Ugh. I hadn't seen most of this. I really hate the "moving ahead a significant amount of time" device -- I want to SEE what happened, not have to play catchup to a whole bunch of new dynamics. IMO, it's a cheat. As a viewer, it throws me off-kilter, and it always feel contrived to me.

I really hate losing Smash and Jason, but it makes sense for Smash, at least, since he was going to college. I still don't know why they stopped with Jason being an assistant coach, because that was a good way to keep his character on-canvas.