Lessons from Last Chance U Season 3

I just finished up the latest season of Netflix's Last Chance U and highly recommend any football fans watches. The primary focus has moved to Independence Community College in Kansas, but there is still a lot to learn about college football as it applies to BC. (There is also an epilogue on the main personalities from Season 1 and Season 2.) Here are some of my takeaways. SPOILERS AHEAD.

We don't know everything about some "elite" recruits 

One of the featured players is former Florida State QB Malik Henry. If someone like Henry ever signed with BC, the fanbase would flip out and assume that Henry would be on his way to winning four Heismans at BC and a few National Championships. Yet watching this guy play, you wonder how anyone -- including Florida State -- thought he would be so good. I think with someone like Henry, the hype starts early, perpetuates itself and no one ever stops to ask if the kid is really a great player. He's pretty thin and smallish, so you wonder if he could ever take a pounding. Based on the game action, neither his arm nor his legs seems special. Finally he is a royal pain in the ass who assumes he is great and smarter than everyone. As he hopped around high schools (four in total), how did no one realize he was a fraud? How did Jimbo Fisher not realize he would be a challenge? I think Addazio leans on "character" a bit much when he talks about BC. But I do think BC's emphasis on a player coming to camp, and being around the staff a lot, has value. You can start to find out what these kids are really like and who is just hype and ego.

Talent > coaching

Like the previous seasons, you start to see how great talent can cover up a lot of mistakes and make coaches look good. Independence's Coach Jason Brown admits as much throughout the doc. It is chaos on the sidelines and the practices appear very disorganized. Brown is futzing around with all sorts of administrative stuff (like pizza and uniforms) and yet they are still winning. They even overcome all sorts of infighting among the coaches, the players, and the coaches vs players. I want smart, organized, and stable coaches. But shows like this remind me that most champions are winning with talent more than they are winning with great coaching.

Still no BC presence

Last year's background clip of a BC game remains as close was we've gotten to the Netflix series. None of the players are in the BC mix. An assistant from New Mexico State (who works with Spaz and Doug Martin) shows up to recruit, but that's about it. That is probably for the best. Although they've moved from Mississippi to Kansas, the typical JUCO player remains such a bad fit for BC, that I have no problem with Addazio avoiding that route.

Watch Last Chance U Season 2 for more than just this clip of BC Football

In Last Chance U, Season 2 East Mississippi head coach Buddy Stephens goes to visit his father who has terminal cancer. While visiting, they watch BC football (I assume it is the bowl game). That is the only BC reference in two seasons of the Netflix show. For a variety of reasons, BC stays far away from the JUCO world. But don't let that distance keep you from watching. The show remains an excellent look at how the sausage is made in College Football. It is well worth your time.

Due to the popularity of Season 1, Season 2 takes on a whole different vibe than the first year. All the participants are hyper-aware of the cameras and how they might be portrayed. I also think the team and school benefited from the show's notoriety as there is an influx of Power 5 transfers looking to get back to the big time. East Mississippi made their name with Power 5 problem children, but this year's team had an unusually large amount of second chancers. I assume that when these guys went looking for JUCO options a year ago, being on TV was a major plus for East Mississippi.

But even if Scooba, Mississippi is a different world from Chestnut Hill, that doesn't mean there isn't a lot to learn. Our players deal with the same frustrations with coaches and classes. The bonding formed out of playing together and isolation from the rest of the world is similar. Plus the job aspect is the same. We want these guys to be playing for the love of the game, but most are using football to get somewhere else.

I continue to struggle with the hypocrisy and exploitation of college football, yet I still love it. Because of the nearly unlimited access, Last Chance U puts all of those issues on full display. And in the end, I still enjoyed the eight hours, was rooting for most involved, and couldn't wait for real football to start.

Lessons from Last Chance U

If you like football and behind the scenes sports documentaries, I highly recommend Netflix's Last Chance U. It spends a season with the players, coaches and administrators at East Mississippi Community College as the Defending National Junior College Champions look to win their fourth championship in five years. Because this is a JuCo, I think the players and coaches were much more unguarded than they might have been at a big university. The series is entertaining on its own, but also provides some great insight into the larger world of college football and provides perspective about how we do things at BC.

[SPOILERS TO FOLLOW]

Chaos on the sidelines

Whenever one of our coaches messes up a two minute drill, we all go crazy. Yet here is Junior College's most prolific offense -- in theory a fine tuned machine -- screwing up. At one point, the head coach didn't even realize it was 4th down or what the call was. And this team wins. This reinforced for me that so much of this is talent, talent and talent. East Mississippi is not winning because Stephens is some great Xs & Os guy or a great game manager. He's winning because he is out recruiting his fellow JUCOs and filling up on Power 5 talent that either can't qualify or had trouble at bigger programs.

BC will never be able to recruit JUCO players

It is not a good fit. I am sure we will have the occasional exception, but in general there will be very few JUCO players who would ever get by our Admissions Office. These guys are taking what amounts to remedial classes (Algebra, Basic Comp, etc.) and really struggling. Few seem motivated to try at all, even as their teachers and administrators hold their hands through the whole process. The only JUCOs we might ever be able to land are players like John Franklin III. He already qualified for an ACC team and is only at East Mississippi to showcase his talents. And based on what the conversation the East Mississippi people had with Auburn, he breezed through their classes with mostly A's.

And even if Admissions allowed our coaches to go all in on JUCOs, I still think BC would be a tough sell. Getting on a plane and going to Southeast Missouri intimidated Ronald Ollie. Can you imagine what it would be like trying to get some of these isolated and immature kids up to Boston? They all dream of the SEC. BC is a very different sell.

Academic Advisors are the unsung heroes of any successful program

The breakout star of the series is East Mississippi's Academic Advisor Brittany Wagner. She serves as den mother, big sister, baby sitter, tutor and school supply closet to the team. Without her, half of this team wouldn't be eligible. While the academic cases at East Mississippi are more extreme, don't think that this sort of support is not going on at every Power 5 program. Our players come to BC much more prepared than your typical JUCO, but there is a whole team of people at BC making sure they go to class, that they sign up for the right classes, that their GPAs remain strong, that they graduate on time, etc. You can question whether these players should even be in a college environment or what they are truly learning, but you can't question Wagner's passion or commitment.

There is still a lot of corruption in College Sports

It was just one passing moment in a six hours series, but I was surprised by the exchange between one player and a recruiter, when the player said he couldn't say what else he needed to commit "in front of the cameras."

The coach clearly understood what he meant and said, "there is nothing else. We follow NCAA rules..."

But as we all saw on Draft night, under the table payments are still alive and well in the SEC. I am sure it is rampant at other places too. If a marginal JUCO recruit is asking for extras, you can only imagine what the elite guys are doing.

BC is different but not that different

I think BC wants and tries to do things the "right way," but I am not naive enough to think we're perfect. Last Chance U isn't the same as a behind the scenes might be at the Heights, but there are probably more similarities than we would ever realize.