BYU football replacing player names on jerseys with “Spirit,” “Honor,” and “Tradition” (what, no “Pride”?) pic.twitter.com/Ycl67O0V5B — Paul Lukas (@UniWatch) August 8, 2013

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall surprised his team on Thursday by announcing at media day that players would wear jerseys this season with the words “Spirit,” “Tradition” or “Honor” written on the back instead of their last names.

Senior defensive lineman Eathyn Manumaleuna summed up the thoughts of his teammates to The Deseret News.

“It caught us off-guard. It’s up to (Mendenhall). I think it’s a good idea for us to be unified, and when people see us on TV to see what we represent. That was the main idea. With that in mind, it’s a good idea. If everyone knows the purpose behind this, I think they’ll understand. Right now, I think the players are just mad that they don’t have their names on the back of the jerseys.”

After joking that he was adopted by “Tradition” and expressing hope that people would still know his last name, running back Jamaal Williams said he understood the move and was fine with it. But, he added something else. “If they change it back, we’re cool with it,” he said. “If they don’t, we’re going to have to go through it and play the season.”

That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement. “We’re going to have to go through it,” makes it sound like they’re flying through a blizzard. It’s not the attitude you want on an day of optimism like media day.

Mendenhall understood the players’ concerns and the names were back on the jerseys by Thursday night. That’s the sign of a coach who has the pulse of his players.

The thing is, Mendenhall probably could have pulled this off if he hadn’t tried to make it a surprise. A surprise is having new cleats in players’ lockers or revealing that the team is getting iPad playbooks. Taking names off of jerseys was too drastic. It was an idea that had to marinate for a few weeks.

If he had brought it up during spring practice and hyped it up over the summer, players may have come around. It’s like when I put a second television on my family room wall. If I had just put it up there, there’d have been some blowback from the woman I’m related to by marriage. So I had to pepper it into conversations, then suggest we watch tape-delayed tennis matches at night instead of So You Think You Can Dance. A few days of that and she was a bigger supporter of the idea than me.

Mendenhall went all-in and lost. But, unlike others who gamble, he was smart enough to walk away at the right time.