Nike has released black jersey designs for nine different schools, and the University of Georgia is one of them.
Oh, boy.
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Late Saturday night (not Ronda Rousey’s fight late, but still late), Andrew Lind of the Tidewater News tweeted out the designs, in the form of t-shirts, that Nike has for nine different schools. In his follow up tweet, Lind included the design for a potential black Georgia jersey.
Now, I’m all for UGA breaking out black jerseys again. The atmosphere that was created at the 2007 Auburn game was historical, and that game will forever be a part of Georgia football lore.
However, these leaked jersey designs are, to put it nicely, inadequate. That is also the case with the eight other designs.
Nike simply tried too hard. In Georgia’s case, all they had to do was take the current home jersey, switch the red with black and vice versa, and voila, there’s a beautiful jersey ready to black-out its opponents.
Instead, Nike pulled an Adidas and completely ignored tradition , doing instead what might be “stylish”. That said, if these things are considered stylish in their design rooms, then Nike needs to start laying people off.
As I stated above, everything about these jerseys is unnecessary. Why the red sleeves? If you’re making a special black jersey, don’t you want it to as black as possible? As for the numbers, the red with silver outline on top of the black does not please the eyes, and overall, the jersey is too reminiscent to the ghastly Pro Combat uniforms the Dawgs wore against Boise State in 2011’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic in the Georgia Dome, which had a similarly ghastly result.
All Nike had to do to hit this project out of the park, at least Georgia’s part of it, is recreate the 2007 Blackout jerseys, but with the current number font.
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Another issue of mine regarding these jerseys is when they would be worn.
Mark Richt said last year that he wanted to wear black jerseys “maybe next year,” but I just don’t see a proper game to do so on this year’s schedule,
The natural choice would be Auburn, but the Dawgs play the Tigers on the plains this year. Georgia Tech would be another good choice, since it’s at the end of the season, but that’s also a road game for the Dawgs, and while Tech typically wears white at home, the Blackout is something that needs to happen with the home fans.
Also, Georgia likely won’t wear black at the beginning of the season, since it’s too hot, so that eliminates Louisiana-Monroe, South Carolina, and Southern University.
That leaves Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, and Georgia Southern.
I would be shocked if Georgia wore black jerseys against Alabama, considering the last time Georgia wore black jerseys was in a big loss to the Tide, so cross them off the list. I think you can cross Kentucky off the list too because the black jerseys are likely going to be reserved for a big game, and while I don’t think Kentucky will be a pushover this season, that game just doesn’t scream “Blackout” to me.
So, now we’re down to Missouri and Georgia Southern. You might be wondering why Georgia Southern is still on the list considering the criteria I’ve created for when a blackout should be instituted. I’ll explain that to you in a minute, but first let me say why I don’t want the blackout to be against Missouri.
Reason #1 is that Missouri wears a lot of black themselves, and I think it would be a waste of a black jersey, no matter how ugly it might be this year, to wear it against a school with black as its primary color.
Reason #2 is that Missouri is getting pretty cocky. Sure they have good reason, what with winning the division the last two seasons, but their heads are getting a little too big. Some folks at Mizzou are starting to consider Georgia a rival, and that just won’t do. Georgia’s already got a lot of rivals as it is, and most Dawg fans, as well as most SEC fans, tend to think of Missouri as an outsider, and certainly not a rival, so it would not behoove the Dawgs to give Mizzou any wrong ideas about how we feel about them by wearing a black shirt to our date with them. Sorry Mizzou, we’re just not that into you.
Sorry Mizzou, we’re just not that into you.
Now, for Georgia Southern. This a game that I think the Dawgs should most certainly not overlook, but can very easily do so, what with it being sandwiched between Auburn and Georgia Tech. Georgia Southern went 9-3 last season, won the Sun Belt in its first year as an FBS team, and nearly beat NC State and Georgia Tech. I expect Georgia Southern to be competitive with the Dawgs, and if Georgia isn’t careful, there could be a serious upset alert at the ESPN headquarters. On top of that, the Georgia Southern game is Senior Night, and black jerseys would be a special way to send out our 4th and 5th year guys. So, in my opinion, Georgia Southern is the most logical game for a blackout this season.
Black jerseys are an exciting thing, and most certainly something that I would welcome, if done correctly. As of right now, I’m unimpressed with what the Dawgs might be wearing, and I’m hoping and praying the black jerseys get redone and done right.