Joe Doyle "JD" McCoy is a fictional character on the television show Friday Night Lights. He is the son of Joe McCoy and Katie McCoy. He was a quarterback for the Dillon Panthers. While he was initially sweet, timid, and obedient, he eventually changed from that disposition.
Personality[]
When he is first introduced, J.D. is polite, shy, nervous, and naive, as well as slavishly obedient to his parents. It is clear that J.D.'s father groomed him his entire life to be a star quarterback, not allowing J.D. to think or do anything that would distract from this goal. While the Panthers initially assume that J.D. is a spineless do-gooder, J.D. quickly begins to voice his frustration with the lack of control he has over his own life. At the encouragement of Tim Riggins, J.D. begins to take part in partying and girls, causing him to start clashing with his father. Combined with his skill as a quarterback and his status as QB1, J.D. starts to become more confident and assertive as well as more arrogant and cruel. By season 4, J.D. has transformed into a cocky, rude jock, mocking Matt for losing Julie and hitting on Julie specifically to upset Matt, which causes a fight between him and J.D. and irritating his friends to the point they cut contact with him. J.D. never realizes the error of his ways and remains rude and arrogant until he leaves the show before Season 5.
Season 3[]
J.D. joins the Dillon Panthers as a freshman from Dallas with a personal coach, Wade Aikmen. He is seen as the "second coming of Jason Street" due to his excellent throwing arm, and a source of excitement for the town of Dillon. As the season starts he is named QB2 behind senior Matt Saracen.
His parents are incredibly wealthy and invested in J.D.'s future, especially his father, Joe McCoy, who is a new but powerful booster. As time progresses, Joe attempts to persuade, pressure, and eventually bribe Coach Taylor into letting his son play in games as QB1. Joe's eagerness and support turns out to be more than that of a typical parent's interest in seeing their children do well; he is very controlling of J.D.'s life and tries to restrict J.D. from being exposed to anything that he views as a distraction. As a result, J.D. is forbidden to drink soda or alcohol, eat candy, watch TV, or spend time with girls. J.D.'s mother, Katie, is less controlling.
As the season progresses, it becomes clear that J.D. is a better QB than Matt Saracen. He outplays him in practice and in a game at which they alternated taking snaps. Coach Taylor is reluctant to make a change out of loyalty to Matt, but is eventually forced to do so. He replaces Matt in the middle of the season. While Matt, who started for most of his Sophomore and all of his Junior year, is best at the I-Formation, JD is better at West Coast/Spread Formation which was the overall consensus for the formation that the Panthers should use for the rest of the season.
Tim Riggins convinces J.D. to stop listening to everything his dad says and start having some fun. As a result, J.D. goes to a party, meets Madison Balman, and starts seeing her. Joe sees this as a distraction and blames J.D.'s relationship for the reason he had a bad game. This causes tensions to rise between J.D. and his father outside a local restaurant that many players and coaches are at including Coach Taylor, and Joe begins to hit his son. The Taylors run out to stop the assault and are forced to call CPS.
CPS's involvement puts a strain on the McCoy family. J.D. feels betrayed by Coach Taylor for calling CPS and getting his dad in trouble, becoming defiant. J.D. gets flustered easily and blames his teammates for a poor performance during the first half of the state championship game. Coach Taylor sees this and benches him due to his immaturity and lack of experience. Coach Taylor starts Saracen for the 2nd half. J.D. is left upset and crying in the locker room. Joe comes to see him and J.D. apologizes for letting him down, but Joe denies this, comforts him, and the two mend their relationship. Dillon nearly wins the game.
8 months later, J.D. is named Texas High School Quarterback of the year for his efforts.
Season 4[]
J.D. has become an extremely arrogant and disrespectful football player. He taunts Matt, telling him that it was too bad that he didn't go to Chicago so J.D. could get Julie. He insists he was kidding, but later at a party, J.D. hits on Julie. When Julie rebuffs, he picks her up to throw her in the pool. Matt shows up and gets in a fight with J.D. J.D. tells Matt that he sucks, that Coach should have never taken him out, and that the only reason he played Saracen in the second half was because Coach felt sorry for him. When his teammate Luke is transferred to East Dillon, J.D. and his cronies still hang out with Luke. However, J.D.'s arrogance starts to annoy him. When J.D. shoots him with a paintball gun right in the chest, Luke ends their friendship, calling him J.D. McDick.
J.D. is named Co-Player of the Week along with Vince Howard, and attends an event to give Peewee football players some advice. Vince says to Coach Taylor, "He's pretty arrogant, isn't he?" In the last game against East Dillon, his team loses 25-24. This defeat crushes him, Joe, and Wade Aikmen.
Season 5[]
J.D. is never seen again, but some think he was the starting QB of the other state finalist Hawks. That said, no one truly knows what happened to him as he was never mentioned in Season 5.