admo Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 When talking bout blackshirts... 1 Quote Link to comment
skersfan Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 When the team shows the intimidation factor of the black shirt history, I will worry about them. Just because you are first team defense currently does not measure up to being a black shirt in my thinking. You guys will argue over anything. Now put your masks back on and go to the basement. Quote Link to comment
ScarletRevival Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 7 hours ago, knapplc said: What's your contention here? That under Devaney, they divided the defense into four groups in the Spring, the top unit was the Blackshirts, but in Fall camp they took the Blackshirts away for... reasons? Or whatever? My contention is that these 2 statements (1 of which is not yours) do not jive with how the Blackshirt tradition originally started as per the articles you and I both posted. "Just do what it was always intended to be. 11 starters at the beginning of the season. " "I care that they hand them out before the season starts" Per the Huskers.com article, "Initially, the black pullovers were distributed each day at practice and collected afterward. A player might have a black pullover one day and a gray one the next. They had to continually be earned." That pretty clearly shows that the Blackshirt tradition didn't start as "The 11 starters as of the first game of the season." Quote Link to comment
knapplc Posted November 21, 2020 Author Share Posted November 21, 2020 Just now, ScarletRevival said: My contention is that these 2 statements (1 of which is not yours) do not jive with how the Blackshirt tradition originally started as per the articles you and I both posted. "Just do what it was always intended to be. 11 starters at the beginning of the season. " "I care that they hand them out before the season starts" Per the Huskers.com article, "Initially, the black pullovers were distributed each day at practice and collected afterward. A player might have a black pullover one day and a gray one the next. They had to continually be earned." That pretty clearly shows that the Blackshirt tradition didn't start as "The 11 starters as of the first game of the season." They handed them out before the season started under Devaney. They handed them out before the season started under Osborne. They handed them out before the season started under Solich. Bo comes in and decides they have to "earn" it and all the armchair quarterbacks are all, "HURRRRRR DURRRR YEAH EARN EM" because whatever. It's a stupid distraction and it doesn't make the defense better if they "earn them" during the season. If a coach can't make his team ready from Spring through Fall Camp then a few games in September & October aren't going to magically make a defense "earn them" that late. All the work to "earn them" has to be done before the bullets fly. If they're still figuring out how to "earn them" during the season they're not prepared. And MAYBE THAT'S WHY OUR DEFENSES HAVE SUCKED THE BETTER PART OF THE LAST TWO DECADES. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 1 Quote Link to comment
B.B. Hemingway Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 The best traditions don't require this much thinking and/or debating. Hand them out before the season. That's it. Never take them away during the season. On occasion reward one to an emerging star mid-year. Quote Link to comment
Toe Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 10 minutes ago, B.B. Hemingway said: Never take them away during the season. Don't be afraid to take them away during the season - to hand them to the guy who just took the starting job. 1 Quote Link to comment
B.B. Hemingway Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Just now, Toe said: Don't be afraid to take them away during the season - to hand them to the guy who just took the starting job. There you go complicating things. Quote Link to comment
Toe Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 (article from 2007) https://kearneyhub.com/huskersnews/past-players-say-defense-lacks-the-old-swagger/article_dc951890-57f3-5432-9d7c-6e10f0091c8e.html Kevin Ramaekers was taking it pretty hard from Charlie McBride in a Nebraska defensive film room the Tuesday after a Husker football game in 1991. McBride kept rewinding a play over and over. It always turned out the same. Ramaekers couldn't do anything about it but sink down in his chair. "He called me the Dancing Bear," Ramaekers said. "He said, 'I can't believe I have a starting Dancing Bear on my squad."' That was nothing compared to what would happen a few hours later to the defensive tackle from Norfolk, Neb. Ramaekers repeated the same mistake in practice and McBride, the Huskers' long-time defensive coordinator, was coming with something way more damaging than a cutesy nick-name. Ramaekers was about to forfeit his "Blackshirt" practice jersey. Words could not describe what that meant to a 20-year-old sophomore who had wept only months before when he first found it hanging in his locker. "Coach McBride grabbed me by the neck and said, 'Take that off right now and give it to Jamie (Liewer),"' Ramaekers said. "If you were going to mess up, he wanted you going about 120 mph and I was going about 50. Talk about humbling. I walked down to the scout team and people were standing around thinking, 'This guy was a Blackshirt, and he just gave it away."' Quote Link to comment
krc1995 Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 I feel blackshirts should be for internal use only and not discussed with us at all. What’s the purpose? Motivation, but the shame of publicly losing one would have the opposite effect is I would think. Quote Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 37 minutes ago, krc1995 said: I feel blackshirts should be for internal use only and not discussed with us at all. What’s the purpose? Motivation, but the shame of publicly losing one would have the opposite effect is I would think. Marketing. They sell a lot of blackshirt stuff. Quote Link to comment
WyoHusker56 Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 So the defense is turning these in next week right? Quote Link to comment
Husker66 Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Black Shirts was so cool back when we had some of the baddest a$$ Defensive players/defenses in the country. Hell do those old OG Blackshirts even come around anymore? Quote Link to comment
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