Fewer Helmet Stickers
I've noticed this year we are giving out fewer helmet stickers. I know, rabble rabble half of you hate the stickers anyway. I've always liked them, but I admit in 2015 it was a bit ridiculous. In this photo, Jake Rudock is already donning a full helmet (even center sections) in the 10th game of the year.
Contrast that to the players this year, which have not even filled up the sides yet.
Does anyone know the criteria for the stickers and/or what changed this year to make them more reasonable?
November 5th, 2018 at 3:35 PM ^
The stickers are closer together.
November 5th, 2018 at 3:34 PM ^
No helmet stickers were given out after the ND game - starters had one sticker (given preseason) and that was it. Noticed first home game
November 5th, 2018 at 3:55 PM ^
I think they only give them out in victory.....not defeat.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:43 PM ^
Is this new or was it always the policy? I believe in the shot of Rudock, we already had 2 losses by that point in the season, yet he still has more stickers than anyone I've seen on this year's team.
November 5th, 2018 at 3:35 PM ^
I like the stickers a lot, I just wish they were a little bit smaller. I don't know exactly what gets a player a sticker, so I can't really add to that.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:55 PM ^
They've definitely gotten smaller since harbaugh's first year
November 5th, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^
Need to change them to MurderWolf. Maybe MurderWolf for super special actions/humiliations.
November 5th, 2018 at 3:36 PM ^
Higher expectations = less stickers!
November 5th, 2018 at 3:52 PM ^
Well done.
About that show, I just finished re-watching the entire series to date for the third time. Took me about three weeks to get through all seven seasons.
November 5th, 2018 at 3:42 PM ^
Paging Dr. Sap. He knows the full story, but mostly along the lines of smaller stickers (no blue border) with better thought out spacing. They have mostly just optimized placement.
November 5th, 2018 at 3:45 PM ^
Whatever they are doing, it's working!
November 5th, 2018 at 3:46 PM ^
Don't touch the helmets!!!
November 5th, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
I don't know... I'd could for fewer stickers.
But MORE COWBELL!
November 5th, 2018 at 3:49 PM ^
I think they are hideous, ruin the greatest helmet in football, and it looks like its copying OSU.
Harbaugh said he likes them because its another piece of competition for the players. Might as well be a golden star in elementary school.
I Hate them.
That said, "There's different criteria, there's team criteria for winning, everybody gets one, win a Big Ten game, everybody gets two," he said. "Then there's team turnover margin, unit stickers for defense, for offense and there's individual awards that can be won." - Harbaugh.
Wolverine Devotee also made a post a year ago about the size being smaller. They removed the border i believe.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:00 PM ^
it looks like its copying OSU.
Bo Schembechler invented helmet stickers, dude.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:06 PM ^
If he did he did it at OSU. Other options include Nebraska and Rutgers.
ESPN says the practice of awarding helmet stickers is often wrongly credited to Ernie Biggs, also a trainer at Ohio State under legendary coach Woody Hayes.[1] They instead claim that the practice of awarding stickers began with Jim Young, former assistant coach at Miami in 1965, two years before they were used by the Buckeyes.[1]
An even earlier attribution is given to Gene Stauber, freshman coach at Nebraska (1955–1957) by head coach Pete Elliott.[2] Stauber routinely used stickers throughout his tenure as assistant coach at Illinois (1960–1970), as a 1962 photo of All-American linebacker Dick Butkus indicates.[3] The stickers stem from fighter pilots marking their planes with stickers after kills and/or successful missions.[4]
Michael Pellowski, in his book “Rutgers Football: A Gridiron Tradition in Scarlet," credits Rutgers defensive backs coach Dewey King with being “one of the first” to award decals for helmets in 1961. The stickers were given for interceptions only so they were more difficult to earn. Every time there was an interception, the crowd yelled “give him the star.” The stars can be seen in this photo of the 1961 team walking from the locker room to the field prior to the season finale against Columbia.[5]
November 5th, 2018 at 4:18 PM ^
They are wrong. Bo introduced them at Miami (Ohio) and Woody copied his idea.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:22 PM ^
fair enough. doesn't change the fact that i will never believe anyone who says a helmet with a sticker on it looks better than one without.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:41 PM ^
"They instead claim that the practice of awarding stickers began with Jim Young, former assistant coach at Miami in 1965, two years before they were used by the Buckeyes."
Maybe this is already obvious to everybody, but in case not: the HC at Miami in 1965 was Bo Schembechler, and Jim Young was one of the Miami assistants who followed Bo to Michigan.
"An even earlier attribution is given to Gene Stauber, freshman coach at Nebraska (1955–1957) by head coach Pete Elliott."
That's Michigan Man Pete Elliott, teammate of brother Bump, both members of Crisler's 1947 NC team.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:08 PM ^
Yes, Woody copied Bo's idea of giving out helmet stickers. I don't like a full helmet of them, like some of the 80s teams. But a few are fine with me.
November 5th, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^
I have gotten used to them, but they are too large.
November 5th, 2018 at 3:54 PM ^
It must mean we suck this year.
:-(
November 5th, 2018 at 4:00 PM ^
I've complained about the stickers to my friends since they came back. I like them but I wish there were fewer or make the stickers themselves smaller. I'd like it to be a compliment to the helmet its self not this overbearing thing that I see it as.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:01 PM ^
I like them and hope they stay for a long time. 2015 seemed excessive though at the time.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:17 PM ^
Not a sticker fan. One man's opinion.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:33 PM ^
As far as sticker size and placement, here are some good comparison pics:
November 5th, 2018 at 4:46 PM ^
Thank you. This shows it perfectly.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:46 PM ^
I still don't get why you'd mess with the best helmet of all time, but I sort of suspect a lot of what Harbs has done (helmet stickers, white pants, to name two) is to re-create Michigan in the image that he remembers from the halcyon days of his childhood.
November 5th, 2018 at 5:24 PM ^
"I sort of suspect a lot of what Harbs has done (helmet stickers, white pants, to name two) is to re-create Michigan in the image that he remembers from the halcyon days of his childhood."
He can also re-create the halcyon days of his playing career at Michigan.
November 5th, 2018 at 7:31 PM ^
There's some proof right there we're living in an age of helmet sticker inflation. That's the Rose Bowl and Harbaugh still only has a handful of badly spaced stickers that barely go halfway up the blue part of the helmet.
November 5th, 2018 at 4:55 PM ^
The stickers are smaller, so they can fit MOAR on the helmet!
November 5th, 2018 at 7:21 PM ^
Here's a shot from the 1969 Michigan Ohio State game. Not as many stickers then.
November 5th, 2018 at 7:43 PM ^
Not as many teeth or vowels then either.
November 5th, 2018 at 8:31 PM ^
That photo reminds me of Ed Debevic’s restaurant in Chicago. Is anyone else hungry all of a sudden?
November 5th, 2018 at 8:18 PM ^
Reduce the size and invert the color scheme on them.
November 5th, 2018 at 10:12 PM ^
I hate the idea that college kids at Michigan can be motivated by stickers. Plus...why mess with that helmet? That said, if it’s going to happen, hope the bar is high.
November 5th, 2018 at 10:48 PM ^
I still think we give them out too liberally but compared to elsewhere we’re pretty stingy. MSU’s special teamers have full helmets by mid season. Also I personally like the stickers, the look and the idea of rewarding good plays.