Indiana football: Options that just won’t go away

There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to Indiana football.

So naturally today’s topic will be the programs uniforms and visual brand identity. Of course the field product is also covered, but I want to talk about this because oh, do I have a little opinions.

Now you may remember your previous paragraph really praising these. Well, trash it because minds change and I’ve certainly had time to think about it now.

There was still a little hope left for Indiana football when Cincinnati came to town in 2021. Sure, Iowa City got away, but Memorial Stadium was pretty full and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Then the Hoosiers took the field in these beauties.

Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports

It was a complete promotion, a throwback outfit for an exciting home match against a ranked opponent. They also came out swinging, absolutely terrorizing the Bearcats on defense and doing enough on offense to be comfortable.

Then Micah McFadden was fired after a controversial targeting, and everything, including the season, fell apart.

These helmets, which featured a black stripe instead of the usual double white stripe, resurfaced during spring practice in 2022. These were the first rumblings of a possible uniform change to the program after being reasonably consistent over the previous few years.

Well, there they were again against Illinois. Only this time with a triad and not an I.

Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

A cool game, a fun finish from an offensive and defensive point of view. But were these just the new main uniforms now after being previously established as an alternate? Who knew, but it’s going to be weird.

Look at those helmets, there’s a black stripe. Opinion, it’s a fun accent for an alternate, and to be honest, maybe I don’t hate a well-made black uniform as an alternate (who cares), but I don’t like that it takes up space where white/cream, the actual school color, could be .

It gets worse/more obvious when they threw those helmets on top of the older uniform for some reason.

Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer/USA TODAY NETWORK

Yeah this isn’t great.

Black on the helmet, pinstripe and face mask is the only time the color is present on the uniform, unless the player chooses to wear black gloves. It’s a small thing, but it just… doesn’t look very good.

If you’re going to commit to alternates as the main uniform like they’ve done with helmets, they should probably keep it consistent and do that. Otherwise, the whole brand identity just goes out the window.

Like really, Indiana threw almost anything together and called it a uniform. Alternative helmets, but with a trident? I bet. Random block I bucket game? Sure, probably. An actual full option? A couple of times! A mismatch between alternate and old normal? Indeed.

That’s not good. Such a random stream of uniforms with no apparent theme or reason throughout the season kills a brand identity that Indiana doesn’t need to begin with.

They just look different than the rest of the sports department now that doesn’t use black. It’s hard to imagine their uniforms because they have so many that they don’t have one.

Do you remember these? Clean, non-black, subtle candy stripes that don’t Overpower other uniforms, and they won in 2019 and 2020.

Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports

These were awesome! They looked like Indiana, cream and crimson, had the iconic candy stripes on the sleeves and pants, and didn’t try to do too much. You knew Indiana was wearing these and you knew they meant Indiana.

The India thing was also funny. The show owned it and makes jokes about it. Who cares, it’s not that serious.

So uniform decision makers, if you’re reading this, please know that we should probably go back to what worked, rather than changing the brand identity for no apparent reason. I’m not the only one who thinks so either.

Anyway, that’s enough of my little uniform talk, just come back please.