With Jason seriously injured, Matt must step up and become the team's first-string quarterback.

Coach Taylor asks Jason to attend the upcoming Homecoming game, who begins to suspect there's something going on between Tim and Lila. Smash feels the pressure of college scouts, even though he's still a junior. Tyra and Billy plan the ultimate party for after the game.

Jason confronts Lyla about her and Tim. Matt asks Coach Taylor's daughter is she would like to go out sometime leading Taylor and his wife to worry about her.

With a very intimidating opponent on the horizon, Coach Taylor deals with his former starting quarterback and his unfaithful girlfriend and his new starting quarterback dating his own daughter. Lyla and Tim face repercussions of their own actions, and Smash deals with having to go back to his old hometown for the big game and dealing with old feelings regarding his father, all the while facing the issues surrounding his secret steroid use, especially when his sister begins to notice the changes in him.

While everyone is focused on the cheerleaders, who have an upcoming competition, they focus on giving Lyla a hard time. Smash begins to show signs of steroid abuse, and Coach Taylor finds another way to occupy his starting quarterback in an effort to squash Matt's efforts with the coach's daughter.

When an assistant coach is quoted in the media with racial intentions, he draws a line between the team, right at playoff time. Julie and Tyra are forced to join the powderpuff game as a result for skipping class, and Julie's dad is a bit elated when she's picked for quarterback by Matt. Tyra, meanwhile, has a hard time dealing with her mother's growing relationship with Buddy Garrity, and starts taking it out on his daughter, Lila. Jason gets an invite to join the local rugby team.

The Panthers gear up for the state championship, as the rumor about Coach Taylor spreads. Meanwhile, Tami receives some news.

Matt takes it upon himself to try to curb Smash's enthusiasm for the upcoming season. Tim turns to Lila when he spots his brother leaving his neighbor's house. Jason turns his attention on Mexico in an effort to walk again. Buddy turns to Coach Taylor to convince him to return as coach of the Panthers.

Eric quits his college coaching job to return home to his family and the Panthers, but the latter doesn't look very promising when the old coach fights his termination after only two games. Tim accompanies Jason to Mexico where a questionable medical procedure gives Jason hopes of walking again. After making an appearance in the Lord's name in a boys' home, Lila takes it upon herself to show a recently-release inmate the light. Landry's father is called into work after the body that he and Tyra disposed of is discovered.

Upon returning to the Panthers, Coach Taylor finds himself trying to mend broken fences between his quarterback and his halfback and attempts to find a little intimate time with his wife. Tim recruits Lila in trying to talk Jason out of the risky surgery he has scheduled in Mexico, while Landry's father tries to put up a fence between his son and Tyra.

Upon returning to Dillon, Tim finds his team locker empty, while Coach Taylor deals with Jason and offering him a coaching job, while, at the same time, dealing with his own job not paying as nearly much as what he was getting the previous year. Lila's friend from the boys' school shows up with her father in hopes of a tryout with the Panthers and Landry's father nears the truth about his role in a death.

The coach's wife enlists the aid of Tyra and Lila to secure entertainment for the annual Pantherama event, while the coach enlists the aid of Buddy, who found a hot new football player for him, but the new prospective star has a family that's run out on him, and Tami won't let him play football until that scenario is amended. Julie enlists the aid of journalism in an effort to help her get over the loss of Matt. Smash doesn't want help from anybody, while he turns his back on the possibility of a great education, opting out, instead for a chance at more recognition from the pro ranks while playing for a more-notable school.

Tami manages to alienate her husband and her daughter. Smash manages to alienate a prospective teammate while on a college visit. Matt manages to alienate the young lady who cares for his grandmother and the girl from school who was sweet on him. After alienating the team, Tim still finds himself trying to get back on the team, which, embarrassingly, lost their last game. Landry agrees to meet the brother of the man he killed for Tyra, who originally agreed to meet the man who wanted to make amends for his brother

Landry gives into his better judgment and confesses about what he did while trying to save Tyra. Santiago feels the pressure about the upcoming football game, while pressure mounts between Julie and her mother surrounding the christening of the new baby in the family. Tim feels the pressure of his new roommate, while Jason does his best in getting back into the dating world.

Matt doesn't want to break his bond with his grandmother's nurse, who's moving back to her native country. Smash and Noelle are pressured by their parents to break the bond they have between them. Tami doesn't want to break the bond with her infant daughter by leaving her at daycare. And as Santiago's former friends show up at his house to retrieve their bond, Buddy feels the bond with his material possessions, while his daughter, Lyla, takes a job at a Christian radio station.

Brian "Smash" Williams is determined to get a football scholarship to college despite the recent events that have transpired. However, Brian is very shocked when the most unlikely place offers him what may be the opportunity of his life. Tami Taylor runs into her ex-boyfriend from high school, a big real estate mogul, and he decides to stay in Dillon for a few days. A few days proves to be too long as Coach Taylor begins to feel a bit jealous. Elsewhere, Jason Street hears the biggest news of his life since his accident and must decide if he is willing to change his life completely. Meanwhile, Tim Riggins continues his pursuit of Lyla by getting his own radio show at the Christian radio station. Lyla seems to be enjoying her current relationship with her Christian boyfriend as she goes with him to meet his family.

The press grills Coach Taylor about the upcoming season while the teachers grill his wife, the new principal, about the budget and the necessary cutbacks, while Buddy and the football team have the best of everything. A new quarterback enters the picture and Matt feels threatened and Riggins is still up to his old game plan about not feeling anything. Tyra's new guidance counselor lays some rather bleak news on her, causing her to walk out of school, only to find some personal resolve within herself to attempt to rectify her situation.

Coach Taylor asks himself whether he should shake things up when it comes to his quarterback controversy, while his wife asks whether she is able to shake things up because Buddy is schmoozing up to the school district's superintendent, Matt gets shaken when his mother shows up in town and Tyra shakes things up with Landry when an old friend of Billy's shows up in town and begins paying her attention and, finally, Smash feels a bit shaken up as his tryout date comes closer.