Photo by Arkansas Athletic Communications

 While watching a Cowboys game in Minnesota last December, Hayden Redd began to doodle.

The Cowboys were wearing their Nike Color Rush uniforms - the specialty ones most NFL teams pull out for Thursday night games - and the thought popped into Redd's mind: What would a Color Rush uniform look like at Arkansas?

"I was kind of messing around, honestly, trying to think of something neat and cool with that," said Redd, a 27-year-old third-year law student from Fort Smith who also is a graduate assistant with the UA athletics department. "Then it kind of dawned on me: What if we wore that against A&M in Jerry World?"

Around the same time, Arkansas' athletics department was kicking around ideas to honor Jerry Jones should he be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame's class of 2017. Jones, who played for the Razorbacks from 1962-64, had been named a finalist for the hall, but the vote wasn't for another couple of months.

Redd's thought was to combine his Color Rush idea with a way to recognize Jones, who "we knew was a first-ballot hall of famer."

Over the course of a couple of days, Redd put together a design in Photoshop that replicated the Cowboys' jerseys with Arkansas' colors and logo. He sent the first draft via text message to Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long, who was in the Dallas suburb of Grapevine for the final meeting of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.

"He texted back, "I love it!" Redd said. "When he got back from the meetings we chatted about it a little more. Then he kind of brought in people who had much better Photoshop skills than myself and really got some good artwork on it. He and Coach (Bret Bielema), (associate athletics director) Chris Freet and Jake Rosch, our equipment manager, kind of took it and ran, and did it with Nike.

"It was fun to watch that whole process and see everybody come together on a pretty neat project."

Redd, a longtime Cowboys fan who worked with the team as an intern at this summer's training camp, said the Jones family was immediately receptive to the concept when approached early this year.

"The initial feedback was that they loved it; really liked the idea and concept, and really appreciated the gesture," Redd said.

"It was very sentimental to him and meant a lot to him."

Redd said his interest in creating a special uniform was a byproduct of his interest in specialty jersey designs. He said he routinely reads blog posts about concepts at other schools. He also hears the feedback from old-timers who prefer the same look every week.

"I think the argument you always hear is that traditional teams don't change up their uniforms, and I get that," Redd said. "But flip the coin and schools like Oklahoma and Ohio State, Florida and Notre Dame are wearing unique stuff. Even LSU has worn some different stuff recently.

"From the players' perspective it's something exciting for a game. We're not talking about a total rebrand and total change, but it's something that gets guys going. The fan response has been pretty positive as well.

"It's kind of different, kind of fun."

Redd said the project had to clear several hurdles. In an interview with ESPN.com Wednesday, Rosch, the equipment manager, said organizations that had to sign off included Nike, the Razorbacks, the Cowboys, the NFL, NCAA and Southeastern Conference.

"You've got licensing, you've got trademarking," Rosch said. "There's a lot that went into this to make sure we were within rule. Obviously, there was a retail aspect of it as well, because they're selling replica uniforms. So there are a lot of boxes that had to be checked in order for this to happen.

"Nike usually likes to do these things at least a year out. It was a short window."

It might have seemed longer for Redd, who said he is happy to see his alma mater wear a jersey he helped inspire at the stadium of his favorite pro team.

The Razorbacks only are expected to wear the uniform once. No one will say whether some of the jersey elements will be used at other points in the future.

"Hopefully the result is good Saturday and it makes us want to wear them next week, too," Redd said. "But right now it's just geared toward that tribute and hopefully it's well-received on Saturday and helps launch us to a great game and a great win."