The Iowa Hawkeyes are a traditional college football program in the sense that they play old-school, smashmouth football and seemingly have always relied on their defense and running game to win the day.
They have a rowdy fanbase that fills up Kinnick Stadium regularly; as such, Iowa has one of the best home-field advantages in college football.
It all feels old school. It all feels like college football should be, but that doesn't mean the Hawks don't switch it up occasionally.
At least, that's what they're doing this weekend while traveling to Penn State's Beaver Stadium, a place known for its "whiteouts."
Rather than donning their usual black helmet, white jersey, gold pants and white shoes away look, the Hawkeyes are taking the opposite approach of a "white out". They revealed their slick black pants look for the game on social media.
⚫️⚪️⚫️
— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) September 19, 2023
at #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/u9fAAbBhBG
It's worth noting that the black pants aren't new for Iowa, though they are rare. The Hawkeyes have worn black pants matched with black tops in the past, which is a pretty clean look.
I sure wish @HawkeyeFootball would bust out this exact uniform combination for the Holiday Bowl.
— Cody Hills (@ByCodyHills) December 24, 2019
-Black helmet
-Black jersey
-Black pants
-Black socks
-Black cleats
-Black eye on the scoreboard for USC#Hawkeyes
: @webcentrick pic.twitter.com/K1WVkDVI4f
The black pants have never made an appearance for a road game, though. This hasn't been confirmed, but there is also a thought amongst the Iowa corner of the internet that this will be the first time in the Kirk Ferentz era that the Hawkeyes have worn anything but their traditional away uniform. Ferentz has been head coach at Iowa since 1999.
The Hawkeyes are 3-0 and ranked No. 24 in the nation. Penn State, also 3-0, is ranked No. 7.
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