2011
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Independent
Helmet: F (standard), F+ (sparkly), A- (shamrock), B+ (sparkly shamrock)
Home Jersey: F (blue), A (green)
Away Jersey: C (white), A (shamrock)
Pants: A (gold and shamrock)
Final Verdict:
Overhaul
I hate Notre Dame. Why? Why not? When they say that people either love them or hate them, I am firmly intrenched in the hate category. Frankly I would have not done this review if not for a request. Now I don't want my hate for the Irish to spill over into my review, but how can it not? One of the reasons I hate Notre Dame is because of their uniforms. The main problem with the uniforms is that they are too plain. I mean there is old school and throw back, but its a different matter when a school refuses to change anything at all. And these are just so boring! The helmet gets an immediate fail. No logo, no originality, and a grey face mask. And making them sparkly didn't help at all. There was no though into this helmet at all. The jerseys are the same. Nothing except a number. True they now have the interlocking "ND" logo, but even that's boring. I'd have settled for the leprechaun over something so plain. The pants are fine because they are simple gold. Nothing really bad about that. But I will say that Notre Dame made a quantum leap in improvements with their throwbacks. Adding the shamrock is great. Why? Because it adds and identity and an icon to the helmets that automatically makes it identifiable and makes it stand out. True I don't like the grey face mask, hence the minus in the score. The sparkly shamrock helmet is good, mainly because of the green face mask added, but the sparkly "dimples" don't really add anything. And I will say I love the throwback white jerseys. A bright green, shamrocks, and shoulder stripes, almost perfect. I would say that for Notre Dame to be awesome looking in the future; make the shamrock a permanent fixture, and give a green face mask. Make the shamrock green the primary color, and adopt the "throwbacks" as your new uniforms. Plus of course names on the back and "Notre Dame" or even "Irish" on the front would be great. I can't say these changes will change my opinion of Notre Dame, but like "Rudy" will make me hate them even less... for a short time.
