Where's my Black Shirt?

After giving up 422 total yards and 35 points, Nebraska's coaching staff decided this was the week to give out 11 blackshirts to the defense--the first time in the Bo Pelini era.

Is this really the week to reward them? Sure, the Cornhuskers won 45-35 and sacked Kansas QB Todd Reesing five times and picked one pass. But I remember when Nebraska defenses stifled opponents and earned the Blackshirts.

Blackshirts went to defensive linemen Pierre Allen, Zach Potter, Ty Steinkuhler, Clayton Sievers and Ndamukong Suh; linebackers Phillip Dillard and Tyler Wortman; cornerbacks Eric Hagg, Armando Murillo and Anthony West; and safety Larry Asante.

“We thought the physical nature of the play on Saturday, the great effort our guys made running sideline to sideline, we felt like that was a performance where they earned the Blackshirts,” said Nebraska defensive coordinator Carl Pelini in a story in the Lincoln Journal Star.

Guess if you look at the history of the Blackshirts, the coaches aren't out of line with tradition and it should serve as a good motivating factor. (Most of the rest of this is lifted from the ultimate source Wikipedia).

The Blackshirts is the name for the first-string defense of the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team. However, during the 2007 season the players decided to remove them because of their uninspired play.

The term originally dates back to the early 1960s and refers to the black practice jerseys that Nebraska's first-string defenders wear in practice. The first string defense came to wear black practice jerseys in 1964, when a defensive coach went to a local sporting goods store to get yellow practice jerseys, and black was the only color available. Long-time sports information director Don Bryant credits much of Blackshirt mystique to defensive line coach George Kelly, who served on Coach Bob Devaney's staff until 1968. Kelly was often heard yelling and exhorting the Blackshirts during practices and scrimmages. Eventually, the rest of the coaches began calling the top defensive units by the same name.

Now where do I get mine?