When Lloyd finally showed up, Mr. Beam and I had gone a few rounds together and the theme at 'Our Lady' had shifted to '80's retro. One of the performers was down to leg warmers and a pair of 'Hello Kitty' underwear.
"How appropriate," I thought.
Lloyd hurried into the bar and plunked his man-purse--I mean satchel, Indiana Jones carries one, you know, onto the table and sat down.
"Lloyd, my man, what's this 'project' I keep hearing about?" I asked.
"For one thing, it's not ready for the big unveiling. For another, there are a couple of components that aren't behaving in their designed manner. For a third thing, I have a thirst as powerful as my power supply, and that needs to be taken care of first."
I waved at the Space Oddity, who took and delivered Lloyd's Carling lager as fast as a Mercury mission.
"If you aren't ready to unveil the 'Project', what else do you have for me?"
Lloyd opened up his satchel and pulled out an iPad with a bright, red, Huskers cover. "I wanted to go over the offense with you, today," he said, matter-of-factly. ""Preacherman said he'd be over later to talk about the Blackshirts, as long as you were still here."
"Right," I said. ""Might as well get our mutual obsession satisfied instead of actually doing the stuff we get paid for."
Lloyd gave me a brief look, weighing whether or not I was serious, before deciding to proceed.
Lloyd made a few taps at the Pad, some with a little flourish that I couldn't decide was a security method or if he had succumbed to the prevailing iPad user showiness that made them look like concert pianists playing a toy piano. "The biggest question mark I have is on offensive line."
"How so?" I asked, leaning back in my seat.
"Barney has to replace three starters from last year, including the center. They are all big enough, but strength has been a question for years, now. The knock on Barney is that he gets big guys that get pushed around. I have a feeling that this has to be his best unit, show signs of improvement or even his +3 Osborne shield may not be enough to save him."
"Why does his Osborne shield get a +3?"
"If Barney goes, so do three other Cottons."
"Make it +2, Ben's gone after this season, anyway."
"Fine, +2. I think we'll be fine at tackle, even with Moore leaving. Qvale has come into his own, Sirles is getting better and better. Choi and Long could be really good guards, with Rodriguez in the mix. Throw in one of the Cotton boys to add depth and we have six guys that can rotate the four positions. Center is the big question. Justin Jackson, Cole Pensick and Mark Pelini are duking it out. We may not know who gets it until Saturday."
"Very nice, what else have you got?"
"We are pretty much loaded at the skill positions. At receivers, Enunwa, Bell, Turner and Marlowe all offer speed, Enunwa is a dump truck when it comes to blocking and the others have upped their game on blocking, too. There is a lot of call to bring Westercamp in, but I think he should redshirt. Throw Ben Cotten and Reed in at Tight End and Martinez will have lots of quality targets to throw to,"
"Speaking of Martinez, is he getting ahead of the curve, or is he regressing?"
"I'll get to him in a minute. I want to hit the running backs. Burkhead (I-backasaurus Rex), is the official Heisman candidate for Nebraska. Hopefully he wont have to carry the ball 30+ times a game. Abdullah, Heard and even Imani Cross could get into it to spell Burkhead with Marrow leading the way at fullback."
"Finally, the big question, is Martinez finally ready for the Big Time?"
"Dunno," Lloyd sighed. We haven't really seen him for eight months. We keep hearing that he has improved his mechanics. We hear that his leadership and demeanor are better. We hear that he is healthy. Let me put it to you this way, for the first time in his career, high school included, he hasn't had to learn a completely new playbook. With the skill position players at his disposal, there is no reason for him not to have a very successful season. Huskerfan will be happy as long as he doesn't turn the ball over and as long as the Huskers win. Any stumbles will have the wolves howling for his backup, whether it is Kellogg, Carnes or Armstrong."
With that, Lloyd shut down his iPad, relaxed and nodded to the Preacherman, who had just walked in.
Husk-husk and on the qb.
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