Arizona Football Goes Duracell and Announces a Copper Top

Arizona announced a new helmet added to their rotation yesterday according to a Wednesday email from athletic director Greg Byrne. The team normally sports a blue bucket, but recently added a white into their rotation, a staple from the 1981-2003 teams.

Byrne’s email explained the importance of Copper to the region and the school.

“Copper is not only associated with our great state’s mining history, but it has influenced architectural design on our campus, including our athletic facilities – most notably the ring at the top of the McKale Center, and the future North End Zone Football Complex. As such we embrace the idea that as the University of Arizona we will incorporate copper into a special helmet design to represent our state and University. Copper will not replace our traditional colors of red and blue, and the copper helmet will be worn on a limited basis.”

Appealing to players has become more and more important to college football programs the past few years and this helmet choice seems to be no exception. Senior punter Kyle Dugandzic tweeted in response; ” Our copper helmets are gunna be sick!!”

Copper doesn’t appear on the helmet of another college football team, but does adorn the hats worn by the Arena League Arizona Rattlers.

They have not announced what games the helmets would be worn, but did say that a special alternate uniform would go with the copper helmet.

OPINION: Distinctive helmets are good, fun, and interesting. But with a red, white, and navy color scheme, I can’t see how these will fit in. Here is hoping they only ever wear it with an all-white uniform, or that the alternate uniforms actually incorporate some copper in them to give a consistent look.

So, copper helmets for Wildcats. Is this appealing to the youth, or just different for the sake of different?