jmblue

March 23rd, 2015 at 3:44 PM ^

I appreciated the fact that with the jerseys, we could honor players who played later than the 1950s, something we had not done prior to their adoption. 

We definitely made too big a deal of them, though.  Players should not have been switching to a Legends number for their senior year.

 

 

jmblue

March 23rd, 2015 at 3:57 PM ^

Whatever the "true intentions" were, the fact of the matter is that the latest Michigan player to be honored with a retired jersey was Ron Kramer, who played in the mid-1950s.  I find that a bit problematic.  

Obviously, it's not that we haven't had anyone good enough to have his number retired since then, but roster sizes are so much larger now that we don't want to take any more numbers out of circulation.  The Legend jerseys were an interesting solution.  I don't care if it was Brandon's idea.  Not everything he did was bad.

The first Legends jersey honored Desmond Howard, who certainly deserves the honor given that he won the Heisman.  Presumably, #2 was going to become one down the road (probably after Woodson completed his coursework).  I'm guessing that's not now going to be the case, and think it's unfortunate.

 

 

lilpenny1316

March 23rd, 2015 at 9:14 PM ^

They had to graduate.  That's been the unwritten rule.  If Desmond or Charles finished up and got their degree then they would likely get their jersey retired.  If Michigan wants to change the rule for those who don't graduate, that's fine.  I just don't know if schools with our academic standards have done that.  UNC basketball doesn't count for obvious reasons now.

slimj091

March 23rd, 2015 at 8:17 PM ^

What I believe is that Dave Brandon is a Michigan Alum, and that he wanted the best for the Athletic Department and the university. He made quite a few bad decisions, but they were bad decisions that anyone in his position could make. If you beieve that Brandon took the job as Athletic Director in a devious plot to destroy the program, then all i can say is that you might be slightly deusional.

I do agree that the Brandon era was a train wreck, but only an idiot would believe that he intended it to turn out that way. All in all the legends jerseys was actually one of his better decisions.

Tater

March 23rd, 2015 at 4:47 PM ^

I don't appreciate the spirit of the jerseys at all.  To me, they were a symbolic gesture to tradition that was supposed to hide the mechanics of the situation.   David Brandon was trampling on tradition while making it look as though he was honoring tradition.

If David Brandon had been sincere in honoring legends, he wouldn't have turned gameday into a circus.

bjk

March 23rd, 2015 at 8:37 PM ^

I got that vibe the first time he banished "the proudest uniform in college football [Bo]" for some merchandising-driven eyesore and called it a "throwback jersey."

Cali Wolverine

March 23rd, 2015 at 3:59 PM ^

(1) When Devin Gardner is wearing Tom Harmon's jersey...something isn't working...so I am glad to see this poorly thought out tradition go

(2) I think shrutebeetfarms' giff's are the only thing that will get me through this offseason...that and Harbaugh tweets

bluepow

March 23rd, 2015 at 3:55 PM ^

The end of legends numbers was an exciting tidbit not reflected in the previous thread title and worthy of widespread discussion here.

I thought the legends numbers sucked for a few reasons, but mostly hated how the players that wore them also had different colored lockers.  The team, the team, the team?  Not.

Plus, purging piss-poor Brandoning feels good.

LSAClassOf2000

March 23rd, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^

It is significant enough news that we can probably afford to have a thread dedicated to this end of the discussion, especially considering the other one was not specifically focused on it. Now that it is here, of course, anything which comes after this will probably come down relatively quickly as then it is clearly redundant.

FreddieMercuryHayes

March 23rd, 2015 at 3:37 PM ^

Personally, I'm disappointed.  I liked it.  I liked that it was unique to UM.  I liked that it solved the issue of retired numbers and the lack of new retired numbers.  I liked having those great players honered. 

But I hated the way they were used.  I hated that they felt like they had to give them out every year.  I hated the number switches.  I just didn't like the execution of what I felt was a great idea.  One of the few good ideas of Brandon I thought.  I wish they would just come up with a better way to handle them.  Personally, I just wish they either treated it like another number or kept it out of rotation except for rare instances when a player really wanted that number and could earn it.

ZooWolverine

March 23rd, 2015 at 3:43 PM ^

I really liked them, but as a rarity. It was awesome to see DG out there in the 98 jersey, and I liked the way to honor current players and past players at the same time.

However, the idea that there were six, with so many used each year, was way too much. It felt like the coach had to look around and find a player he could justify putting in Ford's jersey, and I assume that the players were under a modest amount of pressure from the AD to wear the jersey (not saying it wouldn't have been an honor, but I'm guessing some would have preferred to keep their old number).

1-2 per year could have been great, with a mutual decision from the player and the coach (the way it sounds like Funchess being #1 was handled last year--player wants it, coach has him prove he knows what it means and deserves it--the part about poor effort during the season aside). If someone wants the honor, great--if someone wants to make their own legacy, that's great, too.

In the end, though, I'm good with whatever makes Harbaugh the happiest.

Trip McNeely

March 23rd, 2015 at 3:44 PM ^

They just did them wrong. I said this on another thread. Let anybody wear any number any time. Let a freshman RB wear 21 let Gentry wear 11 and put the patch on the jersey and the new guys can put there own stamp on the number. I think trying to focus it on one position was dumb. It took away from the #1 jersey for sure.

othernel

March 23rd, 2015 at 3:52 PM ^

To echo a bunch of others, the initial idea wasn't bad.

 

But then it got taken to the Dave Brandon-esque overkill extreme. 

 

Execution is everything... just ask betamax, hd-dvd, and friendster.

maize-blue

March 23rd, 2015 at 3:59 PM ^

I was kind of "meh" regarding the legends numbers. However, I didn't care for 98 being used for a QB in modern times.