As the College Football season came to a close, I noticed that several teams were sporting the new Nike Pro Combat uniforms. Typically I like teams that stick to tradition, but I'm also a big fan of the third jersey. According to Nike, these uniforms are supposed to make athletes "faster, more violent and explosive." I'm assuming that these teams are just taking them for a test run and that they will return to tradition next season but there is the possibility of some of these teams making the change. Here's a look at the Pro Combat series.
TCU Horned Frogs
Traditional Dark Jersey:
Nike Pro Combat Dark Jersey (View Full Size)
For the Pro Combat Jerseys the helmet color was changed from purple to silver/black and a red stripe was added. The red stripe is supposed to symbolize the blood released from the horned frog's eyes when under attack. The actual picture of the horned frog was not placed on the Pro Combat helmet but it does feature a replication of the horned frog's skin. I like the color change, and the blood red stripe is something that looks good and has meaning, but I would like to see the actual horned frog back on the helmet.
There's an addition of black and silver frog skin to the sides of the jersey, as well as the black stitching on the shoulders. The Pants have a black stripe and a purple stripe with the silver frog skin pattern being the dominant color. The horned frog logo appears here on the pants.
Final Judgement:
I like the changes, EXCEPT for the frog skin pants. It looks really cool on the helmet but with those pants on it looks like the players are wearing some skin tight/snake skin/hair band pants. Move the pants back to all black with the purple stripe, maybe throw in small frog skin silver stripe and we have a winner. No football team should wear purple, but the Pro Combat changes make it look kinda cool.
Virginia Tech Hokies
Traditional White Jersey:
Nike Pro Combat White Jersey (View Full Size)
The Hokie's away uni's are terrible and the Pro Combat version isn't any better. Lately the trend of matching a white helmet to all white uniforms has become popular for teams who have a colored helmet. As you can see, the Hokie's are following this trend. In my opinion, the white hat just doesn't work for them. The team usually wears white on white, so there's no change there.
The shoulder stripes, pant stripes, and the numbering on the jersey are made up of dots and the numbers fade from orange to maroon. The team lettering and logo also show up on the pants. The terrible font that VaTech uses for their numbers appears to remain the same.
Final Judgement:
If you ask me, these are atrocious. Color fading has no place in the world of football, and what's with the dots? Although I love the all-white look of the Oregon Ducks for some reason, and I'm a big fan of the white helmet that USF added, it just doesn't fit with the Hokie's color scheme. The half color shoulder look of the traditional uni's looks bad, but the Pro Combat look is worse. These throwbacks are by far the best looking away jersey's that the Hokies have and they should stick with them.
Give us your opinion of the TCU and Virgina Tech Pro Combat Uni's! Love 'em, hate 'em?
