Following arguably their best performance of the season in Saturday’s win over Penn State, Nebraska’s top defensive players had a surprise waiting for them in their lockers before Monday’s practice.

Defensive coordinator Erik Chinander confirmed on Tuesday that the staff decided to award a select number of the coveted Blackshirts practice jerseys this week.

The Huskers held the Nittany Lions to 23 points and only one touchdown in six red-zone trips while playing a whopping 91 snaps in the victory. The defense also had two sacks, six tackles for loss, an interception, and a forced fumble recovered for a touchdown.

While a few recipients posted pictures of their Blackshirts on social media on Monday, Chinander opted to keep any further details within the team.

“We did give out some Blackshirts this week,” Chinander said. “I thought the guys finally practiced the way we wanted them to last week, and we had a pretty good performance (vs. Penn State). The Blackshirts need to set a new standard.

“To be honest with you, if you want to ask the guys about it, that’s fine. But I think we live in a world where the Blackshirts mean more to me than social media, and Twitter doesn’t have to know about everything. I think it’s a special thing right now, and if you want to ask those kids about who got them, that’s great.

“But right now, it’s an in-house kind of situation where this tradition just means more to me than having to put everything on social media.”

No defensive players were made available to the media during Tuesday’s post-practice Zoom press conference.