As the Georgia Bulldogs prepare for their Friday night tilt against cross-state rival Georgia Tech, will the Dawgs pull out a Black Friday surprise and wear their black jerseys for the game?
It’s possible. There are several factors which would support such a sartorial decision, but also some possible clues indicate they’ll simply wear their regular red/red/silver britches for the matchup. Let’s go with the negatives first.
Georgia’s last two posts about this game on Social Media have shown players wearing red shirts.
⏳#GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/CwtImURsDn
— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) November 29, 2024
It’s in Athens‼️
️: Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium
: ABC/ESPN+
: 7:30PM ET#GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/OTTihFjgo9— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) November 29, 2024
While neither of those posts confirms a red jersey, it’s a strong indicator. But Georgia is one of those few teams who — when they do rarely wear black jerseys — do so without any prior warning. There was even a game several years back (2007 against Auburn) when the team came out of the tunnel wearing red jerseys, then returned to the locker room and, as the band completed its show, the kickers and team captains returned to the field, still in red jerseys. The band marched into formation, creating a path for the team to run through while the color guard lifted the banner into place. The captains took off their red jerseys to reveal they were wearing black jerseys underneath them the whole time.
Following that Week 11 matchup against Auburn in 2007, due to popular demand, the team wore black jerseys again in the Sugar Bowl against Hawaii. Then, on the plane ride home from beating Arizona State four weeks into the 2008 season, seniors requested black jerseys for the following week’s game against Alabama. They’d end up wearing black jerseys three times in nine games that year.
Under head coach Kirby Smart, the Bulldogs have worn black jerseys three times, beginning in 2016, and then twice more in 2020.
• 2016: First black jersey game against Louisiana-Lafayette, resulting in a 35-21 victory.
• 2020: Wore black jersey in a win over Mississippi State.
• Peach Bowl 2020: A second bowl game (Peach Bowl) where Georgia wore black jerseys, defeating Cincinnati, in what was a color-vs-color game.
• Black Friday 2024: ???
Black Friday would certainly be as likely as any day for the team to wear black jerseys, assuming they place any significance on the date. There is also a gap of four years between the last time they wore black jerseys and now. And there was a four year gap between 2020 and 2016, the only other year the team wore black jerseys under Kirby Smart. It also means that under Smart, each senior class has worn black at least once. If the team doesn’t break out the alternates this season, that “streak” will be broken.
The last time the black jerseys were worn, they were newly designed to feature a dog collar collar. If the team were to wear black jerseys today, it’s not known if they would be on a newer chassis or have a redesigned look.
For what it’s worth, Kirby Smart doesn’t seem to feel the black jerseys are needed to get fans excited, and thinks it’s more of a recruiting tool. “I don’t think that has one thing to do with the fan base. I just think that’s hokey pokey. I mean, it’s great for recruiting. We may do it sometime. I’m not anti-doing it.”
He’s clearly not as “high” on wearing the black jerseys as the team and fans may be. But that may be even more reason to let the seniors pick the black jerseys for tonight’s game.
Will they or won’t they? We’ll find out soon enough.
What are your thoughts on the Bulldogs black jerseys? Should they wear them more (or at least more than once every four years)? Do you like the look (especially with that odd dog collar)? Do you think UGA will surprise us and wear Black for Black Friday’s Sake?
The game kicks off tonight at 7:30 pm (ET) and can be seen on ABC.
GA tech in their gold if they have it vs Georgia in black would be nice.
I prefer them in red, but whatever. They have every right to wear black if they want to.
The spiked collar thing is kind of dumb, but also kind of cool. It’s a little much with the black jersey, though. It kind of reminds me of 90s goth kids with eye shadow and spiky leather accoutrements, or maybe some kind of grown-up thing I wouldn’t know about.
I can’t take any recruitment talk seriously. It seems like every other day I see headlines about some 17-year old kid I’ve never heard of “withdrawing their commitment” from one school or another. If this is really a major factor in how you decide where to go to school and start your career, well… I guess I’d rather win a championship in polka-dots than be an also-ran with empty swag.
Georgia in black is kind of ho-hum. But if they are going to, the dog collar is a fun touch and the white numbers need to be trimmed in red, a la 2007. White numbers with no trim make it look like a black practice jersey.
The next time Georgia wears black, they will be identical to the 2007 style with red collars and cuffs and white block numbers outlined in red. They have already shown them off in 2022 when they reverted from the Bulldog Bold font to block numbers. They’ve also been worn every year at the spring game.
The dog collar style was special for 2020 to celebrate 100 years using the bulldog mascot. That’s why it had the dog collar and also bulldog logos on the sleeves instead of the usual sleeve numbers. The bulldog logos were also amended to include “100” instead of the usual “G” logo.
As a Georgia guy, the “will they or won’t they” back and forth is getting tiring. I just want them to wear the damn jerseys once or twice a year and not make a big deal out of it. Our colors are not red and silver, not red and silver, but literally red and black. There are countless schools with black jerseys which shouldn’t even be wearing the color (Miami, Tennessee, Stanford, Mississippi State, Washington, Minnesota, Iowa State, maybe even Ohio State seeing as their usage prior was always limited to strictly minor trim; the list could go on and on), and we can’t even wear our school color when every other sport has a black jersey. It’s annoying.
I am also of the opinion that the normal black jersey (not the dog collar) is one of the best alternates in all of college football. It’s a damn good looking uniform. It makes the red helmet pop, brings out the black in the “G” logo, and really makes the pant stripe pop. If they committed to it, I feel like the black jersey could be as iconic as Notre Dame’s greens. It’s that good. But it’s barely worn. A shame.