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A cocktail of wine, beer and other various alcohol made Alex Lewis' potential transfer to Nebraska as fuzzy as his vision probably was last Saturday night. Would Bo Pelini dodge a bullet by yanking the transfer offer to Lewis or is what happened in Boulder a case of the worst possible timing?
Lewis was booked on second degree assault, which carries a sentence of automatic jail time in Colorado. However, any competent defense attorney can get that knocked down to a misdemeanor.
Even if the former Colorado offensive lineman ends up being charged with the lesser offense, do Husker fans even want him on the roster?
The majority polled said, "Yes, but..."
I can't disagree. If Lewis has been a character risk from evaluation to acceptance of his transfer request, this suggests two things:
Pelini was a horrible judge of character during the entire process or Lewis did a fantastic job of being on his best behavior despite being a potential locker room cancer. Both ideas are equally absurd.
If the official ruling is a misdemeanor, the offensive lineman will likely be sentenced to probation or community service, if not both. How does the Huskers' head coach truly drive home the necessity for the junior-to-be to walk the straight and narrow beyond the court's orders?
Switch it up, be creative. Start with a curfew, maybe random BAC tests. More importantly, Lewis has to come in under a zero tolerance policy, but that's a given.
Since Lewis has to sit out the 2013 season due to NCAA rules anyway, underscore that history can't repeat itself if he wants to remain a Cornhusker and let trust be earned naturally. Discipline's an important thing for an offensive lineman to have, after all.
What happened in Boulder was a bad situation that could've gotten worse very easily. There's no doubt Lewis knows this, and hopefully is willing to learn from his actions.
Bring him in, let his new family embrace him, encourage him, and prevent him from making the same mistake again.