmet decals were given a reflective finish for the last season and a half, but Herman changed the decal to a more traditional, duller appearance when he arrived on campus.

Though Texas has a dedication to keeping tradition, its main rival in Oklahoma has decided to add new options.

Oklahoma is well known for their plain crimson helmets with the interlocking OU and uniforms with “SOONERS” across the chest. For the first three weeks of this season, that’s what they took to the field and to Columbus, Ohio for an aesthetically pleasing matchup with Ohio State.

This past weekend against Baylor, Oklahoma wore an alternate white helmet on top of alternate white jerseys and pants. As uniforms go, it was a solid look and a good contrast against Baylor’s all black look, but it was an obvious break in tradition.

“That’s a hot topic at OU,” Sooner head coach Lincoln Riley said at Big 12 Media Days. “We’ve got an interesting balance because the traditional uniforms, I think, are some of the best uniforms in the country.”

Riley added later that he doesn’t see the Sooners “wanting to go crazy.” He also said he doesn’t think that Oklahoma will have any “silver helmets,” but noted that any changes would have to be considered by athletic director Joe Castiglione.

Oklahoma has yet to use a certain template, but it remains one of the favorites of junior OT Orlando Brown.

“We’ve never worn it, but the red on red,” Brown said. “The “Bring the Wood” red on red. I love it. I hope we go red on red.”

Though the alternates are popular, seeing any drastic alternates when Oklahoma takes on Texas in the Cotton Bowl remains highly unlikely. After all, it is tradition.