Tyler Wortman called it “the biggest honor of my life.”
The senior Nebraska middle linebacker was one of 11 NU defenders to receive Blackshirts Tuesday before practice as the Cornhuskers prepare for Kansas State Saturday. Yes, 10 games into the season head coach Bo Pelini actually handed out the practice jerseys meant to honor Nebraska’s best defenders.
“I’m shocked,” Wortman said. “I don’t even how to describe it. It’s such an honor to be part of something like this. All the coaches were walking up to us and congratulating us.”
The current Blackshirts are: Wortman, middle linebacker Phillip Dillard, defensive ends Zach Potter, Pierre Allen and Clayton Sievers, defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Ty Steinkuhler, and defensive backs Armando Murillo, Anthony West, Eric Hagg and Larry Asante.
Just 11, and it’s not solely based on starters, as backup Sievers and Hagg, who’ s not officially No. 1 on the depth chart, both got them, while safeties Matt O’Hanlon and/or Rickey Thenarse did not. Weakside linebacker Cody Glenn was indefinitely suspended Tuesday by head coach Bo Pelini.
“The coaches told us 11 is the number,” Allen said. “Those top 11 guys are deserving of one; they’re not just going to give them to anybody. It’s got to be well worth it.”
Defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said the staff decided in a Sunday meeting following NU’s 45-35 win over Kansas to hand out the Blackshirts on Tuesday.
“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,” Pelini said. “So we put them in their lockers today and when they came out of meetings, they were waiting for them.”
Carl Pelini called NU’s following practice “the best of the year.”
“There was a certain level of excitement there and a certain level of our guys feeling a sense of achievement.”
Said Allen: “The target is on our back in a way. Everybody’s looking at you. Everybody sees the black. You’re only 11 out of 160 guys out here that has a Blackshirt.”
Bo Pelini doesn’t talk after Tuesday practices, and he did not mention the Blackshirts in his Tuesday press conference.
Article Courtesy Samuel McKewon of the Nebraska State Paper
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