Auburn teased fans with an orange jersey that may not exist and no one was happy

Auburn spent the days before its “orange out” vs. Penn State teasing orange jerseys. It doesn’t look like they’re gonna wear them.

Auburn football is a bit of a mess at the moment. After an offseason filled with rumblings concerning the potential firing of head coach Bryan Harsin (6-7 in 2021, his first year with the Tigers) the university instead lost athletic director Allen Greene, who announced his resignation in August.

Harsin managed to get his team out to a 2-0 start despite the static, but wins over Mercer and San Jose State — the latter by only eight points after trailing at halftime — left the program in need of something to invigorate an exhausted, frustrated fanbase. So the team’s official Twitter account began teasing something fans hadn’t seen on a regular basis since 1970; orange jerseys.

First came the all-orange profile picture:

Then came some not-so-subtle hints; retweets of the softball and volleyball teams clad in orange:

It made sense. Saturday’s game against 23rd-ranked Penn State is an orange-out at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Bringing back orange as a primary uniform color would be an easy way to engage fans and, more than likely, sell a bunch of merchandise.

Except it doesn’t appear Auburn’s going to do that. It seems like orange will stay a complementary choice after all. Here’s a retweet that specifically mentions the team’s orange facemasks:

And here’s, uh, whatever this is — a suit jacket? — that seems to confirm the orange will be confined to stripes and highlights rather than a whole jersey’s worth of fabric.

After days of teasing a new uniform variant, Tiger fans weren’t happy about the apparent bait-and-switch.

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