We don’t have a tag for it but, jeeze, that is a hell of a mug on Mike. I recognize it’s hard to draw differentiated characters absent giving them wildly varying hairstyles – befitting the spirit of youthful experiemntation – but I’m not sure just what the heck Whigham is going for here.
Hey it’s a lineman who wants to be something else. No, wait. It’s his uncle who wants him to be something else.
Bonus point: If you like sideburns, today’s strip is for you.
Well its now all over but the shouting – a few more tosses of the flatbread loaf, and not only does Case talk about the book he isn’t gonna write, but he finally decides that this whole exercise was a waste of time because he announces to Trey (who Did shout) that his future is …. hold it… BASKETBALL. Just like it was when we started this whole pointless plot. Thanks a lot Heather. I have officially rejected both your football knowledge and all your phone calls lining me up to go to college and be a history teacher. Cripes.
Not only that, he wasted Treys time both losing practice time for hoops but making Trey go home and stew at his house. Only one whose time wasn’t wasted was Gil. He’s over at Milford GC teaching golf as usual.
Boy, its one thing to do a stupid plot for 2 months, its quite another to do the whole thing and then end up in EXACTLY THE SAME PLACE YOU STARTED!!!!
What does Heather do now? Case made her late for fall semester and all he has to say is ‘ Time for basketball.’ !!
Hope they toss all these characters into the pre-season football bonfire.
Specifically, the friend at Iowa wants to fill you in that classes have already started and they easily handled Wyoming last Sunday during their home opener.
Bonus Point: Nice spiral on that ball, Jaquan! Have you considered becoming a Pro-Bowl Quarterback at the age of 30? Get out there and explore!
Minus Point: Heather looks way out of position to catch that throw. Don’t give up on catching it! Or Anything.
Josh Fruhlinger had some pretty hilarious commentary on pursuing graduate education in History the other day. I myself hold a degree in history but went to many too many professional graduate schools thereafter. (Like Vaganova and concussions, after your first one or two, you really don’t remember the third and fourth).
I don’t have much to say about today’s strip other than I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow for Jaquan’s next stunning reveal.
“Hey! Hey Heather! Remember me? Remember Kevin, the guy you were supposed to be coaching to become a fullback?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. About that. You couldn’t hang onto a ball if it was tied to you… and almost nobody uses fullbacks anymore, not even Coach Thorp. You can tackle and ballhawk and you’ve got long hair, right? Worked for Polamalu and Matthews. Now go wash that greasy mop of yours and get back on D.”
Poor Pelwecki, looking like a lovesick calf and so starved for attention since Jaquan and Trey showed up he’s resorted to hugging a football like a Pillow Pet. Maybe Trey will take him back to his folks’ house-cum-satellite training facility and give him a pity drink on the back porch.
Meanwhile Heather’s hitched her wagon to a bigger star, who seems to be looking out for her as much as she for him. We’re left with the cliffhanger of to whom and for what were those calls made.
Unseen panel 4: “Jinx!”
So after all the talking and running catching and drinking and resting and more talking, its back to home base with Trey to discuss this long convo that accomplished … hardly anything.
Just blows me away that we’re still at loggerheads over at least 3 things –
Can Case still play basketball? (Thats what Trey was helping him with before he went home to drink a shandy)
Can Case play pro football? (Thats what Heather is trying to tell him he can do if he works hard enough. But we thought he was rehabbing for basketball)
What is Heathers level of competence in deciding Cases’ future? ( Both she and Trey dropped what they were doing originally when something better came along, she dropped Pelwecki and helped Case, Trey and Pelweki went home to stew about things, Gil went to the golf course, and True? Yep, he dissappeared too after his minor contribution of playing QB to Cases WR.)
Now even Heather doesnt know what she wants to do. And yes we’ve conveniontly forgotton about that. Unless in P3 she’s on her laptop hunting for a journalism job because Case rekindled her interest in it.
Hey, how about Trey saying he needs to be around sane people for a while, then he’s sitting by himself drinking at home. I guess he’s the only sane person in the strip.
And if it wasnt for Case, Heather would be doing what she didnt really want to invest her future in, coaching football and meddling in athletic training. And by the way, she’s missed about 3 weeks of class at this moment. Nice that she has time to look for a job.
Maybe the moral of this plotline is Heather and Jaquan both discover what they really want to do because they met each other, while the though-to-be principal characters in their respective lives wind up only being window dressing.
Bring on the bonfire!
P1: Shaq retired in 2011. Just saying.
P2: So, one of the highlights of following my local collegiate basketball team when I was a kid (I am now an old man with kids of my own) is that they beat a visiting LSU team featuring Shaquille O’Neal. Just saying.
P3: Seriously, we’ve all kind of skirted around this but he is a thirty year old NBA veteran and she is nineteen, maybe eighteen. Not just saying…
Bonus point:
Each panel has a hilarious depiction of a car. I would even argue that panel three is actually showing a golf cart that Gil drove from Milford CC and abandoned at Milford HS.
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