Remember when Ohio State’s defense was regularly referred to as the “Silver Bullets”, and it really meant something? Now the moniker has sort of faded away, although you will still hear die-hards like myself reference it from time to time. OSU has, and has had, more recent nicknames or terms that position groups would like to go by, such as Zone 6 and BIA (or DBU for the school itself).
Teams go through different phases or iterations where they create an identity or adopt certain media-created nicknames. Specific to football, the NFL had The New York Sack Exchange, Purple People Eaters, and Monsters of the Midway (among other great ones).