Rutgers takes on knight in shining armor theme with new uniforms

Rutgers gets new uniforms from Nike

A look at Rutgers' new home uniform, from Nike.

Yesterday Rutgers became the latest football program to receive an upgrade in uniform from the folks at Nike. Taking the Pro Combat style, Nike has taken away the plain red helmet and replaced it with a shiny dome, with the idea of making Rutgers football players resemble a knight in armor’s helmet.

Rutgers will have three uniform combinations, with the traditional red pants and jersey for home games, all white for road games and the awful black pants and jersey for “special” games. You know how we feel about black alternate uniforms at this point, so we won’t elaborate on it right now.

Overall the updated look looks pretty solid for Rutgers. Leaving the black uniforms out of the conversation, the home and road uniforms look pretty sharp. The knight in shining armor theme was a good idea, although a scarlet-colored helmet would still be preferable for Rutgers. You can see some influence in the new Scarlet uniforms from the Georgia Pro Combat season seen last fall, and that was given a number one seed in our Worst College Football Uniform Tournament in March.

New Rutgers helmets.

“The new look for Rutgers Football is a clean, modern style that our student-athletes, recruits and fans will be very impressed with,” said Rutgers Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tim Pernetti. “Nike, along with our football staff did an amazing job of incorporating our history, mascot, and our most valuable asset, the Block R, while designing a uniform that will generate incredible excitement. This was a process that lasted over a year with tremendous input from both Kyle Flood and Greg Schiano.”

“The historic knights of old were more successful in battle if they had better gear,” a Rutgers press release says. “Similarly the football team believes that the better the uniform, the stronger the player – both mentally and physically.”

The Nike Pro Combat line of football apparel is designed to be light weight and free for movement, while providing the same level of protection or better than more traditional forms of football equipment. Whether this leads to wins at Rutgers though still remains to be seen. If it lures in a couple of recruits along the way so be it. Whether Rutgers picks up some wins or losses, at least they will be doing it in style.

We have more photos of the new Rutgers uniforms on our Facebook page. Also check out Utah State’s new look, also designed by Nike.

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