And you know what that means…

ALL BLACK ALTERNATE UNIFORMS!

Recently North Carolina tight end Eric Ebron shared the image on the right on his Instagram account. Judging by the graphic the Tar Heels will be looking to encourage all fans to dress in black when they take on the Miami Hurricanes in mid-October. While there currently is no visual evidence of any such alternate uniform or helmet design, the graphic used does include a black-alternate helmet.

Last year North Carolina showed off a white helmet as well as a chrome Carolina blue dome. Both received thumbs up from me. I have some hesitation on a black helmet though.

Unless I missed one already (possible), this would be the first blackout game on the 2013 schedule as far as I know. There will surely be more to come.

For any new readers here please understand that I have nothing against alternate jerseys, but the traditionalist inside me always feels a need to shout out whenever displeased. I am not one who should decide whether or not your favorite team adopts an alternate look, especially when used primarily as a recruiting tool to generate some sort of buzz. Anything that helps promote the sport of college football is fine by me. It doesn not mean I have to like it though. Sometimes I will, but often times I will not.

That said, I would like to wait to make a final call on these uniforms until we know more about them and see some actual photos of the supposed uniform.

I suppose the first question to address would be just how official is Tar Heel Graphics, the name slapped across the bottom of the image? The website for the graphics company just displays a number of designs supporting North Carolina adopting a range of existing corporate logos, such as Coca-Cola and Corona just to name a few. If anybody has any clarification on the relationship between Tar Heel Graphics and the university or athletic department, if there is one, please feel free to let me know with a comment.

UPDATE: The Reddit community has unearthed what appears to be another design for a black helmet. Judging by the community input, the black UNC helmet will have the tar heel logo instead of the standard “UNC” logo on a black chrome helmet. The outline of the logo will blend with the black finish but supposedly will reflect light in blue. The illustration also shows the helmet incorporating the argyle pattern as well.

Th earlier design (shown above) may actually be a design for a student section t-shirt, but these details all remain unconfirmed for now. The updated helmet idea sounds quite impressive and if this is the helmet I cannot wait to see how it looks. Until then, we will have to settle for these draft illustrations.

Helmet sticker to Uni Watch.