One of the coolest parts of college football is the tradition and pageantry that comes with the schools, the colors, the fans, the stadiums, and the uniforms. Of these, the helmets are often the defining characteristic of a team. Whether it is to signify what teams are playing on a marquee matchup on say, ESPN, or as graphics before a game, helmets are often the signature mark of a football team.

That being said, not all helmets are made equal. Well, actually, they probably are, but I’m talking about the designs. For the most part, teams tend to go with simpler helmet designs, with little else littering a helmet than the logo of the respective school as well as a couple of accent stripes. But of course, there are teams that want to buck the trend by adding unnecessary, for lack of a better word crap, to their helmets.

Oftentimes, the extra symbols and markings are used as accolade type markings, akin to receiving a game ball. I’ve always felt that any extra markings on a helmet felt amateurish. Something that perhaps a high school would do to show their players that “yeah Billy Ray, you’re doing a bang up job.” Luckily, most of the SEC doesn’t partake in this tradition which is a good thing because the SEC stands for tradition and simplicity. Unfortunately, most doesn’t always mean all. Which takes us to: Georgia.

Georgia has a bit of tradition no doubt, but the dawg dog bones on the backs of their helmets are ridiculous. There’s just way too much crap going on on those helmets.

Honestly, look at all that crap.

Due to this, they join company with the likes of Ohio State, and Hawai’i, the team they so handily beat last year in the Sugar Bowl. Sure, UGA is picked as a preseason top 2 in many polls but until they get rid of the crap on the helmets, I can’t take them seriously.  If they take the dog bones off the back will I take them seriously?  Well, not until they get rid of the silver britches.  But that’s a discussion for a different time.

Btw, I’d like to take this opportunity to plug the awesome Helmet Project website.  It’s fantastic, and if you’re a geek like me, you’ll be able to spend hours just looking at pictures of helmets (in between having sex with Victoria’s Secret models of course).