Tiger Paw helmets confirmed, but even more interesting uniform news dropped on Thursday

After CJ Boone spilled the beans Wednesday on new Missouri helmets for the spring game, the official Missouri football account confirmed the look on Thursday:

They look even better with some professional photography.

But, in my opinion, the BIGGER news to drop on Thursday was a “while we have you here” tweet following the release of the new helmets.

Missouri is finally getting rid of the God-awful tapered helmet stripes on the oval tiger helmets. The ones with the hint of tiger stripes in them:

Looking back, the uniform redesign of 2012 by Nike was welcomed at the time, but the styles unveiled that year didn’t necessarily age well. With what the equipment team has put together over the last two seasons, it stands out even more about how cookie-cutter those combinations were.

The redesign basically put Missouri into a Nike template, spun a wheel, and spit out things that looked vaguely familiar — but a little soulless.

In my opinion, anyway, the new helmets of the last two seasons have shown more thoughtfulness to Missouri’s history. They seem more personal to Missouri (and yes, I know the Sailor Tiger is a common logo, but still) and more meaningful.

Getting rid of the tapered tiger-striped stripes is just another step in the right direction.

Another Kelly Bryant feature to get you ready for the Black and Gold Game

#MizzouMade writer Joan Nieson went in-depth on Kelly Bryant for Sports Illustrated, and the result is a nice feature that hits many of the same beats we’ve seen this spring — but also has some great and telling quotes on Bryant’s acclimation to Missouri and his teammates.

This quote from Larry Rountree, about the no-contact rule for quarterbacks during spring practice, jumped out:

In a recent practice, coaches drew up a play that involved a quarterback rush and reminded defenders not to touch Bryant. As the play unfolded, Rountree couldn’t help but laugh at how unnecessary the reminder was. It’s not that they shouldn’t touch their quarterback, Rountree explains. “They can’t touch Kelly. We ain’t never seen that before.”

It’s going to be real interesting to see how Derek Dooley embraces and adapts to that part of Bryant’s game, and it’s something we almost assuredly won’t see on Saturday.

Yesterday at Rock M

• SEC Exit Survey Part 2: Is it moving season for Missouri?
• Mizzou hoops player review: Kevin Puryear
• Missouri position-by-position recruiting in the SEC: Offense

More Links:

• Damarea Crockett hasn’t talked to the media since he declared for the NFL Draft, but he broke that silence and appeared on the PowerMizzou.com podcast on Thursday.

His part starts at the 41:50 mark; you should listen to the entire thing, but his main reasoning for declaring early was how he compared to the other draft-eligible running backs in this year’s draft, the fact that he wanted to leave after three years before he even started college and the fact that if he left after three years, he could still return to get his degree under his original scholarship.

And one final parting message from Crockett:

• On tap this weekend (besides the spring game): Mizzou baseball hosts LSU; Mizzou softball travels to Ole Miss
• Missouri baseball is also having a pretty cool giveaway on Saturday, so get there early.
• There’s this about Emanuel Hall. I think this is good, right?