Former Husker Says Defense Doesn't Deserve Blackshirts, To Throw the Bones

No Block No Rock hosts Jared Hall, Mike Delaware, Kyle Byers, and guest and former Blackshirt P.J. Smith discuss the Nebraska defense's performance and the iconic "throw the bones" celebration following their ugly win over Michigan State. They debate if the current defense has earned the right to throw the bones, emphasizing the need for improvement, especially against the run.

Below is a lightly edited transcript from the latest episode of No Block No Rock Podcast.

Mike Delaware: I've been watching the Nebraska football games and discovered that the defense—even like the last two years—there's been the Spider-Man, there's been a lot of things, but there has been no bones throwing. Nobody is throwing the bones. We've got all these guys earning Blackshirts and carrying on a tradition that I think is pretty prestigious in college football, and nobody is throwing the bones.

We have a Blackshirt with us today, and I want to ask you: Are you cool with people not throwing it if they don't need to throw it? Or do you want people to throw the bones? Like, if they've earned a Blackshirt, what are your opinions on that?

P.J. Smith: Listen, I love the Huskers. I love the Blackshirts. They don't deserve the Blackshirts right now. So if you don't deserve the Blackshirt right now, why throw up the bones? I get it. We have a lot more work to do. We have a lot of room to improve. The season is still early, so keep getting better every single day. And eventually, when the right timing comes, when the defense is really clicking and we're stopping the run and we're getting more turnovers, getting more sacks, setting our offense up with short field position—now we'll start throwing the bones.

Jared Hall: You might have some people that will push back on that for now, because if you look on paper—and not even if you just look on paper, if you look at the eye test—number one passing defense in the nation, and I think you could appreciate that as a former safety yourself.

P.J. Smith: You don't win a football game by just stopping a pass. That's fair. You got to stop the run first. It starts up front.

Mike Delaware: It sounds like you still got that nasty taste in your mouth from that Michigan game. I think a lot of us do, and I know that we took care of business. We won an ugly, at times, football game on Saturday, but I get what you're saying. It's like they got to do it more than one time.

P.J. Smith: When I was there with Bo (Pelini), Coach Bo had the number one passing defense in the country, right? But also, we were in the top five or top 10—you got to check the stats or something like that—when stopping the run too. Yeah, you know, especially with Suh and all that was there. Yeah, that guy was pretty good. He was a pretty good football player.

Jared Hall: The thing about this, well, look, you got Elijah Jeudy doing the fat Spider-Man. That was cool, though. Honestly, I laughed. I was like, that's a big Spider-Man.

One thing is becoming clear: While the Nebraska defense leads the nation in pass defense, former players like P.J. Smith believe they need to dominate the run game to truly embrace the Blackshirt tradition and start throwing the bones.

Rant incoming:

Not a single player this year has thrown the bones.

You’ve earned a blackshirt but after you make a big play you play Spider-Man instead.

Make throwing the bones great again

Rant over. #GBR #Huskers @AdamCarriker94 pic.twitter.com/ObiJ2pfqi9
— No Block💥No Rockᴺᴮᴺᴿ (@NBNRPodcast) October 6, 2025

Game Predictions for Nebraska at Maryland

Nebraska Football — Oct 4, 2025; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Michigan State Spartans quarterback Aidan Chiles (2) is tackled by three Nebraska players | Kylie Graham-Imagn Images

P.J. Smith: At the end of the day, it’s going to be a new day, new game, right? Maryland is going to be upset because they got embarrassed by being up 20-0 against Washington. That’s what it was. And losing 24-20. They’re going to be embarrassed. They think they’re good because they’re 4-1 also, right? [But] who did they play? They played against Towson, they played against Omaha, Concordia, Burke. We’re a better football team than them. Okay. ... We’re going to win this game. It’s going to be a 35-17 Huskers.

Jared Hall: I'm just thinking. The thoughts in my head right now are that Maryland is going to pressure Dylan a little bit, right? There’s going to be moments where, like, we’ve seen it already. And I think it’s just safe to assume that teams are going to game plan. It’s a copycat game. What did Michigan State do? Let’s just do what they did, because it gave them fits for two whole quarters. Blitz. Maryland is going to get their pressures. Even if they don’t get the sacks, they’ll still get the pressures. Maryland cannot run the ball. I’m sorry. If they run the ball 20 times, it’s not cool because they don’t commit to the run. They can’t do it. So, I think we make them one-dimensional in that way. I think this is going to be a 27-17 Nebraska win.

Mike Delaware: I think this team is resilient. I think there’s going to be some moments in that game where things aren’t going their way, but I think there’s something different about this team. Maybe the year three Matt Rhule thing isn’t double-digit wins or anything like that at this stop. Maybe it’s just building mental toughness, and teams are more resilient in year three Matt Rhule at Nebraska. And I think a road test, it’s going to be slow to start. I think Nebraska has not been on the road yet. They went to Arrowhead, but it was a home game. So I think it’s going to be a slow start, but I think Nebraska will edge out Maryland and win 34-13.

Kyle Byers: I think Nebraska’s got a good blueprint right now. I think there’s been a lot of testing the waters a little bit with dual-threat quarterbacks, Cincinnati, Michigan, and then kind of what accumulated from what they’ve learned from those two games is what you saw against Michigan State and Chiles. So I want to say Nebraska wins this one, give me 31-21

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