Ranking Nebraska's Alternate Uniforms Throughout the Years
- Big Red Daily
- Aug 7, 2018
- 3 min read
Adidas released a new design for the Nebraska Football uniforms for this season and the consensus from Husker Nation has been overwhelmingly positive. The stripes on the sides of the home and away pants are gone... (If you didn't know already).
This was a slight surprise to me considering people don't normally like change in general but you can tell this was a nice move by Adidas and the athletic department by the reaction it received.
There has been immense anticipation for the annual release of the alternate uniforms Adidas designs and gives to their schools and the fans are hungry for any kind of football news at this point. So, with that in mind, I thought I would rank the ones Nebraska has had in the past so here it is...
Alternate uniforms started in 2009, jumped to 2012 and have been released every year since
(7 total seasons):
7. 2014
The alternate uniforms in 2014 were gross. Matte red helmet, red jerseys, red pants, red cleats, duct tape for numbers and stripes, I could go on. Wearing these in a game under the lights didn't help considering the reflection from the duct tape making it hard to read numbers and names but these were by far the worst and I refuse to budge on that.
6. 2012
2012 was our first true year of getting alternate uniforms that weren't throwbacks and Husker Nation (for the most part) was ecstatic to finally wear something other than the traditional uniforms in a game. Unfortunately, these land second to last on my list due to the 'soccer jersey' look with the giant, black, most likely Arial font 'N' with numbers by the shoulder. Not to mention the all red except for the all black helmet feel, which don't get me wrong, the black helmets were definitely bad ass. Everything else I could do without. Good news here is that Wisconsin looked 10 times worse and got punched in the mouth to lose the game. Damn I hate those guys.
5. 2017
Fun fact: those are actually the exact pants Nebraska will wear at home this year including the absence of the 'N' on the hip. I feel bad putting these so low on the list because I actually loved them for the most part, they're just too boring for annual alternates. Sometimes simpler is better and I definitely appreciate the 70's reference but I'd rather have the exotic color scheme and designs.
4. 2009
These 60's throwbacks were awesome in 2009. To honor the anniversary of the first sellout in the on-going streak at Nebraska, these uniforms paid tribute to to the fans' dedication throughout the years, selling out their 300th consecutive game, as well as Husker Football legend, Bob Devaney. Plain white pants, plain red, baggy jerseys, Alabama-esque numbered helmets, these were true throwbacks pulled off beautifully.
3. 2015
I was conflicted on #2 and #3 but decided to go with 2015 to follow up the 60's throwbacks. A lot of Husker fans complained about the design on these uniforms looking like tire treads but I never understood what the huge problem was. All black is scary, just look at Maliek Collins, nobody wants to meet that in the A gap. They have a similar design to the 2014 alternates with the duct tape lookin' numbers, but these are much easier to read due to the color scheme and wearing them during a bright morning game. Very solid overall.
2. 2013
Nebraska hosted Michigan State in 2013 and sported this design including a matte white helmet, black jerseys with weird digital lookin' numbers, and white pants with black stripes. I lved the color scheme on these and thought the whole uniform was very well balanced with red, black and white. The helmets alone had a lot of detail involved with face masks that faded from black to red in the front, and then back to black. The 'all one color' uniforms have their place, but well balanced color schemes, when pulled off correctly, can look really nice.
1. 2016
The iced-out, all white alternate uniforms worn at Northwestern in 2016 has to be #1 all-time. There's just something about all white uniforms worn by any team in any sport that pops off the screen. These uniforms take on a simpler approach to modern uniform design with the only components being the N and silver stripes on the pants, large, shiny red numbers, and my all-time favorite, matte white helmet with a red N and chrome face masks. So. Damn. Clean. Let's get a closer look at those helmets that sold me on putting these #1.
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Let me know where I'm wrong.
-BRD
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