DAB: Alternate FB Uni Plan Forthcoming

Submitted by MGoShoe on

Per a Kyle Meinke A2.com piece, the football team will again (unsurprisingly) wear alternate unis this season.

DAB quotes:

"For football last year, we probably did a little bit more than we’ll do going forward in terms of variety, but we’re going to from time to time do some special things," he said Wednesday after the third and final day of the Big Ten spring meetings.

"The coaches like it and the student-athletes like it and the recruits are enamored by it. So why wouldn’t we?”

"I think what we’re going to do is lay it out and say, game by game, 'Here’s what we’re going to do. If we’re going to make any changes, here’s what they are,' and it will kind of end all the speculation. We’re in the midst of all of that.”

Expect a rollout/announcement sometime this summer.

Commence meltdown... now.

[Edit: Let's get those creative juices flowing! Let's see your serious and/or snarky alternate uni concepts below. Best entries get moderated to 5 because the moderation here does not go to 11.]

ND Sux

May 17th, 2012 at 8:31 AM ^

of my comment...it had nothing to do with the uni argument at all. 

If anything I tend to be a traditionalist w/respect to the uniforms, etc.  I don't mind an exception here and there as long as it's not overdone.  I was with the minority that liked the UTL experiment, but once a year would be good. 

Along the same line, I was very glad they kept the brick theme for the stadium renovation.  They did a great job with that.   

Mr. Yost

May 17th, 2012 at 9:41 AM ^

And raise you maize and blue uniforms that change to match your maize and blue turf depending on what part of the field you're on.

People wouldn't be able to watch us on TV without suffering from seizures and epilepsy because Denard is so fast...as he went from the 40 to the 30 to the 20, it would look like a maize and blue strobe light.

Heinous Wagner

May 17th, 2012 at 7:38 AM ^

When did we decide it was a great idea to be like Oregon with uniforms? At this rate, look for  maize away jerseys, reversing the color scheme on the helmets, and wearing bulbous red noses.  

unWavering

May 17th, 2012 at 7:39 AM ^

"For football last year, we probably did a little bit more than we’ll do going forward in terms of variety"

Well, at least there's that.  I hope it's limited to one every couple of years, but somehow I doubt it will be.  We don't need alternate uni's for every big game.

jg2112

May 17th, 2012 at 8:08 AM ^

I see this comment:

The coaches like it and the student-athletes like it and the recruits are enamored by it. So why wouldn’t we?

 

And that is the end of the matter, because it's their program.

k1400

May 17th, 2012 at 8:29 AM ^

It's our money that supports the program, so it's our program too.  We can cast our vote by choosing to buy or not buy.

Man, I hope DB doesn't mess with our helmets.  I wonder what Coach Hoke's take is on all this?  Not what he'd say in public, but what he'd say in private.  I'm thinking they might be two different things. 

WolverBean

May 17th, 2012 at 11:42 AM ^

Does anyone else on this board feel like the legacy of the original Star Wars movies have been permanently corrupted by the increasingly ludicrous things George Lucas has done with the franchise? (Indiana Jones is heading down this path as well.) Sure, it's his creation, and he can do what he wants with it. But don't you wish he hadn't? And after Episode 1, did you trust him at all not to screw up 2 and 3 just as badly? The uniform conversation is the same thing. You take a classic and start messing with it, and odds are it'll come out worse. And after the MSU debacle, do you trust the powers that be to get it right going forward?

WolverBean

May 17th, 2012 at 12:03 PM ^

Just as I'd absolutely tell Lucas to his face that I disapprove of what he's done. Do you think Bo would have changed the jerseys because "his players wanted to"? No. He'd have taught his players WHY he wasn't going to change them, because he understood, and wanted them to understand, what they represented. No one is born understanding the significance of the things that make Michigan stand out from the Oregons of the world. I had the advantage of growing up in Ann Arbor the son of two alums, so I got a taste of it at an earlier age than most, but even I didn't really grasp a lot of it until I'd spent a few years on campus. Of course 17- and 18-year-old out-of-state recruits are going to enjoy alternate uniforms, because no one's yet taught them about "Michigan, Fergodsakes," and what that entails. But that doesn't mean we should throw out what it stands for just because they come in thinking these snazzy new jerseys are cool. I doubt I'd need to say that to a former player: they'd say it to me.

OMG Shirtless

May 17th, 2012 at 8:15 AM ^

It really clues you in to who loves the actual school and the actual team versus who loves the idea of the team that they've created in their heads or acquired from the local walmart.

gajensen

May 17th, 2012 at 8:52 AM ^

My love for the school and the team has to be unconditional?
I've never jumped off a bandwagon due to losing seasons (forever a Lions and Pistons fan), but my favor can certainly be lost if standards lower and compromises are made otherwise.
Michigan isn't my child that I have to love and support even when they get suspended from school for smoking in the bathroom and shitting in the water fountain.

Aequitas

May 17th, 2012 at 10:39 AM ^

Well said.  And the sentiment has been growing stronger every year.

I was a fan of the Red Wings even when they were the "Dead Things".... their style of play and team make-up would determine more of how much I watched them than their record.  For me, Michigan has a much larger foundation of history and tradition, and that means all these little tinkering, remaking, re-imaging's have less of an effect (again, for me), but they do have an effect.

WolverBean

May 17th, 2012 at 12:08 PM ^

Who loves the idea of the team more than Hoke? "This is Michigan, forgodsakes." After the most disappointing stretch of football in two generations, Hoke comes in and says that? How far from the facts on the ground at the time is a statement like that? Hoke's words can only be interpreted as referring to an ideal. And Michigan has always been about an ideal as well as a set of young men on the field (or men and women in the classroom, etc). Loving the ideal is part of Michigan fandom. To pretend otherwise is disingenous.

tommyz

May 17th, 2012 at 8:21 AM ^

If the coaches,kids,and recruits like it. That is all I care about..The whining about the Uni's, the helmet sticker, the stadium remodel, the adding of suites, the amped in music, the no free water, this and that is tiresome..

samsoccer7

May 17th, 2012 at 8:26 AM ^

Don't get me wrong, I love tradition, but I think some uniform changes are pretty cool. I know it's a slippery slope, I get that completely, and that's what worries me more. The thought of becoming all flash is scary, but the uniform changes themselves, in a vacuum, is ok with me if the players and coaches are on board.

dahblue

May 17th, 2012 at 8:43 AM ^

I just hope that we find another way to honor the Halo again this year!  Maybe our helmets can be made of corrugated metal and "Victors" "Valiant" can be written on our pants?

Yostal

May 17th, 2012 at 8:46 AM ^

In 13 games last year, Michigan used 7 different uniform looks

  • Western Michigan: Standard home uniform, standard helmets. (1)
  • Notre Dame: UTL "Heritage" jersey, numbers on helmets. (2)
  • Eastern Michigan: Standard home uniform, standard helmets. (1)
  • San Diego State: Standard home uniform, standard helmets. (1)
  • Minnesota: Standard home uniform, mismatched colored numbers on helmets (3)
  • @Northwestern: "Standard" road uniform, numbers on helmets (4)*
  • @Michigan State: "Bumblebees of Doom of which shall never be spoken again"**
  • Purdue: Standard home uniform, mismatched colored numbers on helmets, pink accessories (5)***
  • @Iowa: "Standard" road uniform, numbers on helmets (4)
  • @Illinois: "Standard" road uniform, numbers on helmets (4)
  • Nebraska: Standard home uniform, numbers on helmets, American flag patch (6)
  • Ohio State: Standard home uniform, numbers on helmets, American flag patch (6)
  • Virginia Tech: Sugar Bowl Specials (7)

Ignore the patches and helmet numbers for a moment: Ultimately, there were five jerseys last season.  That is more jerseys in one season than Michigan used in the previous 35 years (standard home, Schembechler stripes road, 1997 road, Henne/Hart road, Adidas horns road).

I realize it's a money maker and the only way that this doesn't happen in the future is for people not to buy them, but I said it yesterday and I hold to this: If you need an event and  schedule to "roll out" your jerseys for the 2012 football season, you have too many jerseys.

Also, in all of this, and including the fact that they have done pretty well with mulitiple "heritage" looks for hockey, they keep ignoring the Schembechler stripes road.  I know part of this is a concern that football jerseys really don't have sleeves anymore, but come on..

That's just a good looking jersey right there.  What would be wrong with a Michigan team taking the field in that look?

*-There is an irony in saying "standard road uniform" since half of the team were wearing the new TechFits and half of the team wearing the road uniform from 2010.

**--I have a thesis that while passing in the Trash Tornado wasn't helping matters, wearing one jersey for warmups and then going in to the locker room and CHANGING YOUR ENTIRE JERSEY, including pads, was not exactly helping the team focus before the game.  Not saying it's the reason Michigan lost.  I am saying I can't think it helped.

***---Yes, I'm counting it.

gajensen

May 17th, 2012 at 8:54 AM ^

Only the home uniforms are sacred to me. I have no qualms over playing around with away jerseys, but I want my kids to see the same outfits on their first visit to the Big House as I did x years prior.

MGoNukeE

May 17th, 2012 at 8:57 AM ^

come out and said that they are in support of new Michigan jerseys? Have the coaches come out and said they want to play postseason games in warm weather? If you're reading this Heiko, this might be something worth asking at the next press conference; start with Al Borges in case this question only makes the coaches dislike you more.

At this point, I actually want Dave Brandon to start selling advertising in the stadium for Football Saturdays because it would be about as confrontational to the idea of Michigan tradition as he could be. It would also be a direct challenge to Ann Arbor Torch and Pitchfork to see if they (we) would actually do something to protest certain methods the AD could use to make money for Michigan football. Right now, I'm convinced that Dave Brandon will be able to make Michigan Football Saturdays as generic as professional sports by the end of the decade.