Trenton Luera, a former junior college quarterback, says Last Chance U got JUCO wrong by ignoring the strong team bonds and real development opportunities. He played at a California junior college despite housing and financial hardship, and argues the path works for earning scholarships and playing time if you avoid the common pitfalls.
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So the one thing that last chance U gets so wrong about juco football is that they totally miss out on the relationships that are built between the teammates and even the coaches. And this is just the honest truth coming from someone that went and played junior college football. Now, I did not go to East Mississippi, I did not go to Indy or Laney College, but I did play at a California junior college. And that is one thing that really gets wrong. And if you don't know who I am, I'm Trent Lawyer. I'm a former college quarterback and I now run your first scholarship where we help families get their first scholarship and more. And I've went to the junior college level. I met other guys at the junior college level. I've worked with other families that went through the junior college level. And I think that's the biggest thing that I can reflect on is that it wasn't only me, but those junior college bonds that you, you make are one of a kind. And that's something that they sadly don't really show in the show. And I wish they would. The show was, was almost more of a, I don't want to say a hit piece, but obviously it's reality tv. They want to make it very entertaining. They want to make it dramatic. And don't get me wrong, a lot of things are very true, especially the stuff about Laney College about guys struggling to make ends meet because guys are commuting from all over the place because of how expensive California is and the school doesn't offer housing. And so you get caught in these weird situations where guys are sleeping in weird places. I mean, shoot, my apartment was this tiny little. I mean, luckily it was a three bedroom. I've heard of crazy situations where you got four or five guys in a one bedroom, but we had five guys in this tiny little three bedroom, two bathroom. And that's just what you had to do. And so with that comes comes. Yeah, there's a lot of struggles and there's a lot of frustrations and craziness, but at the same time, there's also a lot of bonds built over that. And I think you miss out on that. You don't see that behind the scenes because you're going through this crazy and tough time not just by yourself, but with other guys that want to accomplish the same goal as you and want to see you succeed. I mean, you definitely see the side of like, yeah, hey, we're going to play this guy, we're going to play that guy. But like, oftentimes everybody wants everybody to eat. And, and that's a really unique thing. I never felt like there was any animosity or hate towards someone else because yeah, sure, like someone believes they should be starting or they're better than someone else, but oftentimes both are like. But like, to be honest, like we both want to do the same thing. And he's really good and I'm really good and you just want to succeed as a whole team because a rising tide lifts all boats. And I was on a pretty good program when I first came into it. It was not a good program. I think there was a season before maybe they won two or three games and then Covid happened, gave them a little bit of time to reset, brought in some really good guys and we went 74 the next season. If I'm right, we lost our bowl game to a really good team. They're running back went to Oklahoma, one of their receivers went to Oregon. So it was a tough one there. And then the next season we ended up going 10 1. Only game we lost was our first one. So we won on a 10 game win streak. And that was during that season. That's really what happened was like, yeah, guys were moving around. Some guys didn't do well, some guys did great. But you notice that everybody was like, shoot, we're all good. We should all be able to go to the next level. Everybody should go and be able to do what they want. And that's the kind of relationship that you see in juco that is missed out so much on last chance. You. I mean, I. I still. I definitely don't talk to all of my teammates. I only talk to probably a few of them. But the relationships I have with those guys are extremely close. They're. I consider them best of friends that I can hit up in any situation and they have the same go with me. But if I saw any. I was just thinking about this the other day. If I saw any of those guys that I was on the team with, any of those guys, I mean like literally any of them, I'd be like, dude, what's up? Like, I'd be so excited to see them because they're. They're my brothers in my mind, just because of the stuff that we went through. Everybody was going through tough times, tough situations, whether it was just practice or outside of that. And it's just a very unique situation and also just a group of bunch of good guys. It was just. It was a really good group. And maybe not every team is like that. I may be wrong, but that Junior college bond is different and anybody that's played at the junior college level can definitely testify to that. I don't think anybody will say that it's not like that. And so if you're considering going to the junior college level, I think that's one thing that I want to as a junior college athlete and having the platform that I do and the flop polar that I do, I want to be an advocate for the junior college level because it changed my life and I think it can change others as well. And there's just such a stigma around it and I want to fight that. And don't get me wrong, are there bad programs out there? Are there bad situations out there? Yes. And I would love to talk about how to avoid some of those pitfalls I see people fall into with junior college programs and some of the red flags to look out for and some of the situations I fell into that just. That happened too. And what you can do to kind of fight that stuff. But to say that junior college is something to be avoided or that it's like this bad thing is something that hopefully will go away. I doubt it ever will because Last Chance you is is a pretty popular show that, you know, really left a lot of thought in people's minds. So I don't think it ever will. But hopefully those that listen and have the opportunity to possibly go juco instead of taking an offer that they don't really like. I just want to suggest that you consider that route because I did, it worked out for me and if you go about it the right way, it works. It's a form of post grad. It's a form of college ball that just allows you to get that second chance, get more development, get early playing time rather than sitting around and entering the transfer portal, which I think too many people do nowadays because the transfer portal is an option, they go to schools thinking using it as a junior college, when in reality four year schools are not built for that, but junior colleges are built for that. And so it's just a much better, much better decision if you're unsure about your choices. So anyway, that's just what I wanted to talk about today. If you like this and want more content like this, be sure to like and subscribe and I'll see you later. Peace.
