Gators are ‘all hyped’ about black uniforms, but not losing sight of the reason

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Gators begin a new tradition under coach Billy Napier this week. Florida will debut its black uniforms against Arkansas on Saturday.

The new helmets and jerseys will be worn during this year’s ‘Saluting Those Who Serve’ game, presented by VyStar Credit Union.

“We’re doing something really unique relative to the saluting those who serve theme of the week,” Napier said. “We’re going to honor all of our military members, our veterans, local first responders included in that group.

“We’re going to wear black uniforms for the first time in school history. I know everybody is excited about the uniform. I do think it’s important, I don’t want to lose sight of the intent here relative to what we’re trying to do.”

In recognition of the teamwork spirit and the core values that characterize military members and first responders, each player’s nameplate on the back of their jersey will display one of five words that are synonymous with the principles embodied by those who serve.

“Each player on the team’s jersey will display one of the five core values on the back of the nameplate. We worked with the military branches and the state and here locally, allowed them to select the core value that they wanted to use. Those five core values are: honor, courage, commitment, excellence and integrity. You’ll see that this week when we play,” Napier said.

UF announced that the game was sold out on Oct. 20. The debut of Florida’s black jerseys will draw 90,000 fans and hundreds of recruits, many of whom will attend the game simply to see the new threads. 

The players are excited as well.

 “We’re all hyped about it,” Gators redshirt freshman tight end Hayden Hansen said on Monday. “There’s a bunch of hype. New cleats we’re wearing, new gloves. I think the fans will like it.

“Napier’s big message is don’t forget why. It’s very important to know why we’re wearing it. We take a lot of stuff for granted. People put their lives on the line. People choose a career path. We respect it a lot.”

Junior EDGE Princely Umanmielen wishes Florida had a night game for the all-black uniforms, but he’s looking forward to wearing them and honoring the military.

“About time, man. We’ve been waiting on those for a while,” Umanmielen said. “It’s a nice look. It’s a really nice look. Tennessee had the black ones. Just looks really cool. I wish it was a night game, but…

“Coach Napier was telling us the message behind it with the veterans. We don’t have our last names on the back of our jerseys, we have some of the core values of the different sections of the Army.”

Napier started the tradition with black uniforms at Louisiana, building his team’s theme of the week around Veterans Day and bringing somebody from a different branch of military to talk to the players after each practice. The Gators are doing that throughout this week.

“Look, this started with black uniforms at Louisiana. The kids wanted to wear black uniforms. I was like, ‘Well, okay, but why? Why are we going to do it?’ Ultimately, we decided to build it around this theme,” Napier said.

“We did it at Clemson. We wore purple uniforms there. I think it’s been beneficial for the kids. Ultimately, there’s an awareness. We have a game that has a platform. We can do some good. I think that’s what we’re trying to do.”