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Football
"Throwback" Cleats, not Uniforms Biggest Concern for Buckeyes
By Brandon Castel

As if Saturday's rivalry game between Ohio State and Michigan needed some extra hype, the Buckeyes will take the field in Ann Arbor wearing throwback Nike Pro Combat uniforms, the latest and greatest from the world's largest athletic footwear and apparel manufacturer.


Raymont Harris models the new Nike uniform.		Back of the Nike uniform.

The Buckeyes are one of 10 elite college football programs debuting the new uniforms – which are designed to be the lightest and most ventilated ones ever made – before they are officially introduced for the 2010 season.

Nike Helmet

The other teams selected to wear the Nike Pro Combat uniforms include Clemson, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Miami, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, TCU and Virginia Tech. The new uniforms are 37 percent lighter than current designs (673 grams vs. 1,061 grams) and actually weigh less wet than the current jerseys do when they're dry.

"The weight is the biggest difference. Where they'll feel it the most is in the fourth quarter," said Loren Hoppes, the U.S. business director for field sports at Nike.

"The uniform is actually 46 percent lighter when wet, so it doesn't retain water the way traditional uniforms do."

Former Buckeye running back Raymont Harris was brought in to model the Ohio State design, which Hoppes called a "modern classic" meant to pay tribute to the school's 1954 National Championship team (although comparing them to the '54 jerseys is like comparing the 2010 Corvette to its 1954 counterpart).

Cleats that will be worn with the new uniform.

"I think it looks really cool, just wish I would have had a chance to play in it. If I would have had these back in my day, I probably would have run for a thousand more yards," the 38-yeard old Harris said jokingly.

"OK, maybe 500."

Along with the light-weight uniforms, Ohio State players will also wear newly-designed helmets made by Riddell along with state-of-the-art Nike football cleats, called Zoom Vapor Fly's.

"They are…I don't know if it's like a camouflage, or like a red, white and kind of gray. It's almost like camouflage, but they're like spotted. They're pretty sharp. They look cool, but I don't know if they're lineman shoes," senior offensive lineman Jim Cordle said Monday.

But looking sharp and being functional are two different things, especially in the no-flash, all-substance zone known as the trenches.

Nike cleats

While the new 10-ounce cleats, which look more like they were made for European fútbol than the American game, might provide better speed for skill players like DeVier Posey and Ray Small, they aren't exactly drawing rave reviews from Cordle and the other Ohio State linemen, who have to wear braces on both knees every week just to prevent injury.

"I'm concerned about our Nike shoes. The ones that we wear are Bosses, and they didn't make throwback Bosses for us, so the cleats that they have, we tried them on early in camp and everybody was rolling their ankles. I mean, they roll hard."

Hoppes said Monday that Nike has received no complaints "whatsoever" as to the performance of the new equipment, which was debuted this past Saturday by both TCU and Virginia Tech (both of whom won convincingly).

Nike Gloves

Obviously Hoppes hasn't been talking to Cordle or the other Ohio State offensive linemen, but that doesn't mean the situation has gone unnoticed by Head Coach Jim Tressel, who has openly admitted that he was already a little nervous about the idea of wearing throwback uniforms in the Michigan game.

"Tressel has been threatening to get rid of them, yesterday and I heard him today a little bit, just saying if it's any kind of distraction," Cordle said.

"So hopefully it doesn't happen, but if things are going like that then at halftime we'll probably change back."

According Harris, who was wearing low-top cleats during his interview, there are four different cleat models available for the Buckeyes, including two types of high or three-quarter top shoes. But if Cordle had it his way, the linemen would take the field Saturday in their traditional black cleats, even if it meant clashing with the rest of their more fashion-oriented teammates.

Inside collar

"I don't know if we're going to come out and just have our black shoes on and everybody else has the throwback cleats on so we'll look a little out of fashion sense, but if we have to save our ankles … But I don't even know if they'll let us. I'm sure they'll want everything to be uniform."

They meaning Nike, who signed a 7-year, $26-million contract with Ohio State back in 2007, and in turn, OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith, who ultimately signed off on that deal and the one that has the Buckeyes wearing the new throwback jerseys Saturday.

As for the odds of the whole team ditching the new cleats before The Game, "Gene Smith probably won't let that happen because that's a lot of money involved, but we'll see," Cordle said.

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