In SEC, aura of black jersey a matter of choice

There they were, on national TV for everyone to see, in the very first all-SEC battle of 2016, on the very first night of September.

The black jerseys.

South Carolina did the honors, dawning the black in hostile territory as it took on Vanderbilt in Nashville, with a golden opportunity to grab a win — a road win no less — during what is expected to be a rebuilding first season under Will Muschamp.

For the Gamecocks, it wasn’t a fade to black but rather straight to black.

But they trailed 10-0 at halftime. They looked lost and seemed destined for a loss. But the Gamecocks dug in, hung in and ended up stealing one on a 55-yard boot by star senior kicker Elliott Fry with 35 seconds left. The won without many style points, all while wearing those stylish black unis.

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And with that, a new fall of SEC football began with the black jersey making its imprint, and a dramatic, winning one at that. Other teams from the best conference in college football will slide on their own version of their “Back in Black” jerseys this fall, and the magic will be there for some but not others.

Some SEC teams won’t wear black jerseys. They’ll stick to their traditional colors and take their chances, like mighty Alabama, and it seems the Crimson Tide have done pretty decently without ever wearing black.

But, like when Notre Dame would put on those fabled green jerseys to unleash that last bit of aura in a big game, the black jerseys can certainly inspire a team; why else would an SEC team depart from its usual jersey colors for one day or night?

Did the Gamecocks outlast Vandy because they wore black jerseys? Well, of course not. But it certainly wasn’t a bad look, was it? And that gutsy comeback, on the road, definitely looked better on TV because of those black tops.

It was another “black jersey moment.”

Yes, the black unis were back, signifying something special might be about to happen. And Muschamp even wore a black shirt on the sideline to match his players. This was an event. This was drama.

Maybe Vandy should have been wearing its regular black home unis? Instead, the karma was all South Carolina’s.

To wear or not to wear: A team-by-team look

Before the season kicked off and those black jerseys went live in Nashville, we reached out to each SEC school to ask when the last time was they wore black and when they might be doing it this fall.

Interestingly, South Carolina said it would be wearing black at some point but didn’t disclose it would be under those Thursday primetime lights. The school pointed out that black is already one of South Carolina’s colors, so why wouldn’t it be wearing black at some point this season?

Last year, the Gamecocks shed their usual garnet tops for the black unis on Nov. 14 against Florida at a rocking Williams-Brice Stadium. It was the Steve Spurrier Bowl, without Steve Spurrier, who had resigned as Gamecocks coach a month earlier. And the black magic wasn’t there either, as the Gators won 24-14.

So those black jerseys can be fickle as well as being a gameday curiosity.

Will the Gamecocks throw on the black tops again this year? We’ll see. The school was coy a few weeks back.

What about the other 13 SEC schools? The aforementioned Alabama has never worn black jerseys “to the best of our knowledge,” according to Josh Maxson, Alabama’s director of football communications. “And, no, we do not plan on wearing them this year.”

Bama doesn’t need any black jersey karma, anyway. So we’ll leave that idea alone.

Bama’s rival in Oxford has never done the black jersey thing and no plans are in the works, according to Ole Miss’ associate athletic director, Kyle Campbell. Rebel revelers are happy to party in The Grove and do the “Hotty Toddy” chant and, well, black jerseys really don’t fit in at all with Ole Miss’ red-white-and-blue color scheme, do they?

Meanwhile, the Rebels’ in-state neighbors in Starkville wore black last October against Kentucky, and the jerseys worked just fine: The Bulldogs rolled to a 42-16 victory with Dak Prescott accounting for six touchdowns.

There’s no more Prescott at Mississippi State, but there could be another black jersey appearance. Bill Martin, the school’s assistant athletic director in charge of media relations, had a short reply to that possibility: “TBA.”

Staying in the SEC West, Texas A&M went with the black threads on Halloween last year against South Carolina and won 35-28 as the 12th Man watched proudly. But there are “no plans for 2016 as of now,” said Alan Cannon, who is in his 26th year as the sports information director in Aggie Land. So the waiting and guessing game begins in College Station.

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And what about LSU? Any sort of black jersey occurrence wouldn’t seem to jump out at you and, besides, the holy uniform tradition in Baton Rouge is all about white jerseys, not black ones. Sure enough, when asked about the last time the Tigers wore black and if they might wear black this year, the answer from LSU’s Michael Bonnette was direct and certain: “Never and no.”

At Arkansas, it’s much of the same, with football assistant athletic director for communications Patrick Scott Pierson stating: “We have never worn black, and there’s nothing in the plans.”

So, clearly, you have SEC schools that dabble in the black unis experiment and others who stay away, holding firm to their traditional colors. Both paths of action are fine, of course.

Missouri is a special case, as black already figures into the jersey color scheme. The Tigers’ colors are black and gold, as associate athletic director Chad Moller pointed out, “so we wear black for virtually every home game.”

The situation is very similar at Vanderbilt, where the Commodores also feature black and gold.

“Given our colors are black and gold, Vanderbilt has been wearing some form of black jerseys at least since the 1970s,” explained Larry Leathers, the football communications director at Vandy.

The Commodores last wore black in their second-to-last home game last season, a 21-17 victory over Kentucky that just happened to be Vandy’s only win in its final five games. The Commodores won’t wear them in Week 2 but could soon thereafter.

Of course, in Week 1 it was Vandy’s opponent, South Carolina, that swooped into Nashville in black and stole the aforementioned victory while the Commodores wore white instead.

Like Texas A&M, Kentucky last dawned black on Oct. 31 of last year, only it turned into a primetime Halloween nightmare as Tennessee took down the Wildcats 52-21 in Lexington. So Kentucky has ditched the black jerseys this year, according to associate media relations director Susan Lax, who said the Cats will instead introduce a new “anthracite” gray jersey this year.

Tennessee’s trademark orange was last switched out for black on Oct. 31, 2009, another Halloween special, and this one worked in a 31-13 home victory over South Carolina. But assistant director of media relations Stephen K. Lee said the Vols will again be sticking to orange and white this fall, keeping those famed black tops from “The Halloween Game” in the closet again.

SEC East rival Georgia last wore black in 2008 against Alabama, a 41-30 primetime loss in Athens with both teams ranked in the top 10. The magic of the black unis wasn’t there that night, as it was the year before in a 45-20 home rout of Auburn and in a 41-10 victory over Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl to end the 2007 season.

Those were the only three times Georgia ever wore black, but senior associate athletic director Claude Felton said the Bulldogs might finally do it again this season, and there’s been speculation that it could be for the Nov. 19 game against Louisiana-Lafayette. A big hint: Georgia fans have been encouraged to wear black that day.

As for Auburn and Florida, neither program’s uniform history has any trace of a black jersey being worn, not that the Tigers and Gators haven’t flirted with different color schemes through the decades. And you could close your eyes and imagine Bo Jackson or Tim Tebow roaring through defenses in a black jersey, right?

A new season has arrived, and the possibility of a warm, black jersey memory, at least at most SEC schools, is alive and well. Just ask any Gamecocks fan still smiling over that season-opening comeback.