Ranking Utah's hand-painted helmets: No. 4 2018's Red-Tailed Hawk Feathers

A ranking of Utah's five hand-painted helmets from 2016 to present.

With still a little more than three months until Utah football kicks off against Florida to begin the 2022 season, its never a bad thing to discuss something other than recruiting, schemes, players progress and what the depth chart may look like come September. In light of the sneak peak Utah fans were given of the 2022 hand-painted helmet, we decided to rank all of Utah's previous hand-painted helmets back to the 2016 season.

Approximately halfway through spring camp, Ute fans were given a taste of the 2022 hand-painted helmets. A breathtaking work of art and a beautiful tribute, the helmets will honor Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe. While these helmets remain in a league of their own, we'll rank all the helmets that came before.

While the 2017 hand-painted helmets were an easy choice for No. 5, it became increasingly difficult to rank the rest, but I have to go with the 2018 Red-Tailed Hawk Feathers at No. 4. While perhaps the most unique of the hand-painted helmets, introducing us to a look we had never before seen and incorporating more of the school's mascot, these helmets come in on the lower end simply because they are amongst elite company and just don't quite measure up to the three remaining.

Introduced against Justin Herbert and the Oregon Ducks in 2018, Utah welcomed their Pac-12 North foes to Rice Eccles stadium and bested the school that made feathers famous on the scoreboard and in terms of uniform swag. With a primary red base, beautifully detailed hawk feathers and swoops name across the front of the helmet, this was a statement that Utes know how to do feathers better than Ducks.

As for why this helmet checks in towards the bottom of the list at No. 4, when you consider the U.S.S Salt lake City, 150 years of college football and the hand-painted drum and feather helmets from 2016, the detail on those was taken a step further and produced some of the most breathtaking works of art to ever grace the gridiron.

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