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Wednesday, Nov. 07, 2007

Dogs should leave wearing black to fans

As far as either myself or many others can recall, the Georgia Bulldogs have worn just two different colored jerseys in their recent history - red and white.

An opportunity, however, is in store to perhaps veer away from tradition Saturday when Georgia hosts Auburn. The Bulldogs have already asked their fans to, instead of wearing the usual red or white shirts to the game, show up wearing black.

Donning of the color black, however, should stay in the stands and not make its way to the field.

Georgia head coach Mark Richt said Tuesday that a few days is not enough time for Nike to get black jerseys ready for Saturday's game, but I'm sure if Nike wanted badly enough for the Bulldogs to wear black, they could make it happen.

Wearing black jerseys pretty much goes against a point of pride for Bulldogs fans since Richt took over in 2001 and began putting more emphasis on the program's traditions.

As someone who grew up in the family of Georgia fans and later obtained a degree from the school, it was never hard to see how important traditions were to Bulldogs fans.

They were so important, in fact, that former head coach Jim Donnan was reviled by some fans for trying to tweak some of the program's long-standing traditions.

Not long after Richt took over, some older traditions returned. Things like the stripe on the helmet without the black stripe and dressing at the football facility at the Butts-Mehre Building prior to home games were back, a far cry from when Donnan sought in some ways to put his own stamp on the program.

One of those was skirting away from the color of the uniform pants, affectionately known as "Silver Britches" from the standpoint of Georgia fans.

In the Outback Bowl in 1998 against Wisconsin and a later game against Florida, Donnan opted for black pants instead of silver. It had little effect in the Outback Bowl against Wisconsin's 3-yards and a cloud of dust offense - some guy named Mike Bobo was the quarterback that day in a 33-6 Georgia win.

Against Florida, however, it gave birth to a circus atmosphere. Instead of being zeroed in on the Gators, the Bulldogs were surrounded by the hoopla of wearing black pants against Florida, among other things.

In middle of the three-ring circus, there was a game to be played, one the Bulldogs lost.

Any time there is a big game coming up, on any level, it is usually wise to cut down on any possible distractions and approach things as close to routine as possible.

There is a lot riding on Saturday's game between Georgia and Auburn. Neither team particularly cares for the other in this time-dated rivalry. Plus, the Bulldogs need to win Saturday and then next weekend against Kentucky and have Tennessee lose one game to make it to the SEC championship.

With so much riding on this one game for Georgia, that last thing it needs is a distraction.

Wearing of black is best left to either the fans, wrestling's former New World Order or the late Johnny Cash.