Swap "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!" for "Do you want it?" and you've got your first parallel between Friday Night Lights and Netflix's newest docuseries, Titletown High.
The eight-episode first season, which debuted on the streaming service Aug. 27, follows the lives of teenagers in a Georgia town, where Friday night football is king. Love triangles, drama and rivalries emerge as the football players at Valdosta High School eye a coveted prize: the state championship trophy.
Sound familiar? Well, that's essentially the plot of NBC's Friday Night Lights, which premiered on the Peacock network in 2006 and ran for five seasons. Kyle Chandler led the series as stern, yet empathetic Coach Eric Taylor. While Coach Taylor often treated the Dillon Panthers like his own children, the real-life coach leading the Valdosta Wildcats—named Rush Propst—is more known for his tough love approach.
Prior to Titletown High, Coach Propst exited his position at Colquitt County High School in 2019 after the Colquitt County Board of Education ruled he had broken the Code of Ethics for Educators. By 2020, Propst's teaching certificate was reinstated, allowing him to coach once more. Of course, this was only the start of the drama, as, after landing his gig at Valdosta High School, Propst's contract was not renewed following alleged recruiting violations.
Coach Propst may also be familiar to our millennial readers, as he was the head coach in MTV's Two-A-Days, which also came from Titletown High creator Jason Sciavicco.
This difference aside, we found more similarities between Titletown High and FNL than just the big cat mascots. Titletown High's quarterback Amari had us thinking of soft-spoken QB1 Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) on the hit drama.
In episode one, Amari is forced to compete for his starting spot on the team after the COVID-19 pandemic inspired the transfer of Jake Garcia, a star player from California. Similarly, in season one, Saracen was briefly displaced when Ray "Voodoo" Tatum (Aldis Hodge) relocated to Dillon after a devastating hurricane.
Oddly enough, sophomore Zoey in Titletown High reminds us of both Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly) and Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki). Like prim and proper Lyla, Zoey is a key part of the Valdosta social scene, having nabbed a coveted invitation to the Sweet Sixteen bash. Yet, her Tyra side comes out when she can't seem to quit defensive line player Grayson. For those who need a refresher, in the earlier seasons, Tyra struggled to end her complicated relationship with Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) on FNL.
Catch the similarities for yourself by watching Titletown High on Netflix now.