New uniforms, logo unveiled
Kentucky football continues to move in a new direction and on Friday the Cats decided it was time for new threads.
UK released new football jerseys on Friday featuring blue, white and gray, and also a black helmet.
But it didn't stop with just new jerseys. It also included a new Wildcat logo.
Kentucky's new wildcat logo, a ferocious feline with long sharp teeth, will be UK's secondary logo and will be featured on the pants of the football jerseys.
UK players Courtney Love, C.J. Conrad and Jojo Kemp modeled the jerseys for media and boosters.
"You know I have to show off these skills today," Kemp said. "It was a great day. It felt good to put on the new uniform and the new logo. We feel like a new team with a new logo, a more modern look. We just want to go out there and play for this state for the coaches."
Kentucky football put on a show to showcase their new jerseys. A DJ was spinning music and food was passed around before Nike spokesman Keith Crawford explained the creative genius used to design the new jerseys.
Crawford said his Nike team was influenced by Kentucky coal, horse racing champion Secretariat and Kentucky's 1898 football team, The Immortals.But the inspiration aside, UK football players were excited about the new look.
"It shows that there's belief, a lot of belief in this program," Conrad said. "It shows excitement and it gets us riled up. It gets us ready to play. We should be ready to play to start with but anything that can help they will do and that shows a lot about our administration."With these jerseys we're going to have a little swagger to us. This is the day-and-age we're in, we like cool stuff."
Kentucky football is trying to rebrand itself and athletic director Mitch Barnhart said he hopes the jerseys will showcase the program is continuing to move forward.
"Football has probably in terms of where we needed to be has seen a huge infusion the last two or three years," Barnhart said. "It's made a huge impact in terms of the mindset of the players, the development of our players and the recruitment of our players. So yeah, I hope that they feel that. That's certainly what we wanted to do for them."
Kentucky has renovated Commonwealth Stadium and is building a new practice facility, just a few of the other changes around UK football.
"It's definitely different," Stoops said. "The first one, two, three years they roll into each other. It's nonstop and it's still that way but you feel like you have your feet in place right now. The pieces are all coming together.
"… There's no comparison to where we are right now versus three years ago."Stoops said UK football will continue to mix-and-match jersey combinations. Kemp, Conrad and Stoops said the all-white look was their favorite jerseys.While the jerseys are new and Nike and UK spent two years for "brand identity," it'snot all about looks.Barnhart said some of the players noticed a difference in the material."
They also want it to be efficient," Barnhart said. "And one of the comments one of the players made was that this uniform was lighter than the last one, it feels lighter. I didn't really think about that. It's a little different material and a little lighter and they liked it."
Nike and UK also unveiled one-time basketball jerseys the Cats will wear at South Carolina next Saturday.Senior Alex Poythress modeled the jersey. The Cats will also wear warm-up jerseys that feature the new Wildcat logo.
