SDS Roundtable: Which SEC helmet absolutely needs to be redesigned?
Each SDS roundtable discussion involves the SDS staff providing individual answers and comments to questions covering a wide range of sports and non-sports topics. In this discussion, we ask the question: Which SEC team’s helmet would you redesign first?
Previous roundtable discussions:
- If you could change 1 thing about college football, what would it be?
- What are you watching right now?
- Who is your favorite SEC football player of all-time?
- What are your 3 favorite postseason moments involving SEC teams?
- Which 4 SEC athletes are on your Mount Rushmore?
- What is your most painful sports memory?
- The greatest team I ever saw …
- Which school’s all-time position group is the best in SEC history?
- Who are your way-too-early picks to make the College Football Playoff?
- If and when the SEC expands, which 2 teams should it add?
- Who is your pick to win the SEC East, SEC West in 2020?
- Who is your favorite player from every SEC program?
- Who is your favorite SEC personality to follow on Twitter?
- Which SEC program produced best pro sports duo?
- Which prop bet would you risk stimulus check on?
- Which former assistant is first to beat Nick Saban?
A bit of background …
A few NFL teams — Browns, Bucs, Colts, Falcons — recently unveiled new or tweaked uniforms. College teams typically add alternate jerseys, sometimes a lot of them, but they rarely make drastic changes to their traditional look. That applies double to helmets. We see more and more alternate helmets every season, but the primary one almost never changes. Which team is in the biggest need of updating its regular helmet?
Connor O’Gara, Senior national columnist
Unpopular choice here, but I’d actually go with South Carolina. I only say that because I wish the Gamecocks would go all in with the script look, AKA “Battle Armor.” I feel like it’s such a massive upgrade over the current logo, which really doesn’t do anything for me. Like, isn’t there a reason everyone gets so excited when they busted out the script look ahead of the 2018 opener?
Battle Armor 🔥💧 pic.twitter.com/1dSw5p3HaJ
— Gamecock Football (@GamecockFB) August 28, 2018
The script Carolina is one of those alternate looks that should replace the “C” with the Gamecock in the middle of it. It instead blends a classic look with a modern touch from Under Armour. Would they ever do this? Probably not, because it does bare a similar resemblance to the script “Gators” helmets, but I’d put that helmet up there in the best in college football.
Chris Marler, The SDS Podcast co-host
I don’t really have an issue with any SEC helmets to be honest, nor do I have an overall favorite. If I had to get rid of one, I would say Vandy’s. I like the ones with the anchor and the V, but the old school block V inside the star is so meh.
Every time I see it I’m reminded of 12:30 Jefferson Pilot games that were way too sunny and often coupled with a terrible hangover. Also, part of me hopes one day Bama will do a blackout and wear all black helmets and jerseys just so I could see the 85% have an absolute meltdown.
Neil Blackmon, Florida columnist
The correct answer is Florida’s helmet or LSU’s helmet needs a redo (or redux, in the case of LSU).
The script Gators is only used on the football helmets and ranks about dead last of any other Florida options. Plus, the orange helmets are fine in the Florida sun, but anyone who has seen old video of Florida in the 60s or saw Florida’s white helmets with the block F that the team wore last season against Auburn knows there are far better options. Further, because Florida only switched to the script Gators 40 years ago or so, there’s no sentimental attachment to the helmet. It should be changed.
Likewise, LSU’s tiger head that doesn’t look like a Tiger head is terrible. The block letter LSU in logos is far beter, as is the baseball hat. If they can make such a nice cap for the baseball program, they can fix the helmet.
Michael Bratton, News editor
I don’t take issue with any of the SEC helmets necessarily, but the way Florida has “Gators” written out in cursive always seemed strange to me — and this is coming from someone who writes everything in cursive.
I like the alternate white helmets with the “F” on the helmet. If I redesigned the Florida helmet, I may do it similar to the Florida A&M helmet with a gator instead of a snake.
Considering there are so many Wildcats and Tigers out there, it’s pretty cool to be the only Gators out there, and I’d like Florida to embrace that more on the helmet aside from just spelling it out.
Adam Spencer, Newsletter editor
I don’t have anything against Mississippi State, but I just simply don’t like the color maroon. Thus, the Bulldogs’ helmet is the one that absolutely needs a redesign.
But, as I said, it’s more about the color maroon than anything about the helmet’s design. If I had to pick which SEC uniforms needed a redesign, I’d also go with Mississippi State, and for the same reasons. I don’t mind the white Mississippi State uniforms, but as long as there is maroon involved, it’s always going to be at the bottom of my list.
Chris Wright, Executive editor
Honestly, I’d change about half of the league’s helmets. Of the teams that use alternates most frequently, I’d certainly pick one of those over the standard game-day lid. Why Vandy wears anything other than this Battle Ready helmet is beyond me.
https://twitter.com/JailedJimMWeber/status/1160621560702652417
Which would I redesign first? Florida and LSU are wasting the biggest opportunity to have a cool helmet. Others already touched on Florda, so I’ll go LSU. It has the most potential.
First rule of helmet design: No letters and logo. Pick one or the other. And in this case, pick the logo. Heck, even the Gridiron Gold combo from 2016 — white helmet, gold and purple number on each side — was a drastic improvement over the LSU and tiger combo logo. I loved the purple helmet, but again, it was marred by having LSU and the tiger logo.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Clemson’s paw logo. There are a lot of Tigers — including 3 in the SEC — but Clemson created a unique look that is instantly recognizable. The 1981 national championship helmet Homer Jordan wore looks identical to the ones Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence wore when they won titles.
It’s way too late to go anywhere near that logo design, so I’d focus on the tigers’ ferocity.
I’d choose LSU’s eye of the tiger as the official helmet logo.
It would look even better on the gold, purple or white helmets than it does at midfield.
Well that was 10 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.
10 if I add signing in to do this comment. Trump needs to free us to go out and play…. LOL
Like you are so short of free time these days.
I’m getting really tired of seeing that fat guy stuff his face with hot dogs.
Same here. I’ve made a game out of it. I try to hit the X before the part where he stuffs his face.
Lol
Same
USARMY…I am too ! How about SDS replace him with a lovely, talented, curvy young lady…working out in the gym ? The world needs “eye-candy” more than this guy…right ?
Me too! It’s so annoying!
South Carolina and Mizzou.
I like their logos but they are small and difficult to discern. Even when the camera zooms in on a player, it’s hard to see what the logo is all about.
Enlarge or redesign.
Couldn’t agree more
My favorite helmet is the alternate with the large tiger in gold on a black helmet. Why we continue to use the small circle logo is beyond me.
Although for all time, I think my favorite helmet was the pre-SEC matte black with gloss black M we wore against KU in 2010. Those were sharp.
Both of those are pretty slick
Well Mizzou has like 6 different helmets of some combination between the oval tiger, the block M, and the oversized tiger each year, they even introduced a tiger paw helmet last season so I don’t think you can say Nike isn’t keeping it fresh. Honestly I wish they would just go back to the block M with triple stripes or the tiger paw one with the M inside and tell Nike to simmer down. They also had a different combination jersey/pants EACH game last season and that’s just too much.
1983 block M. Done
Gamecock fan here and I couldn’t agree more with you. They need to abandon the block C logo with the Gamecock in it and cover the whole side with the Gamecock itself. I’ve seen mick ups of a helmet like this and it’s so great. No doubt everyone would know which team they were then. I can’t understand why no coach has made a change in all these years.
alabama’s football helmets are as plain and unimaginative as you can get. Talk about dull.
And yet…
Notice that NONE of the writers suggested changing Alabama’s helmet? The schools that have true tradition of champions going back for decades know that you do not change a helmet that people instantly recognize, and that commands respect.
You can come across a replay game from the 1970’s, or watch a game this fall, and you instantly recognize it’s Alabama.
It would be cool to see Bama in the old white helmets again… I always like those.
You think it’d be cool to only have the Sugar and Peach Bowls if a half season were to be played. You wouldn’t know what cool was if you stood on Antartica with the 1st Down Marker.
I think it would be cool if you did I like Colorado did In Football and fade away…
Think about this… You try to call me a troll but your post was done just to troll….
Yes, you’re an idiot.
Sluva… Just a few things you brought to the site..
You were talking $hit about the SEC and cheating with this basketball scandal but when it was brought up that the PAC is just as bad your defense was it was a long time ago… When shown you were wrong as usual your argument was then you needed more PAC fans here to defend you… Doesn’t matter though because you were wrong but it didn’t stop you from continuing with your false narrative.
You went and Bashed Arkansas for being down and Colorado is straight garbage…
You started a conversation on politics with your comment that baited people in the went to another site acting as if you responded to someone else yet you started it…
That’s just a few things but it’s constant with you. You post incorrect information, take shots at the conference and throw stones at people backgrounds and beliefs.
Ignorance, Hypocrisy and Lies is what you’ve contributed.
Listen Guy, we’re going to end this discussion. Let me bring you up to speed on a few things: Number ONE, the constant comments of “stupid libs, dems, north elitest, yankees, and a slew of other remarks made and some directly aimed at Blacks, you’ve read and chose to ignore. I chose to bypass PLENTY of those comments.
You coming to the defense of Arkansas does what? I have said it thousands of times, ever since CU left the BigXII, we’ve been trash. Recruiting has been a MAJOR struggle since then. So where you get I don’t chastise my own team is beyond me. But if I were to call you Dumb or stupid, you know, the only words you seem to be energized by, then you’d wake up.
I could care less about your party affiliation. What I do care about is how a moronic person that holds the most powerful position in the world has managed to DESTROY even what George Bush had going.
Substance to the site: What in world have you even created a debate about that makes half sense? Many of us that do comment or make suggestions, are for pure entertainment to see which idiot (as you like to call me), can’t see through the satire..You know like if CU were to join the SEC, we’d win the West in 3yrs. A person like you wouldn’t be able to see that. Instead, you’ll call someone dumb and stupid. I was raised you don’t call someone stupid. So ease up and trust me guy, people can speak up for themselves. Who are you to cast a voice? If you go through all of my threads, there are a few comments with political remarks. One that lit a fire under your thin skin..”Whoever thinks blah blah blah is a Trump Supporter!” Whoa boy did that light a match. Then you get somehow upset, when FACTS NOT CONSPIRACIES are made..Sorry buddy, we the people in NY will NEVER accept a man that called for the lynching of 5 innocent Black kids for a crime they were forced to admit and found innocent by DNA. Especially when that person has KKK blood running through his family history.
But as for football, I can’t tell you the false statements made and flat out opinions that have been said on here.. Do you think I’m the only one that have made a false statement? What’s your hard-on? What do you really wanna say that you have to sensor it? In a nutshell..Get Lost! If there is a season..even just a conference season, Alabama will lose to Georgia and Auburn and could very well have a 3 loss season in 9 games (LSU, Auburn and Georgia).. If they get by LSU and Auburn, they’ll lose to Georgia twice this year. A first for Alabama.
There was no discussion… Ignorance, Hypocrisy and lies… That’s you…
You misspelled classic.
They represent true Smashmouth football. I will give them that.
As much as I like LSU’s uniforms, I have to agree that they should go back to a simpler helmet. The LSU lettering is sufficient. They could do without the Tiger below the lettering. Florida could do better than the Gators script, but the block F is not the answer. Florida should hold a contest for helmet design, and see what the fans come up with.
I have to disagree, it’s the tiger logo that makes the helmet stand out.
Florida: All white w black stripes and a minimum of 4 numbers on the jersey. County Clerk phone number on helmets
You know nothing, Adam Spencer. The maroon color (Aggie shade) is the best in the entire color spectrum. Your opinion on all subject matter has now became highly suspect.
Agree (mostly).
This is the same guy that doesn’t like chocolate. His opinion is usually on shaky ground.
Nah, pretty much any color in the general vicinity sucks.
Alabama is the obvious choice here, and to a slightly lesser degree Tennessee.
Auburn and Alabama don’t change their uniforms or helmets.
It’s called tradition
Indeed
Well put…. for an Aub. hahaha
Honestly, though, as a Bama fan, I would really be disappointed in Auburn if they ever changed their helmet design.
Well, don’t think that’ll be any time soon. I believe all 3 times Auburn’s worn something alternate we’ve lost. Lol.
Auburn doesn’t need to, their helmet (and entire uniform for that matter) is probably the best usage/balance of blue and orange in sports. Much better than both the Illini and Syracuse just off the top of my head
Even if I weren’t an Auburn fan I’d have to agree with you there.
Ever notice that the teams that have several alternate helmets usually aren’t very good? How many does Mizzu have? When you have to use multiple logos to get a kid excited to play for you have big problems.
Who cares if Mizzou or anyone else has alternative helmets. Mizzou is average on the field and helmets have nothing to do with it. Not sure if you’ve seen our recruiting rankings, but slick helmets aren’t working there either.
Also, Mizzou had 2 historic and iconic logos: the Block M and the Tiger paw. Unfortunately those particular logos are very overused (Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Clemson, etc) So Mizzou decided to rebrand with a unique logo.
Admittedly it’s hard to rebrand when you’re a prestigious school in Curmudgeon-ville, USA.
The fact that Florida’s helmet logo is so comically ugly is good in that it provides yet another reason to hate them.
Well…Vandy could change the design 3 times per week and still no improvement on game day. South Carolina’s logo is their problem…It’s a Gamecock chicken…not much you can do with that. Otherwise I like the other SEC team’s helmet design. I recall Ole Miss changed the color of the blue…from midnite blue to a “sky blue”…not sure of the
Why”…Oh well another “fill up space” article while there is no real SEC football news.
Gotta watch the spurs, man. You probably already know about Thomas Sumter and the history having been around South Carolina a while.
I was surprised nobody thought the red and black green bay helmets needed a redesign. Maybe to something a little less stolen?
A little history…from the Leghumper Did You Know file…
Green Bay in fact did give Uga permission for the slightly different G in 1963. The Georgia G stands for Georgia, imagine that…but do you know what the Green Bay G stands for? If you guessed Green Bay you would be wrong…Greatness…now you know. You’re welcome.
That being said, go ahead and admit it 79g8r…not much looks cooler than the white n black G on a red background…
You guys hear about the newest knight of the roundtable?
His name is Sir Cumference.
If you could read script you would like the Gator helmets also.
I would like the Gators to use their old school gator on top and the state on the bottom logo on their helmets. I think the logo looks sharp.
So if that one guy is so repulsed by maroon, why wasn’t Texas A&M mentioned? Sounds like a bias against MSU.
Florida should use their 2029 homecoming helmets as their primary ones
The point of designing a helmet logo is to establish a logo that is easy to identify from a distance, and that is unique. That Vandy Battle Gear helmet is sharp, and is perfect for a close-up in a Marvel Studios movie, but totally useless in identifying who that team is playing on TV. When you see Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan, Nebraska, Auburn, Georgia, etc on a wide field shot, you instantly know who’s playing. That’s the whole point. Not looking cooler than everybody else.
Sorry Neil, we part ways on this one.
The Florida orange helmet with the script Gators text is one of the most iconic and distinctive helmets in all of college football. The orange also makes receivers easier to spot downfield.
Only change I like is white helmet blue Gator script.
As a longtime Gator, I particularly hate the block F helmet. What I like is the current script Gators helmet. Then again I’m a young whippersnapper and only remember about the last 40 years of Gator football. I realize the only way something could have sentimental value is if it were used at least 50 years ago but I guess given my short 40 years of Gator memories, we’ll just have to make an exception. Really stupid article.
Tennessee doesn’t need to change their helmet. They actually have a pretty great helmet with the “Power T” and the wide stripe.
What they need to do however is get rid of that God-Awful color. Orange is bad enough. Orange is literally the ugliest color on the color wheel. It’s a known fact. But to make your school’s color “yellow-orange,” or as it’s also known, “dehydrated urine,” is a horrendous choice.
And then you go out and you actually WEAR that vomitous color for all to see? And you know we can’t help but see it, as blindingly awful as it is. It’s no surprise that the team with the absolute worst color scheme has their marching band only play that one song ever. They want to make you cover your ears so you’re not covering your eyes!
Tennessee should get rid of that awful “yellow-orange” and make that “smokey gray” color their official school color. Smokey Gray and White. Just swap out the “yellow-orange” for “smokey-gray” and call it a day. 100% improvement!
Corch anything that bothers you I want 100 times more of. If there is anything we could do to make you hate it more please advise and I will submit to Pru and the boyz.
You voluntarily wear the color of urine after you’ve eaten some asparagus or had a lot of coffee.
That’s the color that you put on your body. That says all we need to know about you.
Corch. Orange lover.
The Light Blue Ole Miss Rebel logo is/was the best helmet ever in the SEC.
It was best in Mississippi anyway
Agreed, and its honestly not even close. Wish they would wear it full time.
Here are the best and worst imo. I like tradition and not much change. If someone who isnt a huge fan recognizes the helmet, it’s a keeper. If u change your helmet a lot, that’s bad.
1. UGA. Yeah I know we share the same logo as the Packers and yeah I know they had it earlier. Dont care. Instantly recognizable and nobody ever confused red G with Green G. Ga road unis are the best too but that’s another useless column next week lol.
2. Bama. When your logo is a number and everybody still knows who it it, thats good.
3. Florida Orange even with the awful script. They are this high even though I hate orange. Cuz I hate white helmets worse. And half the league has maroon. But I’d replace the script with their cool Gator Head logo. I hate the white helmets with my GPA, uh, I mean the F , on the helmet
Worst
14. S Carolina. Its same problem as with their uniform, nobody knows what their base uniform is. I dont think they know. Plus , get over the C. Carolina is in Chapel Hill. Put SC on side.
13.Tenn . White and Orange. Enough said
12. Auburn. White with boring logo
11. LSU. Is that a Tiger or a tie dye design?
What? Common…we have a good color scheme. Our block c logo could be a little bigger. White helmet garnet shirt white pants is our standard look. We’re good.
(Thumbs Up)
I never thought about it before…but what’s with the block C? Shouldn’t it be SC? Or does it stand for Cocks?
@Goodgodafreshman. A possible tie dye design, ok?
Just random thoughts :
UT’s power T and that shade of orange is as iconic and nationally recognized as any team in the country. Why mess with it at all?
Vandy’s battle armor is cool but has no national recognism and is too busy.
Missouri needs dressed up, but who would recognize M.
The Gators name being unique is great, better gator logo but I absolutely hate the F outta the F.
Georgia IS Georgia, enuff said.
Now my Gamecocks, unique with only little known Jacksonville State sharing that name. Block C with the Gamecock is solid, but needs to be bigger. I like the script Carolina as an alternate. There are a couple of variations I like, with feathers, or the stand alone fighting Gamecock logo.
Oh, Clemson still sux.
Y’all that think the block F is an improvement over the Gators in cursive script are crazy, the block F is awful and boring. Its okay for Baseball, and maybe Basketball, but looks awful on a helmet. The best UF logo is Albert, puffing his chest out wearing a sweater, for some reason. Or the UF logo with a gator above the state of Florida,
sort of like a mirror, inside of a circle. Blasphemous Neil… you can turn in your card now.
USCe should go with the Carolina script full time, it looks sharp regardless of it being similar to UFs script. USCe has a history of wearing it anyway. Missouri and LSU have the most confusing logos. LSU just needs to simplify theirs, go with either the tiger or the LSU, as said in the post above. Missouri’s Tiger is wierd, it so hard to figure out wtf is going on with it. Its like a vague representation of a tiger by splattered paint. The block M is iconic and would look great imo. Jawja is boring and should stay so, its perfect they use absolute generic colors like Red and Black, with a stolen G logo. Represents UgA athletics perfectly, pretenders even in dress. Ditto Vandy, they should not be wearing anything flashy, their uni/logo is fine. Bammer is bamer, never change,Auburn same, the Voluntolds and UK too. Wish A&M would wear their all whites more, they look great. No clue about Miss State, not even sure what or who their mascot is, how many there are and whether it is land based or water based, or both. Either way their dog is less ugly than Jawjas dog, but both are Gatorbait. Ole Miss is the biggest offender, the fact that they don’t wear their baby blue and red helmets full time is criminal. Easily the absolute best helmet design, and color combo in the SEC. Hell, imo all of college football. Ole Miss’s blue and red and Florida A&M are 1&2, #3 being ITSGREATTOBEAGATOR!!!!
I think Vandy and Mississippi State are due for updates.
I love LSU’s white helmets with LSU on the sides. It’s too bad their uniforms are so ugly.