Persistent FSU fan finally gets wish: 'It's symbolic for a new beginning'
Jared Mabry is a man of many identities.
He’s an aspiring rapper whose stage name is TaReef KnockOut.
He’s a former Tallahassee-Lincoln basketball star and the son of a former Florida State men’s basketball player.
He’s a die-hard FSU fan who had one of his songs, “Noles. 2.0,” played before 2016 home games at Doak Campbell Stadium.
And for the last few months on social media and local airwaves, he’s been the guy pushing the hashtag, #PackTheGarnetPants.
“I thought it would bring some excitement,” Mabry said of his push for the Seminoles to ditch their traditional gold pants and wear garnet for at least a game or two. “The team just looked like it had no energy [early in the season].”
Mabry started his push before the Duke game, dialing in to the weekly Jimbo Fisher call-in show and asking the then-head coach if he would consider the uniform switch. The Seminoles were 1-3 at the time and had just lost to rival Miami for the first time in eight years.
Fisher politely dismissed the idea, but Mabry was undeterred. He had heard that several players were in favor of mixing things up on game day, so he ramped up his campaign on Twitter and began using the hashtag, #PackTheGarnetPants, on his tweets before road games.
His first post featured a picture of former Seminole star Warrick Dunn wearing garnet.
“Slowly but surely, more FSU fans started giving me retweets,” said Mabry, whose father, Thomas Mabry, played at FSU in the mid-1980s and later changed his name to Tariq Abdul-Aziz.
The persistent 29-year-old fan called in to Fisher’s show three different times to make the request, including right before the Clemson game in November. Fisher responded that he checks with the players on what they want to wear and playfully added that, “You never know.”
But Mabry wasn’t surprised when the Seminoles wore their traditional gold pants and white tops at Clemson.
“I don’t think Jimbo understood the tradition with Burt Reynolds and the garnet pants,” Mabry said.
Reynolds, the former FSU football player-turned-famous actor, is credited with buying the Seminoles numerous uniforms throughout the years. He first bought the team shinier gold pants than they had worn before; then he bought them white pants in 1988 (like the ones FSU wore when he played in the 1950s); and then he bought them garnet pants in 1992.
Fisher might have been reluctant to let the team wear garnet pants because the last time they wore them, they were stunned by Houston in the 2015 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. But Mabry was convinced a different look could provide a spark during an otherwise dismal season.
“You could see all these pictures of recruits on visits wearing the garnet pants,” Mabry said. “If all these recruits wanted to wear them, and the players wanted to wear them, I couldn’t understand why Jimbo didn’t want us to wear them.”
If Mabry had given up hope on Fisher, his faith was restored when Willie Taggart was hired as Fisher’s replacement in early December. During his first meeting with FSU’s players, Taggart received cheers from the team when he mentioned that he would be open to some different uniform combinations.
The movement suddenly had new life.
Then on the morning of Dec. 27, a few hours before Florida State's Independence Bowl game against Southern Miss, a fan with apparent connections to the team posted on Twitter, “All garnet, let’s ride boys.”
About an hour later, the FSU football team’s official Twitter account posted a video of running back Jacques Patrick walking to his locker, picking up the garnet pants and saying, “Swag, man.”
The Seminoles used Mabry’s hashtag, #PackTheGarnetPants. They then tweeted directly to him, “You finally won.”
“It was like a dream come true,” said Mabry, who then was fired up to learn the FSU Football account was now following him on Twitter. “I can’t describe that feeling -- to have your favorite team following YOU.”
Mabry was even more excited that the Seminoles played so well in the game and ran away with a 42-13 victory. And like many FSU fans, he can't wait to see what the future holds with Taggart at the helm.
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He believes Taggart will connect with fans of all ages because he is a lifelong Seminole, and Mabry is planning to offer his skills as a musician and artist to be a volunteer ambassador for the program.
“Willie Taggart grew up a ‘Nole,” Mabry said. “He knows what fans want. He knows what the recruits and players want. I think it’s all symbolic for a new beginning.”
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council