Playoff fever has infected East Dillon High School. For all of the distractions that life keeps throwing his way, Coach has tried his damnedest to keep his eye on the prize: State. Between former problem players and current job offers and Buddy Garrity, everything was getting in the way of that goal, except for the Coach himself. The Riggins family gets the good news that it has been waiting for, but I’m not sure they know what they are in for. While things turn bad for the Howards, Luke and Becky continue to develop into the cutest couple Friday Night Lights has ever seen. Just another Friday night in Dillon.
It was only a matter of time before Tim Riggins would finally make it home. I’ve been wondering as to how he would have been changed by his time in prison. We only got to see glimpses of it this week, but things were not looking good. I was blown away by his decision to request Billy not speak at his parole hearing. At first glance it is about Tim wanting to best take advantage of the opportunity. But when he completes the thought by talking about how much Billy has ruined his life, his real feelings were apparent. We’re tuning into Tim’s journey down the rabbit hole midstream. I just hope three episodes is enough time for someone to rescue our brooding hero from the despair he developed in lock-down.
It looks like Eric Taylor is staying in Dillon. From my point of view, he’s making a big mistake. Young coaches who move around always face the dilemma of leaving their teams and the individual players they’ve connected with. It is not insurmountable, and you can’t say that Taylor is more emotionally attached to his team than all of the real life coaches who are in the same position. A head coaching position at a Division I (I’m sure FCS and not FBS … think William & Mary or James Madison University, not University of Virginia or Virginia Tech. And yes, it should be apparent where I grew up) is a game changer as far as quality of life goes for the Taylor family, as well as what his future looks like. Unless we’re to believe that he wants to stay in Dillon the rest of his life? The town that just two years ago threw him to the Lions (pun very much intended)? There’s no way sticking around long-term is in his best interest.
Luke’s fall from being a top-notch football player to what is basically an “also-ran” when it comes to college recruiting was a bit swift for my tastes. He was offered a football scholarship to a private high school just last season. Now he can’t even get a partial scholarship at an FCS school. I’m not overly invested in what happens to Luke after high school (other than him being with Becky … those two are great together), but it just seems odd.
I sure hate it for Vince and Ornette. While it is difficult to paint a character who simply trusted his father as being in the wrong, Vince placed his faith in the wrong person. Ornette, despite his very real pride for his son’s accomplishments, is going to revert to his base nature, seeing Vince as a meal ticket instead of a son. Eric Taylor stood up for Vince last season when he was at his worst, and set the pieces in motion to give him all of the opportunities that Ornette is wasting.
I’ve never felt the need to avoid the following week’s previews as far as spoilers go. However, I’ve also never felt so much goodwill after a great episode like tonight get tossed down the toilet after watching the previews as I did this week.
Notes & Quotes:
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Jan 20, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
“Does anyone else find it odd that a college is recruiting a new head football coach during what should be the middle of their season?”
It was made clear at the beginning of the episode that this program is just getting started and will become a Division I school next year. Even if they were in the middle of their season, it’s not uncommon at all for schools to fire their coaches before it’s over. My alma mater, the University of Washington, did just that when they fired Ty Willingham during the 2008 season.
*POST AUTHOR*
What I understood was that Shane State was going from D II to D I.
Though, you’ve got a good point about a coach being fired midseason.