Georgia Football 2011: Is a Uniform Change in the Future for the Bulldogs?

There has been a lot of talk about the Nike Pro Combat Uniforms that Georgia will wear during the Chick-fil-A college kickoff game against Bosie State. While the players like the new uniforms, most fans are not as enthusiastic about the change.

Which leads to the question, should the Bulldogs consider a uniform change? Most fans would say no, but it’s something to ponder. Over the years, Georgia has done minor changes when it comes to the jersey, but they haven’t done a full-fledge uniform change since former head coach Vince Dooley took over in 1964.

When Dooley took over, he changed the “G” logo to make it look like the Green Bay Packers. He then changed the “silver britches” to white pants, but switched back to silver right before the 1980 national championship season.

During the 80’s, Georgia would wear the red pants but that was short lived. Then they would tweak their jersey and go back to wearing silver or black pants. But in the main uniform would feature the red helmet, the white or red jersey and the silver pants.

It wasn’t until 2007 when the uniform change for Georgia became a big deal. Before the Auburn game, Bulldog fans were encouraged to wear black, but they didn’t know why.

After the team finished their warm-ups and went back into the locker room, they changed from their red jersey to black and when they ran out on the field, Sanford Stadium went ballistic and that led to a big win against the Tigers.

The next time Georgia did a blackout it was against Alabama the following year and the Tide hammered the Dawgs and they have not worn the jerseys since.

In 2009, Mark Richt wanted to do something different for the Florida game and had the players wear black helmets with white jerseys and black pants. That did not go well for the Bulldogs because they got hammered by the Gators and that uniform has not been worn since the defeat.

So with the new uniforms set to be worn for the opening game of the season, it should be interesting how the fans react when they see the team run out on the field with them at the Georgia Dome.

They may not like the uniforms now, but if the Bulldogs win against the Broncos, very few people will complain about the uniforms afterwards.

Nothing is wrong with the current uniforms and the Bulldogs are not going to make any drastic changes anytime soon, but having alternate choices is not a bad thing and it’s something Georgia should think about doing in order to get the players and students on their toes, especially if there’s a big game on the horizon in Athens.

No matter how different the uniforms will look on Sept. 3, the Georgia Bulldogs will always be the Georgia Bulldogs no black helmet, silver helmet, red pants or multi-colored  jersey will ever change that.