With Chord Overstreet leaving, Glee has a huge hole not just in New Directions, but in Mercedes’ love life. Amber Riley’s character, who has generally been lacking a decent storyline since the show began, finally got something good with the revelation that she and Sam were secretly dating in the season 2 finale. But now, she has a new man.

According to TVLine, Friday Night Lights star Lamarcus Tinker (who played the lovable East Dillon lineman Tinker) has been cast as yet another football player, but this time he’s also going to be dating. Tinker will play Marcus (formerly called Bubba), a big football player who started dating Mercedes over the summer.

Doesn’t anyone remember the last time Mercedes dated a black football player? It was when Kurt tried to set her up as an apology for spending way too much time with Blaine, and at first Mercedes was offended that he would just assume that she would want to date one of the only other black people at the school, but then she agreed to do it, though we never heard about him again. I guess starting a brand new storyline with a new character is easier than actually remembering that the other character existed.

If you watched him on Friday Night Lights (or as Travis’ college roommate on Cougar Town), you know Tinker is a likeable enough actor and should be great at the sweet, romantic moments with Amber Riley’s character. But only time will tell how Mercedes broke up with Sam and, more importantly, how long Marcus will be around. The average shelf-life for a couple on Glee is about three weeks.

Right now, I’m just grateful that the role isn’t being played by Alex from The Glee Project, and unless Glee is adding two new hefty African-American students to season 3, it also suggests that maybe he isn’t the winner despite being in the final four.

Glee‘s third season premieres Tuesday, September 20 at 8pm on FOX.

Source: TVLine
(Images courtesy of NBC/FOX)

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.