Here’s the thing about black jerseys and blackout movements

Everyone alludes to the Auburn blackout but forgets why it was special, which had little to do with the actual color of the jersey.

The week of that game, people were clamoring for Gameday to come back to Athens for the first time since 1998 (they ended up going to Amherst College instead). UGA had just come back from the pits of despair after a long walk off field goal to beat Vanderbilt to then upset Tebow and the Gators in Jacksonville. At 2 losses there was a palpable sense that this team had turned a corner and the insanity of the 2007 season had put us at #10 and Auburn at #18.

Underlying all of this was the rumor - an actual internet rumor with Twitter and this site in its relative infancy and Facebook at the height of its power. Supposedly some packages had been delivered to BM and the contents might be black football jerseys. The novelty of the idea that Georgia would ever wear black jerseys was tantalizing and the team on the field was rebounding. It needed an edge. WE the fans needed an edge. And this the grassroots blackout movement grew.

Fast forward to game time and the entire town was dressed in black. It was surreal, never seen before and the stadium pregame was a sight to behold... except the players on the field were in red. Nevertheless the disappointment wasn’t going to ruin the game. Until the band lined up and played krypton and the team which typically walked out to the granite bulldog seemed to linger further back in the bowels of Sanford than they ever normally did. And then they came sprinting out and the sheer euphoria of that moment was almost too much to comprehend.

It had nothing to do with the color of the jerseys. Sure it looked cool and the stadium thumping Back in Black was a nice touch. But what really made the moment was that the fanbase felt listened to. We saw this once underachieving team turn it around and we asked for something unprecedented to confirm that the turn around wasn’t a fluke. In the midst of the greatest season in CFB history, we wanted our signature moment and we got it and then some.

So why will that never happen again?

Simply put, we are on top now. We, players and fans, needed a push in 2007. We clawed back from being ranked #24 in Week 6 to #10 in Week 10 and we wanted to see us push further.

This team doesn’t need that push. Not right now. We didn’t need it against Bama in 2008 either, though we were too naive to know it at the time. As fans we can grassroots the shite out of a blackout but it’s been done before; the novelty is gone.

Don’t run away from wearing black jerseys. But don’t wear them just to wear them either. They were born out of something special and should exist for a moment when it’s apparent they’re needed. Notre Dame isn’t that.