If you like football, you will love Netflix’s six-episode documentary “Last Chance U.”
It’s a binge-worthy look at East Mississippi Community College’s quest for a third straight national juco football championship.
Set in Scooba, a lazy town of 700 that lies in central Mississippi along its eastern border, this truly candid portrait of the ugly side of junior college football focuses on coach Buddy Stephens, his athletes and their preparation for a crucial game.
If you don’t like football, I am betting you will still enjoy it because the riveting series shifts focus to the dramatically higher stakes for the players — many of whom are talented but academically challenged and are facing their last chance for recruitment by a college team and ultimately a shot at the NFL.
You don’t have to care or know anything about football to become completely engrossed by the vivid characters and unexpected twists in the series that many are comparing to “Hoop Dreams.”
“‘Last Chance U’ is the show you should binge watch this weekend,” says GQ Magazine.
The Miami Herald’s review reads like this: “Ready to binge-watch some football? ‘Last Chance U’ does the trick.”
I watched all six episodes last Friday night. I was hooked from the start and hated for it to end.
Being quite familiar with the dark underbelly of juco football and with the way some of the coaches interact with their players, I didn’t find anything real surprising. I am guessing some were taken aback by Stephens’ vulgarity and his in your-face approach to practice.
I have never been a fan of his anyway, and as the credits rolled on the final episode, I was positive I would never change my tune as far as that idiot was concerned.
Those who watch it will quickly learn everybody is using everybody. The top players don’t want to be stuck in Scooba, but they bear it because they know it’s their “last chance” and best chance to make it to the big time.
Most of EMCC’s roster should be playing Division I football but either flunked out or were kicked out of their first choice school or never had the grades to land a D1 offer. None of the players want to be there as evidenced that many have a countdown app on their phone as they struggle with the boredom of small-town life.
The on-field action is great, but the real tension is between the players and the system, and the players and themselves.
It’s a system that for some reasons still uses the word scholar-athlete for what are no more than hired guns who will be there one, maybe two years, to bring home titles while pushing the academically ungifted along to be the next teacher’s problem.
What makes this six-part series the binge-able attraction it is, of course, are the characters.
And academic advisor Brittany Wagner is the most love able. She handles a nearly impossible job with great grace and caring.
Wagner has reported great feedback from those who have watched. She has gone from less than 200 followers on Twitter and Instagram to nearly 7,000 since “Last Chance U” debuted on July 29.
Now the hefty EMCC head coach, on the other hand, comes off as a hot-headed lunatic even though we see a softer side of him at home with his family. But overall, I can’t see how Stephens can like what he sees in the mirror after watching the series.
His colorful vernacular and sometimes questionable personal conduct — which resulted in a two-game suspension following an R-rated exchange with an official and heated confrontations with players — make him hard to like.
“Some of it was tough to watch,” Stephens said in a recent interview. “We watch film with the kids each day in practice to correct what they’re doing wrong but we, as coaches, don’t get to see ourselves. Watching this made me realize there are things I can do better as a coach, and as a father.”
But that hasn’t deterred Stephens from doing it again. He met with the producers and school officials two weeks ago to discuss a possible second season.
Maybe Stephens wants a second go-around to polish his image, which was truly tarnished.
But in the end, his job is to win football games, and he certainly has no problem doing that.
