K-Uniform Review: Iowa State

There is a lot to talk about as far as this week’s uniform combination goes as KU went somewhat traditional and somewhat non-conventional. Let’s break it down from top to bottom.

Helmet

KU broke out the blue helmets on the road for the first time since November 23, 2013- the last time they visited Ames. Over the past few seasons, KU has worn either their white helmets or their red helmets, so the blue lid was a welcome change. And while it’s nice to see Kansas go traditional as far as the helmet goes, there were some interesting changes made in this version over the version that they wore for the season opener against South Dakota State.

For one, KU replaced the shiny chrome facemask with a facemask that fades from chrome to shiny blue chrome. Why they didn’t use this mostly blue facemask when they went mono-blue in that home opener is beyond me as it looks pretty good and would’ve certainly added to the all blue look. I think I would’ve preferred the regular chrome to compliment the white shirts in this game.

The most noticeable change is the addition of the huge Trajan KU font on the right side of the helmet. Perhaps the use of that KU logo was a tip of the cap to Mark Mangino and those successful Kansas teams? I’d like to think so.

The giant chrome Jayhawk remained on the left side of the helmet, so this could be the first time in program history that Kansas has featured two different logos (numbers don’t count, they’ve done that before) on the helmet simultaneously. If someone more in tune with uniform idiosyncrasies wants to verify, please let us know in the comments. Overall, I like the look.

Pants

This feature will please many of the contributors here at Rock Chalk Talk. The grey pants are back and look pretty good, but watching on TV, it was hard to distinguish the color. They sometimes looked blue, sometimes grey. I’ll attribute it to the bright sunlight, because it didn’t seem to be a problem last year and the pants are the exact same. I still think that they are a shade or two too dark, but overall, it’s a good look for Kansas.

This is the fourth uniform combination in as many games for KU, and the first where they tinkered with simple things like facemasks and stickers, so it’s probably safe to assume that there are more surprises to come this season. And based on the results so far this season, if the weekly wardrobe announcement isn’t already the best part of gameday, it soon could be.