Let’s talk about Nebraska’s football uniforms.

It’s a topic that inspires a lot of impassioned debate.  We all want the team to play well, but many fans (and players) want the team to look good while they do it.

Some fans (like me) love the timeless simplicity of what Nebraska wears.  The white helmet with the red, sans serif N.  Red jerseys with white pants at home.  White over red on the road.  Striped pants are optional… but strongly encouraged.  Like a fine wine, Nebraska’s look gets better with age.

But some fans want more.  They want modern flair and current trends.  For them, “Go Big Red” means wearing red jerseys and pants.  All white?  Alright!  That interlocking NU helmet from 2021?  Bring it back.  Maybe put the Iron N or script Huskers on the helmet.  And black is most definitely a school color.

Are the Blackshirt jerseys back?

Over here, we talked about the possibility of Nebraska’s “Everybody Gets a Blackshirt!” jerseys coming out of retirement as NU’s alternate uniform for 2024.

But what if they ended up being used as a “third uniform”:  being worn two or three times a year, instead of a typically one-and-done alternate uniform?

When the Blackshirt alts were originally released in 2019, (then head coach) Scott Frost said they could be a reward for a strong defensive performance:

“I think by next year (2020), hopefully, we have a home and away version of this. And down the road, I’d like to see it be a tradition that if the defense has a great game and holds an opponent under so many points that they earn the right to earn Blackshirts the next week. I think that would be another source of pride for our defense.”

Per Frost’s vision, a white, road version of the Blackshirt jersey (which I refer to as “White is the New Blackshirt“) was teased in a horror movie hype video in 2020.  However, the white Blackshirts uniform has never been worn. 

And the Blackshirt jerseys never saw the field again after 2020.

The black jerseys had an uninspiring debut against Indiana in 2019.  Their miserable follow-up performance against Illinois in 2020 – and the factors below – seemingly put them away for good.

1. The defenses of Scott Frost era didn’t produce a lot of performances worthy of special celebration. From the on-field debut of the Blackshirt jerseys through the end of the 2020 season, Nebraska allowed an average of 29 points per game. Only one opponent (Maryland in 2019) was held below 21 points. 

2.    Former A.D. Trev Alberts – who was hired prior to the 2021 season – was very big on “brand consistency”.  As part of that, I have heard that he did not want University of Nebraska teams wearing black.  Why?  Maybe the former UNO A.D. felt that black is Omaha’s primary color.  Maybe, as a legendary Blackshirt, he has strong feelings about offensive players and third string defenders wearing the storied jerseys that had to be earned daily.  Regardless, during Trev’s time in Lincoln, there were little to no black uniforms from any team.

But now, things have changed.  Alberts is gone.  His replacement – Troy Dannen – appears to have flashier tastes.

Troy Dannen, college football fashionista?

During Dannen’s time as Tulane’s Athletic Director (2015 – 2023), he brought back the “Angry Wave” logo, one of the best logos in college sports.  Since that move, the Green Wave have had some of the prettiest uniforms in the game, employing a mix-and-match approach with dark green, baby blue, white, and black versions of their helmets, jerseys, and pants. 

While Tulane has not gone “full Oregon” with wild designs, every week feels different from the last.  Tulane has worn more than 25 different helmets since Dannen brought back the Angry Wave.

Is Dannen looking to spice up Nebraska’s look?  From his comments and early actions, Dannen’s focus is on NIL, revenue generation, and other big picture topics.  But, in his first few months at Nebraska, Dannen has shown a knack for saying “yes” to just about anything Head Coach Matt Rhule wants.

What does Matt Rhule want in a football uniform?

As a Paterno-era Penn Stater, it is easy to assume that Matt Rhule has a taste for minimalist, iconic uniforms.  But his head coaching history tells another story.

When Rhule was at Temple, his teams seemingly lived in a mix and match randomizer.  His Owls had maroon, black, and white versions of their helmet, jersey, and pants.  By my quick count, Temple wore a dozen different combinations in Rhule’s final three seasons (2014 – 2016) before heading to Baylor.

In Waco, Rhule found the equipment room closets overflowing.  A 2016 article said that the Bears had 120 potential uniform combinations.  A uniform redesign in 2019 (Rhule’s final year) gave them a fresh mix and match set of green, yellow, and white. 

Husker fans who want Nebraska to wear all-red or all-white should note that Rhule’s Bears loved the “color rush” look.  In 16 of the 39 games Rhule coached, Baylor wore one color from head to toe.

Could NU go monotone?

I don’t follow recruiting very closely.  But I’m always amused when recruits come and do the dress up photo shoots. 

Johnny Fourstar tweets out a picture from his visit, wearing an all-red or all-white uniform.  In addition to the barrage of grown men tweeting at 17-year-old kids, the debate on if Nebraska should wear all-red or all-white uniforms gets restarted.  Younger fans rave about how “sick”, “clean”, and/or “fire” the color rush looks are.  Old heads get PTSD from the all-red Oklahoma game in 1986, and NU’s 5-14 record in “surrender whites” since 1990.

While I’d be perfectly happy if Nebraska only worn red over white at home and white over red on the road for the rest of my life, I know that’s unlikely to happen.  The kids want what they want, and we’re very much in an age where they get what they want.

I wouldn’t be shocked if Nebraska goes “color rush” at some point in 2024.  While I have an irrational fear about doing that against Colorado (seriously, does anybody remember the 1986 OU game?), test it out against Northern Iowa.

If Black is back, do it right.

Let’s circle back to those black jerseys.

There was a time when I was staunchly against Nebraska wearing black.  I’ve since come to accept that many fans – and especially players and recruits – love black uniforms.  Their voice is louder (and more important) than mine.

But if Nebraska is going to wear a black uniform, they can do better than the current “Everyone Gets a Blackshirt” jersey.  Good uniforms are described as “clean”.  The Blackshirt jerseys from 2019 and 2020 are a filthy mess.

Here are three simple steps to turn the black uniforms from a tried-too-hard disaster into one of the better black uniforms in the game:

1.    Lose the Blackshirt skull and crossbones on the sleeves. 

If the tradition and legacy of the Blackshirts is as important as we’ve been told throughout the years, it should be insulting for third string defenders to be wearing it, let alone offensive players.

You can still call it a “Black Shirt” uniform without making them look like a game version of the storied Blackshirts practice jerseys.

2.    Pick one secondary color and go with it.

The current version of white numbers on the jersey, red TV numbers, and red names on the back is too much.  Ideally, you just take the current uniform and render it in black with one other color.  Would black and white work?  Would black and red (with, maybe, a white outline around the letters and numbers for legibility) be better?  Show me the mockups!

3.    Go all-in on the black.

Bring back the black pants from 2020 to create the trendy monotone “color rush” look.  And here’s a bombshell from my old, traditionalist fingers:  wear a black helmet with the “N” in the secondary color.  Heck, maybe for the black helmet you mix it up with the interlocking NU, or for a nice throwback twist, the old sans serif “NU” from the last 1960s.

Down the mix and match slippery slope?

Once Nebraska has a black version of the base uniform their rotation, the next uniform push would be for mixing and matching red, white and black components into unique combinations.  That’s a slippery slope that I’d like to avoid.

But as we discussed above, Matt Rhule strikes me as a guy who is not tied to strict uniform convention.  Troy Dannen has shown that his job is tell Rhule “yes” as much as possible.  And most fans are so desperate to win that we’re willing to let Rhule do pretty much anything he wants if he thinks it will help – even tinkering with Nebraska’s iconic uniforms.