Avoiding Clown Uniformz for the Michigan-Ohio State game
The slippery slope is getting slippery. We can see where the next slide is: Clown Uniformz for the Ohio State game. You know, gotta match our big rivals special look that we know they will wear.
Dave Brandon is plotting as we speak. Addidas is plotting as we speak. The lure to do "special" uniforms for Michigan-Ohio State is irresistible. What can we do? How can we avoid it?
Don't fight it, channel it.
A simple yet elegant (and authentic) idea is to have both teams wear their home uniforms for the game. Talk about throwbacks . . . this is authentic. It is what every Michigan-Ohio State game used to look like.
When games started being televised on black and white TV, they had the problem of not enough contrast to tell the teams apart. So they had the visiting team wear white.
I don't think we have that problem anymore. Michigan's and Ohio State's home uniforms are a natural color compliment to each other. It's not like Michigan playing Notre Dame in home uniforms. This would look great and give a special classic nod to the rivalry without clowning it up.
USC and UCLA have done this recently with great success. When they first starting doing it, they each had to sacrifice a time out penalty, but now it can be done without penalty with both team's approval.
Call your local AD now.
October 19th, 2011 at 2:48 PM ^
I like it. Then again, good luck getting OSU to give up the Nike Pro Combat unis.
October 20th, 2011 at 12:13 AM ^
the pro combat uniforms for the Wisconsin game this year, not Michigan.
October 19th, 2011 at 2:49 PM ^
At this point wearing our regular uniforms for a significant game would make us edgy trendsetters. I wonder if the 2030 version of the "get off my lawn" crowd will be complaining about teams wearing one uniform for the whole year?
October 19th, 2011 at 3:27 PM ^
Agree to purchase a new (traditional) Jersey every year to avoid these throwbacks..I wish people would stop buying the Jerseys/gear, then maybe they'd stop coming up with the clown suits.
October 19th, 2011 at 4:27 PM ^
As someone else pointed out though; the 12-25 crowd like to buy "stuff" which is the kind of stuff this merchandise speaks too. Even if you hate it are you going to tell little Billy that he cannot have a UTL jersey?
Its actually incredible to think that in the short timeframe from when DB beefed up the marketing department (from1-2 people to I believe 11?) they have pretty much destroyed the faith of fans to not send Michigan down the path of every other hip school.
October 20th, 2011 at 8:45 AM ^
"Even if you hate it are you going to tell little Billy that he cannot have a UTL jersey? "
Yes.
October 20th, 2011 at 10:10 AM ^
Im pretty sure his name is Lil Jimmy
October 19th, 2011 at 2:50 PM ^
How about the uniform Maryland had in the opening week maybe just in Maize and Blue, that would be awesome. Lol
October 19th, 2011 at 3:04 PM ^
except that the uniforms they wore were based off their state flag..
October 19th, 2011 at 3:09 PM ^
The Ohio uniforms would be triangular. Like a gymnastics singlet.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:12 PM ^
October 19th, 2011 at 3:24 PM ^
Winged helmet. Half checkered deer. Nice.
/s
October 19th, 2011 at 2:51 PM ^
I guess I don't hate the uniforms as bad as some on this site have been proclaiming. I just shrugged and kept rooting for Michigan. If the players like the uniforms then I don't really care.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:38 PM ^
No, they just happened to be below your anger threshold for stupidity. If something came out looking more ridiculous than you could stand, you'd stop using "players like 'em" to justify them.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^
I do. We looked fucking stupid. That's the only way I can put it. Our traditional uniforms are one of the best out there and we are messing with it because we need to be like everybody else and have five different sets of uniforms. I cannot explain how much I hate these new uniforms. Keep the old ones.
October 19th, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^
That was pretty much my attitude...didn't bother me. Every indication from players and recruits was that they loved them, so why not.
The uniforms would have looked a whole lot better if we won.
October 19th, 2011 at 4:48 PM ^
I'm in the it didn't bother me camp. Being generally a lot older than most of the youngsters on this board I remember the 70's when we occasionally wore all white away uniforms. Without the internet no one seemed to care then.
Obligatory "Get off my lawn".
October 19th, 2011 at 4:57 PM ^
I thought we wore them for every away game from at least '72 to '75. Am I wrong?
It was hard to tell, over the radio....
October 19th, 2011 at 5:10 PM ^
You're right, we did wear them regularly in the early 70's. Then, later in the 70's, we brought them out for a couple of bowl games. Again, since I'm old and afflicted with CRS, I don't remember the details.
October 19th, 2011 at 2:54 PM ^
Both wearing home colors would be better though.
October 19th, 2011 at 2:55 PM ^
I love a good MGoMobilization thread. A call to arms, so to speak. And I am responding - I'm going to email Brandon today to give him a piece of my mind re: throwback jerseys that are a throwback to nothing or at least look nothing like the jerseys they are throwing back to (also, why are things being thrown anyway? Why not just hand them out gently?).
October 19th, 2011 at 3:23 PM ^
Throw forward, or more accurately, throw "up" .
October 19th, 2011 at 4:35 PM ^
Occupy Dave Brandons Office?
/hides for vague political reference
October 19th, 2011 at 2:56 PM ^
A red vs. Blue game sounds good! I think the color-on-color (as they are referred to in Uni-watch circles) games look good.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:01 PM ^
OSU isn't wearing their Pro Combat uniforms for our game. They're wearing them for their game against Wisconsin.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:11 PM ^
...beat me to it.
I expect a totally-normal uni pairing for M-OSU.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:18 PM ^
expect you'll be disappointed.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:54 PM ^
Because I claim no insider info on future uniforms. I just figured that OSU's pro combat date had been set, and Michigan had now exhausted its home-and-away Killer Bee ensembles. (Along with exhuasting the emotions of its fans.) And that left the refreshing concept of 'normalcy' as the remaining option.
October 19th, 2011 at 4:02 PM ^
by randomly having the team wear some weird uniform?
October 19th, 2011 at 4:08 PM ^
I think Hoke has changed the tide on the...
Oh, never mind.
October 19th, 2011 at 6:01 PM ^
And there you have it!
(I'll say again here as I have elsewhere -- anybody who doesn't think that the team LOVED the away-game jerseys for MSU; you should have been there at Spartan Stadium for when the team came out. By far, the most jacked I have seen them this year. FWIW.)
October 19th, 2011 at 6:17 PM ^
Yeah what he said
October 19th, 2011 at 3:21 PM ^
happy that they are wearing their traditional jerseys, but insulted that we are no longer pro-combat worthy. I'm so confused.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:49 PM ^
Here's your tiebreaker: they'll probably get their ass kicked in them. Lately I've taken to rooting against whichever team is wearing Wikked Warriorzz unis so that they become associated with embarrassment.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:02 PM ^
This should happen every year
October 19th, 2011 at 3:04 PM ^
I also wouldn't mind all-whites trotted out for a road game in Columbus some year. Genuine, 1974-era replicas. Maybe for the 40th anniversary of that game, with players invited back from both sides. In fact it would have been nice to do a series honoring the anniversary of each Bo/Woody game.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:09 PM ^
Over the years, we'll inevitably be worn down by self-interest into routinely rooting for OSU to beat our direct competition in our own division. NEVER you say? Well, eventually, it'll be clear that rooting for OSU's interests are closely tied to Michigan's in the majority of their games.
As the rivalry diminishes, so too will the importance and notice paid to the game. As the spotlight fades, so will the desire to hype up the game with gimmicky uniforms.
So - be happy. Soon enough the push to make a spectacle of The Game will erode.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:14 PM ^
I don't buy the rooting interest argument. If we dropped an early conference game in any other year, OSU beating that team could help us (MSU was in this spot last year with M-OSU), and it's only two games per year, the cross-divisional games. In 5-6 years it'll be three, but that's still not close to a majority.
Still think it was stupid to put us in opposite divisions, but that's a whole other argument, and it's already been lost.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^
No, not the majority of their games, as they'll be playing three against our division and five against their own. And I had no problem rooting for Nebraska earlier.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:11 PM ^
I shutter when I think what DB will approve for the Alabama game next year. He'll think it's a good idea like Brian Fantana going to the Sex Panther. "Opening game, Alabama, IN Dallas. Oh I got something special lined up for that one. Feel this jersey. That's real wolverine fur right there."
October 19th, 2011 at 3:44 PM ^
And what a shame! M and Bama have two of the best traditional unis in the game.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:14 PM ^
I have actually thought about that idea before with the home jerseys, both schools look much better in their home unis. However I think it is not the same as UCLA-USC, after all they shared the same stadium at one time and still share the same city.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:17 PM ^
BYU and Utah started doing this a couple years ago and it looks great. I'd love it if Michigan and OSU did the same. As it is, when's the last time Mich-OSU even provided a decent rivalry picture? You know, a sideline view of the pre-snap trenches, maybe with some visible breath-vapor? It just isn't the same if somebody's wearing the wrong uniform.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:22 PM ^
The problem with this idea is that it doesn't put new shirts on the fans. You're limiting your merchandizing income if you don't put new unis on your players every week.
(Yes, I understand that this strategy is likely to eventually backfire. But that's for some future CEO to worry about--we need to make this quarter's number.)
October 19th, 2011 at 3:30 PM ^
Yeah, I get that. The point is that there are 11 other games and a bowl game to pimp the merchandise.
The Game should (and can) transcend that.
Besides, if we can actually win a few of those, it will do more for Michigan merchandise sales than a whole season of novelty uniforms.
October 19th, 2011 at 4:05 PM ^
Of course I agree.
Actually, I'd rather they didn't use the other 12 games either, but what can you do....
October 19th, 2011 at 3:27 PM ^
That's seems to be the soluiton. I am already tired of the legacy, throwback, new, clown uniforms. This is very simple and Dave Brandon, if you're listening, I'll write slowly.
Don't mess with the home uniform EVER. On the road we wear white jerseys with a very minimal amout of piping (or better yet, none) and maize pants. This is not difficult. We are not Oregon, Maryland or MSU. And we don't want to be. Part of the tradition of Michigan is knwing what the unis look like EVERY Saturday.
Alabama, PSU, Texas and Michigan should never change their uniforms for any reason, any time. Period.
That is all.
October 19th, 2011 at 4:00 PM ^
PSU used to have numbered helmets like 'Bama. Texas changes their striped sleeves occasionally (like OSU has done in the past). Beyond that, I agree. The best unis need no tweaking. also... BRING BACK NIKE PLEAZZZZZE!
Thanks
October 19th, 2011 at 3:29 PM ^
Wait, wait. All the pro-clown uniform people said it was just for the night game and would never, ever happen again. Now we seem to be predicting 25% of the schedule in year 1 of the clowniforms. That's not a slope - its a cliff. If that happens, we will have worn clown jerseys in the same number of games as our "regular" road unis (3 each). Good Lord in Heaven - how many versions of a jersey can this fan base be expected to buy!
OK - I realize I am over-reacting to someone else's strawman (I hope), but I have been really busy and missed the chance to whine about the uniforms before now.
As far as the red v. blue game - I am all for it. If we have to pay with a first half time-out fine. The teams can agree that they each can fake one injury in the first half for all I care.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:34 PM ^
my local AD is a clown.