Prepping for USM

            Fall was threatening town, the way it always does, with a slow, menacing build-up that seems to crowd your space, take away your freedom of movement, and leaves you feeling hemmed in.

            On the plus side, working a stake-out in the fall is so much better than in the summer. You can wear real clothes, you're not sweating so much that you can't keep your glasses on. It doesn't feel like you're being kept in the hot-box of a Japanese POW camp.

            I was hard up for cash, so I went back to some of the early days of my career, agreeing to follow an old dude around, because his matronly wife thought he was pursuing a pretty young thing. I'd pocketed the advance money, and had bought a new pair of earphones that were going to go on the sheet marked 'expenses' that was lying forlornly, somewhere on my desk. The earphones were so I could listen to some different radio stations that I could dial in on my phone. The local sports boys get boring after you've heard them rant about the same thing for the sixth time in a day, just with a slightly different flavor.

            Tech has come a long way, it used to be, if you wanted to have some sort of distraction, you'd bring a portable radio, so you wouldn't drain the battery of whatever vehicle you were in. You were also a slave to the local market and atmospheric conditions. Now, I can listen to radio stations all over the world, through my phone, or tablet if I want to bring it along.

            I have two cardinal rules about my stake-outs, no visual distractions, which means no screens for watching, no print for reading, once the radio station is selected for the phone, it sits there on the passenger seat like a sleepy grandma on a road trip, not to be disturbed. Sometimes it takes an extreme amount of focus to set for hours, waiting for something to happen, and more often than not, nothing does.

            The other rule that must be followed without fail, is no smoking. This one isn't so much of a problem for me, but I will hire operatives to sit in if it's an all-nighter. Nothing gives an observer away faster than a parked vehicle with clouds of smoke oozing out of the window. Might as well rent a neon sign reading, "Keeping an I on U".

            I had snatched up a used Dodge B2500 for my Voyeur Vehicle. I had it painted primer grey, since I think that white stands out too much. Lloyd had wanted it painted like the Mystery Machine, from Scooby Doo, but I told him that I wanted it to be useful and that look would do nothing but attract meddling kids.

            Today was a Thursday, he day Matronly Wife assured me that Hubby went rogue. She suspected he was seeing someone on the side, probably that young Mrs. Cavendish, who was 60, I checked, but when your 75, I guess that counts as young, right?

            Hubby drove himself everywhere, and did a decent job, too. Very dedicated to following the rules of the road, never speeding, proper turn signals, proper lane changes, he didn't even slow to five miles-an-hour to turn right, made it very easy to follow. I picked up his Lincoln as it left the neighborhood and set off on his errand. He was an easy tail, and we bebopped across town for about 20 minutes. He turned his car in to the country club parking lot. I lucked out and got a good space to observe and wait.

            This was the hard part, I observed him get out of the car, lock it up and head inside. Khaki shorts and an aqua polo, not exactly golf attire, but he might have a locker, he might just buy new stuff, or he might not be there to golf. I wouldn't have eyes on him until he came back out, and I had no idea how long that would be.

            As I waited, I tuned in a radio station from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to get a sense of what they are expecting from the game, Saturday. I do this as a form opposition research, you can glean a lot from listening in to opposing fans. I hope they are doing the same to us. According to our fans, we have the worst coach, ever, and the program is circling the toilet of despair. They must be watching a different team than the one that is essentially 2 plays from being undefeated.

            They just want a good showing. Which they can do. They hung in there against Mississippi State, trailed only 14-10 at the half. While they might not be the defensive monsters they were in the 2000's, they aren't the train-wreck they have been recently.

            Their starting quarterback, Nick Mullins, has some decent numbers. He's thrown for over 900 yards and 8 touchdowns, through three games, and only three picks. His worst game was against MSU, and even then his QBR was 126. He's no Bret Favre, but he looks like he's capable of slinging the ball around the field.

            At first blush, the USM ground game looks pretty solid, but most of their production came at the hands of Austin Peay and Texas State. Jalen Richard, their leading rusher, has 322 yards on the season, over 100 per game. Against Mississippi State, he ran for 48.

            The USM defense looks a tad shaky. MSU gained over 400 yards and Texas State racked up over 600, of course the Bobcats also gave up that much, so it was pretty much a track meet. On the surface, it looks like Nebraska should be able repeat their South Alabama rushing performance against Southern Miss. That would be just fine.

            It might be close, early, it might even be a one possession game at the half, but I think that Nebraska gets it done, takes care of business and seals the deal and whatever other sports metaphors for winning you like. Final, Nebraska 41-20.

            I popped back to focus in alpha mode, when I saw my cute, little, old guy step out of the club, and crawl into a BMW Z4. The roadster sped through the parking lot and zoomed right past me as it sped away. Old Guy looked terrified as the red convertible accelerated by me. The driver, with long blond hair snapping in the breeze in a pony tail poking out the back of her baseball cap, looked determined and completely in control of both car and passenger.