For those of us not at the game, could someone explain the referee announcing “number 45 is now number 53”? It seemed to come during xtra points and other ST play. Watching the game over TV, it’s anxiety provoking as you always hate to hear the ref make an announcement after your team scores. Thx in advance.
If you look at the roster, there are several players with the same number. It's a 5 yard penalty for "equipment violation" or something like that if you have two players on the field with the same number. It's been an issue for us in the past on special teams, one that has been cleaned up this season. I noticed it primarily on kickoffs. Think it was #29 switching jersey numbers, which makes sense as Trey Smack already has that number.
The single digits seem to all have 2 players wearing them. I don't really blame commentators getting guys wrong anymore, because I even have to take a second look at times. Nobody should confuse Boone for Johnson, but fraziers made a tackle on special teams the other night and I think Shane called it for Denson, which at first glance isn't crazy to mix up.
The numbers 0-99 are available. The number of players on the roster is less than that. Everyone gets a different number. If you don’t like your number, you can get a different one next year as you gain seniority.
Which begs the question: why do we allow some players to share a number, which has been shown to cost us if a mistake is made? Give everyone a different number and eliminate any possibility of a mistake.
Yeah, imagine if Dez and Cormani had the same jersey number... you would NEVER be able to tell them apart!
It's a little more complicated than that though. Some numbers have restrictions; OL must wear 50-79 for example. I don't know if college restricts other position groups as well like the NFL.
Understood, but the roster shows them having assigned numbers, so I'm guessing they each have a jersey with their number and name already on the back of it. We could just go old school like Penn State, Notre Dame, USC and the military academies.
I couldn’t see it on tv, but are the actual players changing jerseys, or are they just checking in with the refs and keeping the same jersey and pretending they have a different number?
They have to change jerseys. Mostly just special teams players. Tell them if they want to get on the field they need to pick a number that doesn't conflict.
