Maybe. But the guys getting "rotated in" later in the season aren't starters per se, just quality backups getting playing time, giving the starters a breather. It's called having depth, not 18 starters. Rotating 2nd team guys in was routine during Osborne's tenure. Still didn't stop him from identifying the 11-13 main dudes who got those black practice jerseys. Now if you mean that situational substitutions might lead to some specialty type players being, in a sense, "starters", since nobody else is filling their role, then I agree with you, it's a problem.
So has everyone else in the stadium who throws the bones when AC/DC comes tearing through the speakers. I doubt many folks refuse to throw the bones on Saturday because the blackshirts haven’t been handed out yet.
See my edited post Tuco. After I posted I realized what you were saying and edited to agree with you. My bad
You said that you are one guy who has adopted the whole defense as the blackshirts and I said that the whole stadium does every Saturday too. People throw up the bones when the defense takes the field, on 3rd down plays, etc regardless of whether the shirts have been handed out. People associate the D with the blackshirts and throwing the bones no matter if the shirts have been handed out or if we play like a Cosgrove, Papuchis or Diaco defense.
I think our high school used black ones to differentiate offense versus defense as well back in the day when I was running over linebackers.
Maybe not, but perhaps it is time to start vetting candidates through the Unicameral.
We had very good defenses throughout Devaney and Osborne's entire tenures. Far better than just "average".
Like I said before, this wasn't a thing until the 2000s and NU started to suck on defense. No one in the stands in the 70s and 80s were sitting around wringing their hands worrying about who got awarded a blackshirt. We were a lot more worried about how to beat OU and get to the Orange Bowl.Absolutely. Without the high quality play on defense over the years, the Black shirt tradition wouldn't be nearly as big of a deal to the program's history.The early Devaney teams from whence the name originates were also the number 1 defense in the country
I know it is a horrendous thing that former greats piss all over everyone's cheerios telling us what it means (or should mean) to wear it. But then again, maybe they have earned the right?
One thing is for sure. Having Frost handling the decision along with guys like Ruud on staff makes any decision he makes on handling the Blackshirt "thing" a whole bunch more palatable to the fan base. I really believe the emotional part of getting a Blackshirt for a defender is knowing that you've achieved starter status after working hard to get that status. As I stated earlier, I would like to see it become a year end award instead of a pre-season thing where IMO it doesn't really mean crap. IF you have guys like Stolt that you want to award one to early in the year, fine. But not many on the D are deserving at this point in time IMO.
The tradition from the general fan side is fully embedded. The NU defense is the Blackshirts.
Just for the record, I was fine with the way Bo wanted to handle it, I was fine with the way Riley wanted to hand out more than 11, and I'm fine with how Frost wants to handle it. I think the Blackshirt tradition should be adaptable to the needs of the coaches. If the coaches have a philosophy that only a few players should get them or that they need to be earned, I have no problem with that. I also have no problem with handing out more than 11 because the coaches thought the role players were a big part of the defense too. I don't think any of that is disrespecting the tradition.
