The truth hurts, even when it’s told tongue in cheek.

That lesson became apparent during the surprise birthday roast that Laura threw for Billy on All American Season 5 Episode 8.

Billy’s discomfort was evident. Most wrote his fidgeting off as his being the butt of friendly jokes, but it went deeper than that.

Billy had a secret only AD Barnes and Laura knew about: being offered the head-coaching position at scandal-ridden GAU.

As a result, he was lying by omission to everyone else who was influential in his life. No wonder he was so uncomfortable being the center of attention at a time when he wanted to slip into the background to think.

Laura gave Billy sound advice: talk to Jordan and Spencer about the job offer. Too bad he didn’t follow it.

It was understandable that Billy didn’t. He didn’t want to harsh Jordan’s Willmont buzz. And Billy thought he was betraying Spencer, not to mention his longtime friend and former teammate Coach Kenny, for even considering the offer.

But as Jordan eventually showed, he wanted nothing more than to play college quarterback for his father. And in his roast speech, Spencer said he wanted nothing more than to play for someone like Billy at the college level.

In other words, Billy as their college coach would be a dream come true. But the optics of the situation are horrible: Pushing Kenny for the position only to sweep in and take the post himself.

And there’s no explaining his enthusing to Grace how much he was enjoying being principal at South Crenshaw when he had one foot out the door.

Grace, who didn’t support Billy becoming principal, then admitted she was wrong about him, was right to be upset with him for thinking about leaving those South Crenshaw kids just for the opportunity to become a Division 1 coach.

Billy’s two “sons” are the stars of the scandal-ridden GAU program. But that necessarily doesn’t make him the best choice as head coach.

Coach Kenny is a better option as he knows all the remaining players and has already coached at the D1 level. But perhaps AD Barnes sees him as tainted as he was part of Garrett’s staff.