No alternate or one-off uniforms here. This is a series discussing the worst standard uniform changes in modern college football.

The Lead Up

Paul Johnson was hired at Georgia Tech in 2008 and in his first season he moved the program away from a shiny Vegas gold to a deeper and darker mustard gold throughout their football uniforms. It proved unpopular and the next season the Yellow Jackets switched to a brighter and softer gold color. It wouldn’t be the last time Paul Johnson and Georgia Tech made this mistake.

Consider this a lesson in leaving well enough alone. Four years into his tenure, Paul Johnson had been on a decent trajectory with Georgia Tech winning 33 games and generally being one of the more solid teams in the ACC. Exiting the 2011 season, the Yellow Jackets had perfectly fine uniforms–perhaps far from the best in school history but such an improvement over the disaster of 2008.

While the 2008 uniforms genuinely deserve a spot in this series, what was to come in 2012 took things to a whole new level of bad.

Remarkably, Georgia Tech had been signed with Russell Athletic as their apparel provider since the 1992 season. The monstrosity that was engineered for 2012 surely was the beginning of the end to this relationship that was ultimately put out of its misery following the 2017 season.

The Result

The best thing I can say about Georgia Tech’s 2012 uniforms is that if I were to describe them I don’t think anyone would’ve truly believed this was something a major program would ever wear. That, and with their traditional home white uniform they kept their traditional gold helmet. After that, chaos ensued.

Never get too obsessed with honeycombs.

The jersey collar, shoulder panel, side flank, numbers, nameplate background, pant stripe, and base layer were all flooded with a honeycomb design. It was a goofy look that would even make an amateur U8 flag football team blush with embarrassment.

OMGGGGGG.

Various shades of gold were mixed and matched throughout the uniform and the flank design on the jersey combined with the pattern on the pants to look like some weird DNA helix.

Georgia Tech brought back white helmets for the first time in years, and yup, they put a honey comb pattern on them. In fact, the Yellow Jackets created an entirely second new white jersey (to be paired with the white helmet and white pants) that were barely different–the blue outline around the shoulder panel is the easiest way to differentiate between the two sets (see picture 2 above).

It gets worse!

A gold jersey was introduced and, I just, I mean, there are no words.

The Reaction

I don’t say this lightly or without some deep thought. This is the worst standard uniform change in the history of college football. This set was ridiculed from day one and for the second time in 5 years, Georgia Tech had to remove a new uniform set after just one season. Honestly, these were so bad they should’ve figured out a way to change them by October of 2012. Play in all white or all blue uniforms. Even more shame that university lawyers couldn’t break this apparel contract within weeks.

They were never going to get cool branding from Russell Athletic, they mixed various shades of gold AND blue all over the uniforms, the honeycomb pattern was so much as to not even look real in retrospect, and this would be the last uniform I’d ever want to wear as a college football player. Some may argue there are bolder and more obtrusive colors that another program wear which are worse, I don’t care, give me that over having a jersey plastered with bubble-looking honeycomb.

It’s easy to blame Russell Athletic in this situation. However, the university shares equal blame for looking at these proposals and giving them the green light. Running a triple option offense and wearing these hideous uniforms, it’s a miracle Georgia Tech could sign any recruits.