Auburn – Georgia Uniform Preview
The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. The 108th edition of the Auburn – Georgia game will be played this Saturday night. Even after so many match-ups, the records are extremely tight, with Auburn leading the overall series 55-54-8. There have been so many classic games in this series. It’s certainly one of the must-watch games of the college football season.
As is with most SEC match-ups, these two teams haven’t changed uniforms much over the past 100 plus years. Auburn has worn orange jerseys against Georgia, and the Bulldogs have worn their black tops against the Tigers; neither of which went in Auburn’s favor. Instead of hanging on to those incidents, let’s dissect the current uniforms.
Prior to the 2013 season, Nike rolled out some new uniforms for Georgia. This new branding effort included a new Bulldog logo created by Nike, as well as a new number font. When Nike first unveiled these uniforms, they didn’t have the traditional silver pants available. They had the same issues with those as they have with the Eagle’s Midnight Green jerseys. I’m not sure if they actually got the silver britches or not to be honest.
So, you know the growing trend of painted facemasks? Guess who started that. I’ll give you a second. Time’s up. If you guessed Oregon, you’re wrong. The correct answer is indeed the Georgia Bulldogs. The 2011 Chick-fil-a Kick-off game against Boise State featured the first painted facemask in the modern day of football uniforms. Funny, a school like Georgia that is so enriched with their tradition, especially in football uniforms, were the first to implement a new design feature in the world of sports uniforms.
Yes, I know Auburn’s record in the orange jerseys – I did a post on them after all. But I just love this picture so very much. |
Georgia is no stranger to wearing black. Auburn fans know of the black jerseys all too well. But did you know they actually wore black helmets and pants in 2009? Sure did, against Florida as well. The Gators ended up winning 41-17. There were rumors swirling that Georgia would break out black tops against Florida, but that ended up being a (gorgeous) color-on-color game. Then, of course, after the black jerseys weren’t worn then, the rumors moved to the Auburn game. They have worn them, and won in them, before, after all. Sunday night, though, coach Mark Richt declined the rumors, saying they were not wearing them and it was just “wishful thinking” on the fans’ part. Now, I wouldn’t write off the black tops entirely, but I certainly wouldn’t put any money on it. Yea, Georgia and Richt said the same thing in 2007, and then broke them out right before kick-off. But not all history repeats itself.
On the other side of the field, Auburn broke out some new gear this past Saturday. The most notable item would be the new blue gloves. It’s hard to see, but there is a sublimated “AU” on the palms. Interestingly enough, Cameron Artis-Payne switched from the new, blue gloves to the older, white gloves at some point in the game. Another piece of new gear broken out were solid blue compression sleeves. Last year, we noticed the Tigers wearing basketball shooting sleeves of different colors with the Northwestern stripes on the elbow. This year, though, Auburn has worn solid orange compression sleeves in a few games. Saturday was the first time we had seen a solid compression sleeve outside of the orange ones earlier in the season. And finally, Auburn and UnderArmour broke out some new cleats against Texas A&M. I’m not a shoe guy, so I don’t know much about the details on the shoes, but according to someone that knows, Auburn wore a new version of the UnderArmour Blue Low MC cleats, which features a chrome bottom, as well as a different style “traction plate” with different cleat positions. According to him, the Blue Low MC cleats don’t have the same traction as the Nitro Low MC shoes, which could explain the slipping we saw Saturday.
All in all, I’d find it hard to expect to see anything other than a white-on-red match-up this Saturday night. Auburn has many uphill battles to overcome this weekend, including a not-so-favorable record in the white uniforms over the past few years, especially when wearing them in Athens.
War Eagle!
I say we ditch those gloves. Apparently they don't prevent fumbles in key situations.