After the combo suffered its third straight loss two weeks ago against Louisville, UCF is set to give Gold/Black/Black another chance to redeem itself.
The Knights are rolling with a nearly identical look from their last home game against Georgia Tech on Saturday. The only change is on the helmet, which will now feature the normal stack UCF decal instead of the reverse version.
Gold/Black/Black is unquestionably UCF’s best and most on-brand combo, but it has not seen the best performances in recent years.
The Knights obviously just suffered a deflating 20-14 loss while wearing it two weeks ago against Louisville. Before that, a version of it using the old black knighthead jerseys was worn against BYU in the 2020 Boca Raton Bowl where UCF lost 49-23.
And that was just a month after UCF wore it for its home matchup against No. 7 Cincinnati, where the Knights lost a heartbreaker 36-33.
All in all, UCF has not won a game in this combo in nearly four years. That could easily change this weekend given that the Yellow Jackets are far and away the worst team the Knights have sported this look against.
UCF opts for the same combo in back-to-back home games
We all knew that UCF was moving back towards more “on-brand” uniform looks and away from some of the more whacky anthracite and pewter combos that we’d gotten over the last few years.
But seeing the Knights wear a nearly identical look in back-to-back home games is still pretty jarring. The closest we’ve come to this in the modern uniform era was a stretch from 2019 to 2020 where UCF wore identical blackouts in back-to-back home games, but there was a whole offseason in between them.
It’s hard to complain too much given that Gold/Black/Black is such a superb combo (especially in this new uniform set) and it’ll be a nice change of pace to see it during a day game.
But I can’t say that this is a trend I’d want to see continue. It will be a pretty big letdown if the Knights once again opt for a version of this combo against SMU next week.
I have zero issues at all with UCF rocking with its best look for a Power Five opponent. I just hope we’re still in store for a good diversity of combos the rest of the season.
Combo Notes
- This will be UCF’s fifth all-time meeting with Georgia Tech. The Knights have donned gold helmets in every game.
- This combo becomes the fifth variation of Gold/Black/Black that UCF has worn in the modern uniform era
- UCF last wore the same combo in back-to-back home games when the team opted for a blackout against USF and Tulsa in 2019-2020
- It has been 1,405 days since UCF won a game wearing Gold/Black/Black
- This is the first time that the Knights have worn gold helmets in back-to-back home games since 2006
