Blackshirts have been handed out

Enhance said:
I mostly agree, but I do think there's a bit of a 'chicken or the egg' here. I might lean towards the fans/media having had the biggest role on turning it into the clown car it became, but Bo's strategy set it all in motion. Making players 'earn it,' only to then see them deliver some of the worst defensive performances in program history, was never going to be received well. It just drew way too much attention to something that (sorry Jay Foreman, Jason Peter, et. al) doesn't matter much when it comes to winning or losing football games.
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Seemed to be received pretty well when Frost did it last year.   :dunno

 
I would suggest that Frost and presumably Osborne and many others with football brain have watched the team practice and learn and work hard upto this point.   If they feel that Blackshirts are warranted and have been issued, let's let them.play a couple games before we get so critical .

i foresee the defense actually playing like the Blackshirts traditionally did.   I think many of the naysayers (there seem to be about half the opinions expressed) will be quitre shocked at how good our defense is and I feel the defense may well be the strongest part of the team before it's all said and done this year.  I will be surprised if the defense gives up more than 30 points in the first three games, unless the offense turns the ball over deep in our own territory several times. or something.   Chinander and Company are an excellent defensive staff and the players will show a lot more speed and understanding and the number of errors will be greatly reduced. 

Long live the Blackshirts!! I hope another10 or so players are awardded shirts as well as we will play most of the twos as much as the ones anyway.  

 
jsneb83 said:
I believe it was received pretty well in Bo's first year as well...
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That's my point.  It's much less about what happens and much more about how things are going and whether we like the coach or not.

Tim Beck: Fullbacks are outdated

Husker Fans:  This guy is an idiot

Mike Riley: We're going to use fullbacks

Husker Fans: See!  This guy understands Nebraska!

Scott Frost: No fullbacks

Husker Fans: Yeah ... well ... uh... Go Huskers!

 
Enhance said:
I always felt Bo understood the tradition, but didn't quite grasp the optics of it all. Making players earn it during the season was fine and dandy, but it turned it into this big circus talking point every season which was incredibly ironic given his personality. And then, more than once, defenses would 'earn' the Blackshirts only to have a complete a$$ of a performance a week or two later. So, it ended up just sort of making a mockery of the whole thing.

I didn't mind it during Bo's first couple of years but felt he should've changed his tune after that. Hand them out at the beginning of the year and be done with it. Great defense is what gave the Blackshirts meaning, not the other way around, and I feel like the latter became more of a focal point at times the last 20 years.

I could be wrong, but I thought the '07 defense chose as a team to turn their Blackshirts in. Or, one guy did it and then a bunch of others followed.
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OMG the real walk of shame.

 
Enhance said:
I always felt Bo understood the tradition, but didn't quite grasp the optics of it all. Making players earn it during the season was fine and dandy, but it turned it into this big circus talking point every season which was incredibly ironic given his personality. And then, more than once, defenses would 'earn' the Blackshirts only to have a complete a$$ of a performance a week or two later. So, it ended up just sort of making a mockery of the whole thing.

I didn't mind it during Bo's first couple of years but felt he should've changed his tune after that. Hand them out at the beginning of the year and be done with it. Great defense is what gave the Blackshirts meaning, not the other way around, and I feel like the latter became more of a focal point at times the last 20 years.

I could be wrong, but I thought the '07 defense chose as a team to turn their Blackshirts in. Or, one guy did it and then a bunch of others followed.
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Here's a recap of the 2007 defense in re: how the blackshirts were surrendered/lost.  I only vaguely remembered Zack Bowman giving up his.

 
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Mavric said:
Seemed to be received pretty well when Frost did it last year.   :dunno
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Definitely. And as mentioned it was received well in Bo's first year too. I don't see how it wouldn't be received well in a context where the defense has been on a trend of underperforming and there is a new invigoration of fresh faces and concepts in the program. That's the best time to make players 'earn' the shirts, to bring the tradition back to a point of respectability.

But, I think the good point Enhance is touching on, is that what is a good strategy in year one, maybe two, doesn't continue to work later on. What starts/started as a refreshing return to high standards turns into a gimmick and a joke. I think Bo realized that but too late when he handed them out before the season started in 2013, and Frost seems to have gotten that way earlier on, hopefully.

 
C-4 said:
Can anyone identify all of the former blackshirts that came? I can only identify Jason Peter and Zach Bowman (and presumably one is Jay Foreman).
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Frost names them in the video clip about 14 posts prior to your question.

 
Mavric said:
Seemed to be received pretty well when Frost did it last year.   :dunno
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Landlord did a good job of elaborating on what I'm trying to say  :lol: . I think it made sense early on in Bo's tenure, particularly as his defenses improved. It even made sense in Scott's first year, too. It didn't make sense as the years went on for Bo, particularly as his defense got worse and figured out how to set historic records in the wrong ways.

Landlord said:
But, I think the good point Enhance is touching on, is that what is a good strategy in year one, maybe two, doesn't continue to work later on. What starts/started as a refreshing return to high standards turns into a gimmick and a joke. I think Bo realized that but too late when he handed them out before the season started in 2013, and Frost seems to have gotten that way earlier on, hopefully.
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+1.

 
Enhance said:
I always felt Bo understood the tradition, but didn't quite grasp the optics of it all. Making players earn it during the season was fine and dandy, but it turned it into this big circus talking point every season which was incredibly ironic given his personality. And then, more than once, defenses would 'earn' the Blackshirts only to have a complete a$$ of a performance a week or two later. So, it ended up just sort of making a mockery of the whole thing.
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That's the biggest problem I had with Bo's "earn it" approach. They'd have a good enough game and finally "earn" the Blackshirts, then they'd go out and post a stinker of a performance afterward.

I can't find it now, but during the Pelini era I posted something about how long it took for Bo to hand out the Blackshirts, and the results after he did it. I think in nearly every season there was at least one meltdown loss by the defense after they were handed out.

Bo's method would have been better if the defense was solid after they were handed out, but results didn't change. That's why it was a dumb idea.

 
JJ Husker said:
Frost names them in the video clip about 14 posts prior to your question.
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From left to right on the pic above:

Not sure, Jason Peter(s), Tony Veland, Marc Munford, Jay Foreman (tinaca big baby), Keslay Brothers, Steve Warren, and Kenny Wilhite, not sure who is one one knee at the bottom.

 
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