04/25/24
September 23, 2011
Football Players Lose Minds Over New Uniforms: Ahead of Ohio University's rivalry game with Marshall last weekend, the Bobcats staff unveiled a surprise they'd been keeping since June -- new black uniforms designed by Russell Athletic -- and filmed the players' reactions. "Every week, someone is like ... maybe this is the week we get black jerseys," said tight end Jordan Thompson. The nattily attired Bobcats trampled the Thundering Herd 44-7, the school's first win over their Battle for the Bell rival in 11 years.
Hot bunking the jersey numbers makes for fun sequences like the early portion of the game clip, where #4 makes a diving pick, then another #4 throws for a score.
posted by beaverboard at 01:41 PM on September 23, 2011
That was pretty awesome, but new jerseys are not going to stop #15 from looking like a Vanilla Ice wannabe douchebag.
posted by wfrazerjr at 01:48 PM on September 23, 2011
Hot bunking the jersey numbers makes for fun sequences like the early portion of the game clip, where #4 makes a diving pick, then another #4 throws for a score.
Oh yea it's all fun and games until your team gets flagged for having 2 players with the same number on the field at the same time. Sorta like Alabama managed to pull off last Saturday.
posted by Folkways at 05:58 PM on September 23, 2011
Must be some academic standards at Ohio U if the administration can't even figure out each member of their sports team should have a unique number.
posted by cixelsyd at 06:03 PM on September 23, 2011
I did an Ohio-Rutgers preview for a Web site:
A) Frank Solich, indeed, is the head coach. It's his seventh season at Ohio.
B) Schools often will have more than 100 players on its home roster. (I think they can bring on 85 for road games). Ohio has multiple numbers which each have been given to two players. (Two 4's, 5's, 7's, 10's ...)
posted by jjzucal at 11:49 PM on September 23, 2011
Lots of schools do the numbers doubling when they dress that many players.
Probably why there's a relative scarcity of collegiate jersey numbers having been retired over the years at some of the bigger programs. They need every number available if they're dressing 100.
As far as I know, Penn State has never retired a number.
Ohio could have really twisted their opponents and the refs into a knot if they were feeling bold and devious.
The #4 DB is Omar Leftwich. They could have given the other #4 to...
Octavius Leftwich, who is Omar's twin brother. And is also a DB.
That would have made for some interesting nickel packages.
But Octavius got #5 instead.
Don't know if they are any kin to Byron Leftwich, but if so, it would be an ironic twist of fate given what the Cats did to Byron's alma mater to win back the Bell.
posted by beaverboard at 10:48 AM on September 24, 2011
Wow. What great reactions. Such pure, unbridled joy.
I guess it says something about how little I keep track of small conference college football, that when I saw the first video, after the unveiling (when the players were heading to the locker room), I thought "Hey, that's former Nebraska coach Frank Solich, wonder what he's doing in the Ohio film room. Maybe his kid goes there or something."