Huskers Football: Alex Lewis’ Jail Time More Blessing Than Curse
James Snook-USA TODAY Sports
Unfortunately, the Huskers football program will be without offensive tackle Alex Lewis for a little while. 45 days to be exact. Lewis asked for leniency, but sweet Lady Justice wasn’t interested.
In his ruling on the case, Boulder District Judge Patrick Butler wrote, “The (defendant) was given a chance to complete the spring semester. He should not have registered for summer school knowing of this sentence. His football obligations and civil liability are not priorities for this court.”
Well then.
Long story short: Lewis is going to sit a spell in the pokey and will miss some fall camp. “How is this possibly beneficial?,” you may ask. Because of a very critical d-word that’s been spoken around campus for years now: depth.
While Lewis is stewing, Nebraska’s other upperclassman tackles (Zach Sterup, Matt Finnin and Givens Price) all get to go up against defense end Randy Gregory in some way, shape or form. That should be fun for No. 44, because none of them can contain him like Lewis can.
It wouldn’t be a shock to see semi-newbies like David Knevel or Dwayne Johnson try to take on the wrath of Gregory. Perhaps his sidekick Marcus Newby comes along for the ride.
Enough with the Gregory love for now, though. We all know he’s good, but that’s the beauty. If a player gets their butt handed to them on a regular basis, it’s going to become mind-bogglingly obvious that they shouldn’t be at the top of the ladder. At left tackle, anyway.
After Lewis takes his last bite of lockup chow, walks onto campus and bellies up to the training table, he’ll do so with his name penciled in as a starter. Regardless of whether that turns to black ink or not, throwing hot fire at the depth chart is necessary.
For a team that relies so much on the ground game, even as a decoy, the more bodies who can take a punch from athletes like Gregory, the better. That said, there are far more productive ways of building a solid depth chart than spending some quality time with 5-0.
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