To begin with, I apologize for starting a new thread to discuss this topic. There was an existing thread but replies don't seem to be available. And this post goes a little beyond the topic of the Spring Game, yesterday.

Please allow me a moment to connect dots.

After the National Championship game against Notre Dame, Austin Ward caught up with Kevin Ries (Ohio State Equipment Operations Manager) during his Notebook segment. During the quick interview, Birm asked him about the gray sleeves (e.g. heritage stripes) coming back permanently. Keep in mind, this is January 2025. Ries smiled and didn't answer. Then, once the camera swung around, he answered Birm "Off the record – 2026."

Skip to 16:30 to see the brief interview.

There you have it folks. The triumphant return of the gray sleeves seems to be upon usI also started thinking, it has been exactly twenty years since the current OSU jersey pattern was unveiled in April 2006. This is the jersey (home/road) that was at first controversial and has come to be accepted as the only version many have known. After all, twenty years is a long time.

As I recall, there was a gasp or two in the room when Coach Tressel held up the new home variant. And the online comments at the time were variations of: "So we're Wisconsin now!?!"

I do truly hope the fact that there are practice uni's being made with the gray stripes (home/road variants) that this means it's essentially a 'fait accompli' and we can finally say goodbye to this.