Sooners all-in on crimson
NORMAN — Facing a team Saturday it has dominated like no other program during its history, Oklahoma appears to be manufacturing biggame appeal for the contest against Iowa State.
First, the Sooners announced the game would be the annual “Stripe the Stadium”
home game, with fans asked to wear either red or white depending on where they’re sitting in the stadium.
Then Thursday, Oklahoma announced that the Sooners would be wearing a new combination of their alternate “Roughriders” uniforms.
Oklahoma will go with a monochromatic look for the second consecutive game, wearing its crimson alternate helmets, crimson jerseys and crimson pants.
While the Sooners had gone all white before the Sept. 23 game at Baylor — Oklahoma also wore that combination in 2015 at Kansas — they have not worn all crimson.
Since they were introduced before the 2014 season, the Sooners have worn the alternate uniforms sparingly, choosing on road and one home game each season to deviate from the traditional look.
With Lincoln Riley now at the helm of the program, things don’t figure to change much.
“We’ve done a good job of not overdoing,” Riley said recently. “I think there’s a fine line with the recruiting and changing it up and having fun with it is one side, but when you have the history like we do here, you don’t want to overdo it.
“We’ve done a good job of that. I think we’re all open to continuing to look at what we can do more in the future.”
The Sooners resisted adding alternate uniforms for many years, even as programs like Oklahoma State, Baylor and Oregon made different combinations of uniforms part of their identity.
OU wore alternate uniforms that paid homage to the Bud Wilkinson era in 2003 against North Texas. The Sooners also wore an all-white Nike Pro Combat outfit in a 2009 loss at Texas Tech.
This figures to be the last time the alternates are worn this season, and it could be the final time for this set of alternates to be worn at all.
Riley said recently that there would be “conversations” about the alternate uniforms during the offseason, with an eye toward a set that is a catchy modern look while still honoring the foundation of the program.
“I don’t see myself wanting to go crazy,” Riley said. “I don’t think we’ll have silver helmets at any point or at any point in the near future. I can see us maybe having our one deal, and we’ll work with Joe (Castiglione, OU athletic director) and our administration at some point if we ever branch out and find something that’s comfortable for everybody that’s new and fun and honors the traditions that it has to.”
The “Roughrider” uniforms have touches that honor the Sooners’ NCAA-record 47-game winning streak during the Wilkinson era,
The uniforms were created with heavy input from the players, with then-team captains Gabe Ikard, Trey Millard and Aaron Colvin forming a committee to work with OU executives to design the informs.
The Sooners have gone 6-1 in the alternates, with the only loss coming at home to Baylor in 2014.
“For me, as long as we play good, that’s all I care about.” Riley said.