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PROVO — BYU will do something different for Saturday's homecoming game against SEC foe Arkansas (1:30 p.m. MDT, ESPN).
The Cougars will debut a hand-painted royal-blue helmet that features a realistic cougar printed on one side and an outline of the Wasatch mountain range that affronts LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on the other side.
Paired with the all-white uniforms with royal trim, the helmets had BYU fans buzzing on social media.
"It's all about recruiting," BYU equipment manager Josh Hewitt told the KSL.com Cougar Beat podcast. "It's how you can stand out in recruiting to try to get the best players we can. I think what we've done the past couple of years, I think we've had a good look.
"The players love it, because it's something new. Our current guys love it; they were all taking pictures of it Monday. I think this weekend will be a big one for recruits, having them here and seeing it in person."
Hewitt's staff is already looking at new looks and alternate uniforms for next year. That's part of college football, too, because Nike and other equipment providers ask for gear roughly a year in advance.
The team's leadership council has "a big say in it," Hewitt said, referring to the process of designing alternate uniforms, as well as director of football operations Billy Nixon and the rest of BYU's support staff. Staff members from marketing and sports information weigh in, as well, and Hewitt counts on 11 student equipment managers to help him put everything together for game day.
In other words, don't think the players and coaches spend longer than a few minutes working on new equipment during the season, Hewitt added. There simply isn't time for that.
Of course, the royal blue hand-painted helmets were easy for Hewitt's team, because most of the work was outsourced before they got to campus, and his team only had to put the usual white facemask on the new lids. The hardest part of some projects is hiding the new looks from public eyes until they are revealed, the former equipment manager at UNLV and Fresno State said with a chuckle.
It's still worth the extra work, in the end.
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