Black jerseys. Black pants. Black helmets.
We had a whole wave of new black fashion in the SEC on Saturday. And it all started two years ago.
In 2007, Mark Richt broke out black jerseys for a nationally televised game against Auburn. The Bulldogs took the Tigers behind the woodshed for a 45-20 victory.
Players loved the black duds. Fans loved the black duds.
So Georgia pulled the jerseys out again for a Sugar Bowl dismantling of Hawaii to close that season.
Ah, but then came Georgia’s 2008 blowout loss to Alabama in a “blackout” game at Sanford Stadium. Suddenly, the black look wasn’t so popular anymore. It had become a jinx.
So on Saturday in Jacksonville, Richt went in another direction to inspire his team: black pants and black helmets. Both looked somewhat cheap, if you asked me. The Dawgs were throttled. And now folks across the Peach State (including Tony Barnhart of The AJC) are asking UGA to ditch the black attire altogether.
Win = black is good.
Lose = black is bad.
Up the road from Athens, Tennessee pulled out black jerseys for the first time since the 1920s for their Halloween game with South Carolina.
Athletic director Mike Hamilton had said black jerseys would be a no-no on his watch, but he just couldn’t tell his new coach and two football players “no” when they asked for the duds this week.
Tennessee rolled to victory in their new uniforms, 31-13.
Not surprisingly, Vol fans loved the look by a 10-1 margin according to most media polls, though in my opinion, the jerseys looked like a cross between Vanderbilt practice jerseys and Burt Reynolds’ old Mean Machine unis from “The Longest Yard.”
Win = black is good.
Lose = black is bad.
Now, after Hamilton said on Saturday that the black uniform was a one-time deal (yeah, right), basketball coach Bruce Pearl says he’s eyeballing some black uniforms for his Tennessee basketball team.
Apparently once you go black, it’s tough to go back.
Could it be that Pearl had asked about black unis in the past only to be rebuffed by Hamilton? Now, seeing that UT’s new football coach got his way, could Pearl be taking his push for black unis to the media and fans?
It’s possible.
Either way, it’s safe to say that Volunteer fans will like black uniforms… right up until the point their team loses in black uniforms. Just like Georgia fans.
Tennessee fans have been down this road before, after all. With orange shoes.
Back in 1986, Tennessee broke out orange shoes for their annual battle with Alabama. Following a 56-28 home beatdown by the Tide, the shoes were boxed up and shelved. Four years later they were sent to a group trying to start American-style football in Russia.
While other seems to be embracing the black look, Rich Brooks said before last week’s Kentucky game that his team would NOT come out dressed in black. According to Brooks — a self-proclaimed traditionalist — black isn’t one of Kentucky’s official colors and therefore would not be featured prominently on a jersey. (UK did wear some hideous black basketball uniforms last year and look where that got Billy Gillispie.)
Had the Cats worn black on Saturday, their 31-24 loss to MSU would have no doubt resulted in those new black jerseys being trashed or burned. That’s how it goes with faddish uniforms. They’re great. Until you lose in them.
(Now if someone can just talk Brooks out of wearing those full-body blueberry threads that he likes so much. The all-blue Wildcats look like they need to be rolled to Willy Wonka’s juicing room.)
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