Former Nebraska football DC wants a return to Blackshirt basics

Former Nebraska football defensive coordinator great Charlie McBride believes the current way Blackshirts are doled out is too complicated and wrong.

It’s become an annual tradition to try and figure out how the current Nebraska football regime is going to handle the handing out of Blackshirts. Every coach since Bill Callahan has done something different with it.

It’s been a bit of a shock to the system of long-time Nebraska football fans who knew exactly how and when the Blackshirts would be handed out for decades. Now the man credited as really taking the tradition mainstream is speaking out, and for his part, he’d like to see a return to the way things used to be done.

Former defensive coordinator Charlie McBride, the man who helped fashion the Blackshirts into one of the most feared defensive units in college football history, wants a return to how he did it. And it’s not just because it was how he did it. McBride really believes his approach makes the most sense is the most fair.

McBride talked to Hail Varsity Radio earlier this week and laid out what he thinks is important about the tradition.

"“It’s not a punishment thing … it’s a thing where you have so many people that are starters. Period! And not half of ’em are Blackshirts and not a third of ’em, they’re all Blackshirts.”"

Ex-Nebraska football DC thinks using Blackshirts as punishment is counter productive

McBride went on to explain that he thinks giving some players here and some players there Blackshirts just causes hard feelings. He believes the same about taking the Blackshirts away as punishment.

Several coaches have tried to make wearing the famed jerseys more of an incentive program. Callahan and Bo Pelini started the tradition of taking them away after repeated poor defensive performances. The last few years of Pelini’s regime is when questions really started about just when the defensive unit would get those special jerseys.

That is a question t

The legendary coach went on to explain that it doesn’t need to be a totally rigid system. There might be 12 or 14 players who earn the Blackshirts if they’re rotating in, or there are packages where someone is basically a starter.

The defensive genius told one story that made it clear that the Blackshirts tradition is about rewarding guys for hard work rather than as a carrot and stick situation. When it came to bowl season, McBride would give ever defensive player who was a senior a Blackshirt.

Here’s hoping that part of the tradition, especially can make a return for Nebraska football.