Last Chance U: Season 3 Review

For football fans, the summer months are a doldrums of things to help satisfy the hunger for games and content.  OTAs for the pros aren't here yet and college teams are even less active with at bets Media days to fill the void.  One of the best things the last two years though has been Netflix's Last Chance U.  The program followed the premise of Hard Knocks, just at a prominent team at the JUCO level instead.  The team at East Mississippi was filled with former Power-5 cast offs looking to spark an interest from other programs and fulfill the promise they tended to have in their recruiting rankings.  The show was very well produced, and the players, coaches and Academic Advisor were all interesting and provided drama for a behind the scenes look at a football team already knowing how their season and attempts to move forward went.

Its an important show to watch for football fans, in large part because it gets beyond the field.  It gives a look into some of the preparation for each week, and the grueling schedule and effort players and coaches must show.  It also shows the absolute struggles some of these players come from, and how for many of them football is the only answer to moving on from it.  The show is at its best showing the redemption stories of players having found themselves mired n addiction or violence, and finding a way to focus themselves back onto the right track and getting a degree and a possible shot at redemption. 

The show moved on from Mississippi this year to Independence Community College in Kansas to follow Head Coach Jason Brown's second year of a turn around of the ICC team.  ICC had been a doormat in one of the most competitive conferences at the JUCO level, but just a year in the expectations were set extremely high for the program.  Without divulging spoilers, this season was not as good as the previous two iterations.  The show needs strong characters to attach to, and this season lacked a likability of many of the featured players and coaches.  Jason Brown was more abrasive than Buddy Stephens, and the show showed only glimpses of the care he put into the players.  The season also expends a lot of time following him, when the previous years had a better mixture between the players and coaches.  It probably isn't helped that most of the players the show follows are sulky at their position in the program, instead of becoming resilient like so many in the past.

Overall the move to ICC should help the show remain fresh, since these interest stories have trouble maintaining authenticity as more people find out about them.  THis season though was light on the likability of the characters involved, and that hurt the show.  Its still worth a watch to see into a different JUCO program and the struggles these players have, but hopefully next season sees a shift back to player focus and to more stories of off field triumphs.  Below are a few more specifics but they come with a spoiler warning.