Examining Illinois football's sartorial choices

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Scott Richey
Scott Richey
College/Prep Sports Reporter
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Illinois football uniforms
Illinois debuted its new-look uniforms Monday ahead of the coming college football season. New in 2023? Stripes, and lots of them.
Illinois Athletics
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Illinois unveiled its updated uniforms for the 2023 season on Monday with a ‘new looks with ties to traditions’ tagline. Beat writer Scott Richey weighs in on the uniform reveal:
Stripes make a return
The last iteration of Illinois football uniforms was stripe-less. Free of flourishes. Minimalism taken to the extreme. New for 2023? Try stripes — and a lot of them. Each jersey top, which Illini players Tip Reiman, Tarique Barnes and Casey Washington offered a preview of on Monday, boasts a triple-stripe pattern on both shoulders. A similar striping runs down both sides of the pants, and the Illini’s glossy orange helmets also have a trio of stripes down the centerline.
Not many combinations
Illinois won’t be confused with football teams that lean in to alternate uniform options. Certainly not Oregon and its “different uniform for every day of the week” approach. Monday’s uniform reveal included just the lone orange helmet, white and blue jerseys and white and orange pants for the Illini. No blue pants or orange jerseys. Not yet at least. Just four total uniform combinations available, which seems to fit Bret Bielema’s aesthetic. Simple. Traditional.
Does this seem familiar?
Syracuse fans also weighed in on Illinois’ new set of uniforms after the Monday morning reveal. A few Illini fans made reference to the similarities between what Illinois will wear in 2023 to what Syracuse wore in the late 2000s, but the Orange faithful really hammered that point home. Not without reason. The new look for the Illini is, not to put too fine a point on it, almost the exact same look Syracuse wore in its final days in the Big East.