This season, the MSU football team is looking for an identity. When head coach John L. Smith first came to MSU, he noted that MSU had a lot of good football players, but not a good football team.

As Dale Hitchcock pointed out in his letter "Uniforms without names need to go" (SN 10/3), the football team is not wearing names on its uniforms this year.

Unfortunately, Hitchcock, this isn't because the university is money hungry.

I'll admit, they often are, but not in this case. It has nothing to do with wanting you to buy a program.

This change in uniforms is to create a team atmosphere. No one player is above the team. That is the whole point of no names on the uniforms. It's to promote team unity and help the players play together. And Hitchcock, if you haven't noticed yet, the idea seems to be working.

This year's Spartans are playing well as a team. They're working together, and congratulating each other for good plays.

If you cut out 69 seconds of this season, it's been a fantastic year for the MSU football team.

Doug Petersen
accounting senior