DAB: Alternate FB Uni Plan Forthcoming

...regarding a call for your serious and/or snarky alternate uni concepts.

AMERICA WILL LOVE US!!!!!!!

(in a football edition of course)

In honor of Denard Robinson, every future Michigan football player will receive a helmet with dreds sticking out the back. The football team will then be forever referred to as the Michigan Predators.

Our home uniforms are the college football masterpiece.  Don't touch it.  For myself, I prefer that darker navy blue tint and darker yellow from the Braylon era.  I know that color scheme has been addressed but I trust my eyes....and our blue and yellow seem a bit off now.  If we are going to experiment on the road then I wouldn't mind the UTL jerseys in white with blue block M.  I think that would look pretty nice and still keep the kids happy.

What do you guys think about honoring a specific team or era for our roads for an entire year?  For example we unveil the '69 team's road uniforms as our road uni's for the year.....maybe add a small...SMALL...sticker on back of helmet in honor.  Thoughts??

I hate that Michigan broke tradition and went away from the leather helmets.

Can we please try out blue pants for our away uniforms? I've been wanting to see this for years and it's a pretty conservative experiment. 

I didn't like the MSU bumblebee uniform. The rest, well, it didn't matter that much either way.

Regarding numbers on helmets, I kind of like them, but like the blue facemask better than the gray. However, I don't want to go back to helmet stickers, which were around when I was a student.

The trick is to have a classic, timeless look, without being trapped in the past. Times change, and so does the look of everything. Just to mention five other obvious changes:

1. The color of maize used in uniforms, etc.
2. The font and shape of "Michigan" painted in the endzone.
3. Changing not only the size but also the design of the scoreboard.
4. Eliminating the "Michigan" text that was superimposed over the Block M.
5. Moving from the 60ish pressbox and art deco "Michigan Stadium" letters to our current sleek luxury boxes. (Yes, I know the art deco letters are hidden somewhere in the concourse, but they are about as visible as the basketball championship banners now stored at Bentley.)

While I loved the art deco letters, I think every other change above has worked. Which is my way of saying that uniform change is ok with me. The key for me is to be classic or clean in line and look. The bumblebee, and many Nike Pro-Combat jerseys, are ludicrous and an embarassment.

The reality is that there have been several uniform changes over the years. Perhaps because we are now in the Internet Era, such changes are scrutinzed and critiqued much more than ever before. Twenty and Thirty years ago, the first anyone would see or hear of a uniform change would be at the opening game in the Fall.

I've gone on record for hating the alternate uniforms since the standard traditional ones are so classic and changes are just gimmics.  HOWEVA - I would be open to seeing blue pants with the blue jersey for a home game or while pants with the white jersey for an away game.  That might be cool if it is really necessary to have alternate jersey day.  But all this piping and wacky designs on the jerseys are not for me.

I like to use all one color when I play NCAA '12... maybe we should use an all-maize uniform, or all blue?  I hope you're listening DB... imagine it. 

so we'll have something stupid to wear when Sparty crawls into Michigan Statium wearing their stupid looking away version of last year's game uni's.

I'm not quite to my breaking point but boy am I getting there. I just want them to take the numbers off the helmets and use the traditional uniforms. I really feel like the numbers take the focus away from the wings. I mean for the love of god all of the fashion designer said we have the best uniforms in football, so why are we trying to screw that up... Join me as I shake my fist in the air on my soapbox.

There were actually two different "traditional home jerseys". There were the techfit jerseys and the plain blue home jerseys that the team has been wearing since 2008, making it 7 different uniforms, or 8 if you count helmet numbers as a different uniform combo. Really drove me nuts how some players wore the techfit jerseys while others wore traditional adidas uniforms that they team has been wearing since 2008.

I have no problem with the occasional hype/throwback uniform for big games in college football -- but it's always better and more special when they're used sparingly. (I'm at least grateful that this alternate uni stuff will apparently happen less often next season at Michigan.)

They're also better when kept relatively simple, like Notre Dame pulling out the lucky green shirts, or teams going for the monocolor look by changing their secondary-color pants to match their shirts (e.g., Florida and Texas A&M below).

Simple is always better -- that's what makes Michigan's normal uniforms so classic. Two-color scheme, clean lines, iconic helmet, no gimmicks, looks great. Think of other classic uniforms in sports -- the Yankees' pinstripes (I hate the Yanks, but it's a great uniform), the Dodgers' blue and white, the Cardinals' red/white/blue w/ the Birds on the Bat, the Cowboys blue and silver with the iconic star on the helmet, the Red Wings' basic red and white and terrific logo -- they're all simple and clean and don't try too hard.

That's why I hate the new gimmick U-M jerseys so much -- they're not simple, they're cluttered and ridiculous. "Victors" and "Valiant" on the undershirt sleeves? Huh? And what's up with all the damn stripes? (It's just Adidas self-promotion.)  I actually thought the block M on the front of the UTL jerseys looked good, but the shoulder stripes were just too busy next to the stripes on the helmet. And we can all agree the bumblebee road jersey for MSU was an abomination.

If they want to experiment with road jerseys, I can live with that, as long as it looks good. (i.e., no stupid top-of-the-shoulder stripes, and get rid of the silly maize border around the numbers.)  But don't mess with the home unis except on the rarest of occasions.

I wish Dave Brandon could have been at the bar I was at for the MSU game last year.  I took quite a bit of shit from people who didn't have a dog in the fight just based on how ridiculous we looked in the bumble bee uniforms.

crossed my mind. It is the logical next step, but so cruel-nay, so illogical--in its implications that I doubt the nature of morality, the soul, and reality itself.

All-maize uniforms will be announced next. And while I feel like these could actually be done well, I fear the worst:

Can we cover uniforms and old recruits tomorrow? Please I need more! What if they took an away Jersey and wore it with blue piping, or did you hear that Frank the Tank is starting this year at Arizona? Man it sucks that we missed on recruit #116 that year.

it's nto about us.  It's not about alumni or fans.  It is about the brand..and the "brand" is very much affected by football.  UVA is an academic equivalent.  Their athletics don't have the tradition that UM has, because of football.  We are here because of football.  People watch because of football.  The other sports matter to a lesser extent, but football is the reason many people first hear of the school.  So protecting and building the brand is directly tied to football.  It would be the equivalent of saying that Coca-Cola makes a lot of good products, but the "brand" isnt hinging on Coke.  Of course it does...your signature product has the biggest effect on the brand.  

Regardless of whether we (fans) or alumni like whats going on, the kids do.  They are the most important people in this system and like someone so eloquently posted months ago..they are the consumers in this equation.  If kids are drawn to different uniforms, then lets do different.  Personally i prefer the variety (to a point), but with anything I don't like...I just won't buy a tacky new jersey.  I'll continue to wear my MAIZE #2. 

I think at a point youc an become mired in tradition and it can become detrimental. (ND)  We are complaining about the tradition of the Rose Bowl and how it could be preventing the B1G from taking the next step nationally.  Uniforms won't prevent Michigan from becoming "bigger" per se...see Penn State.. but if it's the difference between attracting one more 4 or 5 star kid a year, what's the harm? 

btw I have yet to see or hear a high school student say Oregons Unis are ugly.  But then again they also loved Maryland's...

No. No. No. Just no.

Didn't Brandon say that the uniforms will not be changed and it was just a special ocassion for UTL, and then right after go to Bumblebees for MSU.  Did someone actually think that was a good idea?

A recruit who wouldn't come to Michigan if we didn't wear alternates is not a recruit we should keep anyway.  Nebraska, PSU, and Alabama have all had success in the last few years without crazy corporate logos with on the field play and recruiting.  I bet coaches don't even talk about what uniforms they'll wear when recruiting them.

Michigan will be wearing Maize jerseys this season, I expect it.



Brandon will make them due to the success of the Maize jerseys in basketball and hockey.

I'm personally holding out hope that this will be the season we go with a real throwback look. Like Horace Prettyman. Oh, we can wear modern unis, but handlebar mustaches for all!

I'm no alumni, but rather a huge fan of Michigan football. I think I understand where the traditionalists are coming from on this. Michigan has always been the John Wayne of football. We don't need anything but our actions to leave our mark. Michigan has always been smash mouth football. That type of no nonsense, no flash, no hype football. So to see all these small things "pretty us up", it feels a bit like we've forgotten who we are and what we stand for. I think it becomes even more important than, that our actions speak louder than our words, or in this case, our uni's.

I don't think I've ever seen more 5's and -1's in one board as long as I've been visiting this site.  Apparently this is a touchy subject. 

On to the subject at hand.. Personally, I think the most "traditonal" aspect of the uni's are the helmets. If we ever see those wings taken off the helmets, then I'd say it's time to get seriously pissed. 

I'm a little indifferent about the uniform changes.  I think it just depends on the route DB is taking.  If he can minimize the changes and still keep the standard uni in check minus a couple of big games a year where they change it up a little, I'm probably fine with that. 

However, we are not Oregon. And we definitely aren't freaking Maryland. Just please, please stay away from THAT.

Side note: I actually dig Oregon's style, but it's good for them - not Michigan.

Sweet! It's just a matter of time until we sport some metallic wings. Everybody else is doing it so how about we don't?