Colton. Go.

FNL Update - Gregg Easterbrook “TMQ”

“Friday Night Lights” Update: The fourth season of “Friday Night Lights” has kicked off on DirecTV, and will migrate to NBC this winter. So far it’s quite good. SuperCoach Eric Taylor has landed at a troubled school, where we are meeting interesting new characters. Also the first plot “arc,” an eligibility scandal, rings true to high school football. Before this column moves on to the new show, let’s summarize what happened in the first three seasons.

SuperCoach Eric Taylor In three years at Dillon High, won one Texas 5A championship and lost another on a field goal on the final play; was fired. In Texas high school football, only two state title appearances in three years is a firing offense!

SuperWife Tami Taylor Went from tight-dress bombshell, to pregnancy and childbirth, to tight-dress bombshell again in about seven months by the show’s internal chronology. Was promoted from guidance counselor to principal of Dillon High despite never mentioning any experience teaching in administration.

Jason Street A star quarterback paralyzed in the show’s pilot, found success as sports agent in New York City. By the show’s internal chronology, became a successful sports agent at age 21.

Lyla Garrity The cheer captain, this fetching perpetual senior was reserved in Season 1, an in-your-face evangelical Christian in Season 2 and a sex-crazed vixen in Season 3. Now she’s at Vanderbilt: It is unclear which personality she took to college.

NBC UniversalTyra on “Friday Night Lights” — in her third senior year, she finally hit the books.

Tim Riggins A football star with a heartthrob baby-face, ingested fantastic quantities of alcohol which never affected his conditioning; quit the Dillon team twice in midseason; robbed a drug dealer; robbed a power plant; never attended class or did homework, yet was declared eligible by the NCAA and won a scholarship to the fictional San Antonio State. Note: In the scene in which Riggins robs a power plant, he and his brother load three spools of utility transmission cable into their pickup truck. Spools of utility-gauge wire weigh a ton or more, and are moved by forklift, yet Riggins and his brother hoisted the spools into the pickup truck themselves, then drove off. Two-axle pickup trucks carry 1,000 to 1,500 pounds; the truck would have collapsed.

Tyra Collette Dillon High’s hot babe, she never studied, and ran away with a rodeo star for much of a school year; entering fall of her (third) senior year, was depicted as a C-minus student; yet was admitted to the University of Texas at Austin, the prestige campus of the Texas system.

Landry Clarke A perpetual junior, straight-A geeky guy who became a Dillon Panther as a junior despite never having played football before (in Texas sports culture, only a gifted athlete could begin playing 5A football as a junior); successfully romanced Tyra, the most fought-after girl in town; beat a man to death with a wrench; tossed the body into a river; was vindicated when the dead man turned out to be a serial rapist; started a garage band and fell in love with a lesbian.

Smash Williams A star running back, was caught using steroids; led a boycott of his own team; tore his ACL and gave up his dream of college (he and everyone in the Dillon High guidance office appeared completely unaware that colleges give regular financial aid regardless of athletics); made a full recovery from his injury in about eight months by the show’s internal chronology; got a football scholarship to Texas A&M following a live-contact tryout that would have put the Aggies on NCAA probation. (NCAA member schools can scout and interview prospects; tryouts are forbidden.)

Buddy Garrity Owner of a car dealership, cheated on his wife and ended up in a messy divorce; sold his house to pay alimony; lost $70,000 in an investment swindle; was arrested for starting a fight at a topless dance establishment; an obnoxious rich guy muscled him out of his treasured position as head of the booster club. Of the FNL characters, Buddy’s life seems most true to small-town Texas.

The Dillon Panthers themselves Won the 5A state title in 2006 with a record of 11-2, and made the 5A state title game in 2008 with a record of 9-1, though a team must appear in 15 games to reach the Texas 5A championship.

Dillon, Texas, itself Was hit by a tornado, flooded and evacuated following a toxic chemical spill.