NCAA Football 07

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

How many players can you have on your roster max when it comes to cut time?

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

55 I think.

[Guest Princess Leena]

70.00

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Oh yeah. I was thinking of MLB, sorry. I thought it was more like 60-65?

[Lightning Flik 0]

Leena, I don't really have that problem. I just sign the 5s and 4s, grab hold of a promising few lowbies, and viola. I've got my team.

 

Rotate a few around and good to go. If I don't really need anyone this upcoming season, I don't think I'll go hunting for anyone. Although, I've got like 13-20 players leaving, and I'm guessing that Hunter and Sanders will finally leave my program this coming season (unless these guys really are wanting to stock up their draft stock), so I'll probably need some players. I don't think I'm gonna go out buying the farm like I did this past off season (22 Freshman, 11 red shirted).

 

Oh, and just what the hell does red shirting do anyways? I never got that. Other than it adds a year.

[Guest Princess Leena]

I get like 20 5* a year, though.

 

And then those guys you fought to recruit in previous years, you have to dispose of them like trash. It hurts.

[iggymcfly 0]

That's why you're supposed to increase the difficulty too fast, ruin your program, and get fired. I've never gotten my contract renewed on Heisman in an NCAA football game.

 

I guess I'm just a masochist. The first time I blow out a good team, I panic. I did hang out to win a national title with WSU on All-American once a couple years ago, but I picked up a loss early in the season, it took OT to beat USC and then I won something like 13-7 in the national title game.

 

Oh, and redshirting's a pretty standard practice. It's basically so that if you have a young player with potential who's not good enough to play this year, you can save a year of eligibility down the road.

[Guest Princess Leena]

I'm the same way if I pummel some good team.

 

But, even if you've had any success, recruiting is too easy.

[Lightning Flik 0]

How is it too easy? I'm only able to aquire 7 5* people. Still best in NCAA, but not that much better than Ohio State (who recruited 4 people).

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

I played the game of my life last night.

 

National Championship: #1 Rutgers vs. #2 Wisconson

 

My starting QB, Matt Foster, is injured on his first throw. He's out for the game. I get down very quickly to their amazing running game, and their back who lost out on the Heisman to my wideout Kenny Britt, ran all over me for quite some time. Half time, I'm down something like 34-17. I threw two picks for TD's on back to back drives going into halftime. I come out for the second half like a man on fire, and the score gets closer, closer, and closer. I finally tie it up 43-43 with around 2:00 left. I needed a solid defensive stand, and had one to a degree, but they were able to make a 45+ yard field goal. I needed to score with :45 left. I just go carte blanch with deep bombs down the field, in a five-wide shotgun set, chucking deep balls to Britt, who set the school record for recieving yards in a game, and my backup QB set the school record for passing yards in a game, even though he threw 4 or 5 picks because his decision making sucks despite being a 92 senior. I get all the way down into range and burn my last time out with :01 left, kick a 40 yarder and head to OT. This game is crazy. I get the rock first in extras, and on my first play chuck one 18 yards for a first down. Second play of OT, I go shotgun and throw against my better judgement towards the endzone - it's picked - and returned to the house. Wisconson wins the national championship and crushes RU's dreams. 54-48. I finished the season 4th overall. Matt Foster left for the pro's. Kenny Britt is returning for his senior year. He said he wants to win a championship.

 

Finally tally for Year 4:

ACC Champions, 13-1, #4

Heisman & Returner of the Year: Kenny Britt, WR (Jr RS) Awesome wideout truely developed in 2009. I had to talk him into staying for it, too, and it was much easier to get him to stay for his upcoming senior year. My second Heisman winner in four seasons. I'm sure he'd love to win it again, but I think in 2010 I'm going to be starting either a true freshman or a RS freshman at QB. We'll see.

 

Lombardi & Bednarik: Don Johnson, DE (Fr) My freshman front 7 was not to be denied. He lead the nation in sacks.

 

LB of the Year: Ken Triplett (Fr) How my lowest rated (78) linebacker is my best, I have no idea. But he had a great year on the outside. Maybe it had something to do with playing right behind DJ leading the way.

 

QB of the Year: Matt Foster (Jr) 3 amazing seasons, including 3000 yards passing his sophomore year. Started every year he was at RU. I'm a little bitter towards him though, as he was somewhat injury prone - and he ditched me after I started him as a freshman QB. He finished second in the Heisman voting, even though I think that he should have won it over his teammate, but Britt was a duel threat with his return game. Foster definitely should have won it in his sophomore year, but he lost out to the senior QB of Texas Tech.

 

OL of the Year: William Edwards (So) My offensive line continues to improve and produce great running backs. True freshman Mike Grant ran for 1500 yards this season behind the best big 5 I've had so far. 2/5 of the line are leaving, one to the pros, the other to graduation. But we are ready to plug in some new developing stars and my backfield will continue to produce thanks to the "big uglies."

 

Rimington: Dave McClain (Sr RS) After winning this award as a Junior, Dave wanted to go pro, but I convinced him to stay. What did he do? He won it again, of course.

 

Thorpe: Mark Brown, SS (Jr) JUCO Transfer's first year in 1A had a very good year, and beat out his impact player secondary teammate, senior CB Devin McCourty.

 

In addition to these awards, Rutgers had 15 first team All-Americans, and 2 Second Teamers. All of them also made either the 1st or 2nd team All-ACC team.

 

I think I have now won every award except for Punter of the Year and of course, that elusive crystal football.

 

Looking back, 2009 was the best season in school history (obviously) as we just barely missed the promised land. However, just to get there, we had to beat competition such as #6 Virginia Tech and #3 Maryland in conference play alone. 2010, with almost the entire team intact, I want to go one step farther...

[Guest Princess Leena]

How is it too easy? I'm only able to aquire 7 5* people. Still best in NCAA, but not that much better than Ohio State (who recruited 4 people).

 

Well, it's not as easy this year... the amount of 4* and 5* is much more realistic.

 

I use somewhat cheesy tactics, although it is realistic to how recruiting works... First, I'll put a decent amount of points towards 5-10 highly rated players that have me 1st on their list. Then, I'll spread out the rest amongst all 5* and best 4* players for the 1st four weeks, targeting different players each week. Whichever of those players doesn't get much interest from other teams, some will put you in their interest list for Week 5, even if they began with no interest. Then, put a ton of points towards them, and you'll get some of those players.

 

I got 11 5* and 10 4* in my last recruiting class. And my dopey Alaska team finished 24th in the nation.

[Lightning Flik 0]

Ah, I see. That would likely work. I prefer targeting just the guys that are interesting in me and working from there. I also just split my training, recruiting, and disp. around right down the middle; you've probably got it set higher for recruiting I would assume.

 

I think I'll start up a dynasty for another created indepenent team next (not sure what city yet, probably a US city). I mean, I like my Toronto Blue Raiders, but I think I need to start a little lower on the totem pole in terms of talent. That and just for the amusement.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Playing as cupcake is fun. Especially on offense, watching your dreadful QB's miss wide open receivers by 10 yards, leading to Pick 6's. And your opponent gets all the momentum, which makes their huge talent advantage even bigger.

[iggymcfly 0]

Oh my god this game's bullshit. I was playing East Carolina on Heisman, and I was down 23-12 in the fourth quarter. I got a TD to cut it to 23-18 with about 3:30 to go, and then an interception to get the ball back with 2:00 left. I make a brilliant drive down the field with no timeouts and finally I have 4th and 3 from the 12 with 0:23 left. I run a deep out to Calvin Johnson, and he catches the TD to give me the lead with 0:18 remaining. After I get the conversion, it's 26-23.

 

Game over right? No, East Carolina gets the ball back and starts their drive with 0:15 left after the kickoff. (Not much of a return, they only got to the 20.) I go into quarters, and play Cover 3 man, so everyone on the field is covered and I've got three safeties back. 42 yard completion down the left side.

 

I notice it's their star who has 200 yards receiving on the game, so the next play, I call the Dime 3-2-6, and manually take a linebacker who's supposed to be blitzing and help out with the star receiver while still having man coverage on everyone else and two safeties deep. They throw it up for some jobber receiver in the middle of the end zone who makes the catch in triple coverage and gives East Carolina the victory. I was so pissed off, I might have broke my PS2 if not for the futile kick return play afterward which of course went nowhere.

 

I really hate that catchup bullshit where all of a sudden the CPU offense becomes fucking invincible just because they're down one possession late in the game. Whoever thought that was a good idea needs to be shot.

[Guest InuYasha]

Oh my god this game's bullshit. I was playing East Carolina on Heisman, and I was down 23-12 in the fourth quarter. I got a TD to cut it to 23-18 with about 3:30 to go, and then an interception to get the ball back with 2:00 left. I make a brilliant drive down the field with no timeouts and finally I have 4th and 3 from the 12 with 0:23 left. I run a deep out to Calvin Johnson, and he catches the TD to give me the lead with 0:18 remaining. After I get the conversion, it's 26-23.

 

Game over right? No, East Carolina gets the ball back and starts their drive with 0:15 left after the kickoff. (Not much of a return, they only got to the 20.) I go into quarters, and play Cover 3 man, so everyone on the field is covered and I've got three safeties back. 42 yard completion down the left side.

 

I notice it's their star who has 200 yards receiving on the game, so the next play, I call the Dime 3-2-6, and manually take a linebacker who's supposed to be blitzing and help out with the star receiver while still having man coverage on everyone else and two safeties deep. They throw it up for some jobber receiver in the middle of the end zone who makes the catch in triple coverage and gives East Carolina the victory. I was so pissed off, I might have broke my PS2 if not for the futile kick return play afterward which of course went nowhere.

 

I really hate that catchup bullshit where all of a sudden the CPU offense becomes fucking invincible just because they're down one possession late in the game. Whoever thought that was a good idea needs to be shot.

...and people wonder why I don't play sports games. The only ones I can tolerate are car and kart racing games. But even on those, the CPU will fuck you over on the harder levels.

[Guest Princess Leena]

I've noticed when I put a player way out of position, the CPU offense usually gets a big play on me. Like, when I'm often playing zone or prevent and such... and the QB looks like he about to dart upfield, and I move my LB up to get him...

 

If there's a pass deep, even into big coverage, it's normally a catch.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Just bought this game today. Haven't had the time to open it up and play it yet but I'm looking forward to crafting a UK or WKU dynasty like I did in the 2004 version (yea, I know I'm behind on the times).

[teke184 0]

Finished up my first season of Campus Legend.

 

 

 

My team, LSU, walked over everyone for a 14-0 record, capped off by a rout of Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl for the title.

 

My player, LSU QB Ron Mexico, won the Heisman Trophy and two other trophies (Maxwell (QB)and offensive player?) as well as being named to the All-American and Freshman All-American lists, the Academic All-American list, and the Dean's List. (He had a 4.0 average in US History thanks to a regiment of 2 days tutoring, 1 day of studying, and 2 days of drills each week.)

 

Mexico led the NCAA in TDs and yards thrown, throwing roughly 4700 yards and breaking Andre Ware's record for TDs thrown in a single season.

 

 

 

There were questions about a possible BCS controversy in the title-game selection going into the last weeks of the season. While LSU had sealed up the #1 spot easily, USC, Penn State, and Virginia Tech were all undefeated going into the final weeks of the season, with USC and Penn State splitting the polls for the #2 position.

 

Things got cleared up though, as USC lost two to end the year and Virginia Tech lost the ACC Championship to NC State, while Penn State won out.

 

 

LSU's players dominated the awards scene, winning virtually every award except for RB, TE, K, P, and LB. In addition to Mexico winning the Heisman, WR Dwayne Bowe and LE Chase Pittman of LSU were the top runners-up, as Bowe had roughly 2000 yards of receiving and a bunch of TDs, while Pittman set the NCAA record for sacks in a season.

 

 

(The TE and K awards were within reach of my players, as they both ended up around #5 on the list of semifinalists.)

 

The awards I walked away with were for, IIRC, QB, WR, O-Line, Center, D-Line, Coach, and Returner.

 

 

 

The question going into year 2 is mainly whether my O-Line can reload, as I definitely lost my RT at the least and probably both my LG and RG as well.

 

Most other positions that were senior-heavy (LE and RE, WR, CB) were fairly loaded with talent, so replacing them won't be as much of a problem.

 

 

 

 

My goal overall will be to pump up Mexico's stats for 4 seasons of Campus Legend then port him over to Madden in a month or two, as he's a 99 now as a QB but could stand to have certain categories tweaked.

 

(His Throw Accuracy is 99 and his Awareness and Throw Power are both in the 90 range, but his Injury, Agility, Break Tackle, and other categories could use some improvement to facilitate a better option game as well as keep the inevitable sacks from beating him into submission.)

[skullman80 0]

Finished up my first season of Campus Legend.

 

 

 

My team, LSU, walked over everyone for a 14-0 record, capped off by a rout of Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl for the title.

 

My player, LSU QB Ron Mexico, won the Heisman Trophy and two other trophies (Maxwell (QB)and offensive player?) as well as being named to the All-American and Freshman All-American lists, the Academic All-American list, and the Dean's List. (He had a 4.0 average in US History thanks to a regiment of 2 days tutoring, 1 day of studying, and 2 days of drills each week.)

 

Mexico led the NCAA in TDs and yards thrown, throwing roughly 4700 yards and breaking Andre Ware's record for TDs thrown in a single season.

 

 

 

There were questions about a possible BCS controversy in the title-game selection going into the last weeks of the season. While LSU had sealed up the #1 spot easily, USC, Penn State, and Virginia Tech were all undefeated going into the final weeks of the season, with USC and Penn State splitting the polls for the #2 position.

 

Things got cleared up though, as USC lost two to end the year and Virginia Tech lost the ACC Championship to NC State, while Penn State won out.

 

 

LSU's players dominated the awards scene, winning virtually every award except for RB, TE, K, P, and LB. In addition to Mexico winning the Heisman, WR Dwayne Bowe and LE Chase Pittman of LSU were the top runners-up, as Bowe had roughly 2000 yards of receiving and a bunch of TDs, while Pittman set the NCAA record for sacks in a season.

 

 

(The TE and K awards were within reach of my players, as they both ended up around #5 on the list of semifinalists.)

 

The awards I walked away with were for, IIRC, QB, WR, O-Line, Center, D-Line, Coach, and Returner.

 

 

 

The question going into year 2 is mainly whether my O-Line can reload, as I definitely lost my RT at the least and probably both my LG and RG as well.

 

Most other positions that were senior-heavy (LE and RE, WR, CB) were fairly loaded with talent, so replacing them won't be as much of a problem.

 

 

 

 

My goal overall will be to pump up Mexico's stats for 4 seasons of Campus Legend then port him over to Madden in a month or two, as he's a 99 now as a QB but could stand to have certain categories tweaked.

 

(His Throw Accuracy is 99 and his Awareness and Throw Power are both in the 90 range, but his Injury, Agility, Break Tackle, and other categories could use some improvement to facilitate a better option game as well as keep the inevitable sacks from beating him into submission.)

 

 

That just sounds like no fun. I couldn't imagine just plowing over people like that. I like to have a challenge.

[UZI Suicide 0]

Might be time to move up from junior varsity level.

[Ripper 0]

Oh my god this game's bullshit. I was playing East Carolina on Heisman, and I was down 23-12 in the fourth quarter. I got a TD to cut it to 23-18 with about 3:30 to go, and then an interception to get the ball back with 2:00 left. I make a brilliant drive down the field with no timeouts and finally I have 4th and 3 from the 12 with 0:23 left. I run a deep out to Calvin Johnson, and he catches the TD to give me the lead with 0:18 remaining. After I get the conversion, it's 26-23.

 

Game over right? No, East Carolina gets the ball back and starts their drive with 0:15 left after the kickoff. (Not much of a return, they only got to the 20.) I go into quarters, and play Cover 3 man, so everyone on the field is covered and I've got three safeties back. 42 yard completion down the left side.

 

I notice it's their star who has 200 yards receiving on the game, so the next play, I call the Dime 3-2-6, and manually take a linebacker who's supposed to be blitzing and help out with the star receiver while still having man coverage on everyone else and two safeties deep. They throw it up for some jobber receiver in the middle of the end zone who makes the catch in triple coverage and gives East Carolina the victory. I was so pissed off, I might have broke my PS2 if not for the futile kick return play afterward which of course went nowhere.

 

I really hate that catchup bullshit where all of a sudden the CPU offense becomes fucking invincible just because they're down one possession late in the game. Whoever thought that was a good idea needs to be shot.

 

 

Not to shoot down this complaint, because bullshit does go down in this game, usually in the form of timely fumbles or INT's for the computer, but you made some shittastic defensive calls there.

 

Never play man when they have to go deep like that. what you actually did was take away all your help defenders when the ball is in the air because they were covering another guy. Thats why you lost.

 

I still have only lost one game, but this one game came down to the final drive with 12 seconds left and I went 98 yards to win it. The bullshit fumbling of the kickoff ball OUT of the inzone to the two where i had to dive on it pissed me off.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Just had a very fun win on Heisman over Oklahoma, 28-21 OT. Loving this.

 

And I don't even put anyone back for punt returns anymore. It's not worth it. Gets annoying.

[iggymcfly 0]

Oh my god this game's bullshit. I was playing East Carolina on Heisman, and I was down 23-12 in the fourth quarter. I got a TD to cut it to 23-18 with about 3:30 to go, and then an interception to get the ball back with 2:00 left. I make a brilliant drive down the field with no timeouts and finally I have 4th and 3 from the 12 with 0:23 left. I run a deep out to Calvin Johnson, and he catches the TD to give me the lead with 0:18 remaining. After I get the conversion, it's 26-23.

 

Game over right? No, East Carolina gets the ball back and starts their drive with 0:15 left after the kickoff. (Not much of a return, they only got to the 20.) I go into quarters, and play Cover 3 man, so everyone on the field is covered and I've got three safeties back. 42 yard completion down the left side.

 

I notice it's their star who has 200 yards receiving on the game, so the next play, I call the Dime 3-2-6, and manually take a linebacker who's supposed to be blitzing and help out with the star receiver while still having man coverage on everyone else and two safeties deep. They throw it up for some jobber receiver in the middle of the end zone who makes the catch in triple coverage and gives East Carolina the victory. I was so pissed off, I might have broke my PS2 if not for the futile kick return play afterward which of course went nowhere.

 

I really hate that catchup bullshit where all of a sudden the CPU offense becomes fucking invincible just because they're down one possession late in the game. Whoever thought that was a good idea needs to be shot.

 

 

Not to shoot down this complaint, because bullshit does go down in this game, usually in the form of timely fumbles or INT's for the computer, but you made some shittastic defensive calls there.

 

Never play man when they have to go deep like that. what you actually did was take away all your help defenders when the ball is in the air because they were covering another guy. Thats why you lost.

 

I still have only lost one game, but this one game came down to the final drive with 12 seconds left and I went 98 yards to win it. The bullshit fumbling of the kickoff ball OUT of the inzone to the two where i had to dive on it pissed me off.

 

The problem is that if you play zone, you have corners and linebackers that stay 12 yards from the line, even when the ball's obviously going deep. Even the prevent has a bunch of guys that stay out of the play because they stay too close. By playing man cover 3, I've still got the three guys deep that would be helping out in a zone, and since the other defenders are all following receivers, then they're back deep too. If I had it to do again, I'd call a blitz since if I get to the QB quick, he'll only be able to throw it 20 yards or so, but as far as real football strategy, it's the best play available.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Just had a very fun win on Heisman over Oklahoma, 28-21 OT. Loving this.

 

And I don't even put anyone back for punt returns anymore. It's not worth it. Gets annoying.

 

I've actually managed to return both a punt and a kickoff for a touchdown. I have no idea how I did it. Kind of just picked a direction and prayed.

 

But yeah, most punt returns end up lasting about 3 or 4 steps.

[Ripper 0]

Oh my god this game's bullshit. I was playing East Carolina on Heisman, and I was down 23-12 in the fourth quarter. I got a TD to cut it to 23-18 with about 3:30 to go, and then an interception to get the ball back with 2:00 left. I make a brilliant drive down the field with no timeouts and finally I have 4th and 3 from the 12 with 0:23 left. I run a deep out to Calvin Johnson, and he catches the TD to give me the lead with 0:18 remaining. After I get the conversion, it's 26-23.

 

Game over right? No, East Carolina gets the ball back and starts their drive with 0:15 left after the kickoff. (Not much of a return, they only got to the 20.) I go into quarters, and play Cover 3 man, so everyone on the field is covered and I've got three safeties back. 42 yard completion down the left side.

 

I notice it's their star who has 200 yards receiving on the game, so the next play, I call the Dime 3-2-6, and manually take a linebacker who's supposed to be blitzing and help out with the star receiver while still having man coverage on everyone else and two safeties deep. They throw it up for some jobber receiver in the middle of the end zone who makes the catch in triple coverage and gives East Carolina the victory. I was so pissed off, I might have broke my PS2 if not for the futile kick return play afterward which of course went nowhere.

 

I really hate that catchup bullshit where all of a sudden the CPU offense becomes fucking invincible just because they're down one possession late in the game. Whoever thought that was a good idea needs to be shot.

 

 

Not to shoot down this complaint, because bullshit does go down in this game, usually in the form of timely fumbles or INT's for the computer, but you made some shittastic defensive calls there.

 

Never play man when they have to go deep like that. what you actually did was take away all your help defenders when the ball is in the air because they were covering another guy. Thats why you lost.

 

I still have only lost one game, but this one game came down to the final drive with 12 seconds left and I went 98 yards to win it. The bullshit fumbling of the kickoff ball OUT of the inzone to the two where i had to dive on it pissed me off.

 

The problem is that if you play zone, you have corners and linebackers that stay 12 yards from the line, even when the ball's obviously going deep. Even the prevent has a bunch of guys that stay out of the play because they stay too close. By playing man cover 3, I've still got the three guys deep that would be helping out in a zone, and since the other defenders are all following receivers, then they're back deep too. If I had it to do again, I'd call a blitz since if I get to the QB quick, he'll only be able to throw it 20 yards or so, but as far as real football strategy, it's the best play available.

 

 

Yeah, you have the guys that stay in the flats, but when you are in zone, no matter where they throw the ball, at least two guys are going to converge on the ball,where as in man, noone is coming and if your corner or saftey doesn't get there...

 

I think the fact that I play the DE position so well in football games helps me alot. I have been playing that postion in games exclusively since tecmo bowl, and don't plan on changing. That allows me to play any D and never have to blitz and still get to the QB.

 

But play prevent next time, have only 3 down linemen take control of the DB when the ball is in the air and knock it down, don't go for the pick...just knock it down.

[Lightning Flik 0]

A good suggestion for playing zone defense is to play cover 3, or cover 4, or cover 2, that's found in the 3-4 defense. Its very effective against the pass, but it does leave you open to the running game.

 

Now I recently started a new dynasty with 4 independant and only 1 star player on each team. The roster filled with decent players who have potential, but aren't gonna be ready for a season or two. I then booked A- schedules and let the fun begin.

 

Houston Tech Wolfpack lost their opener in a very close game to #1 Ohio State 38-32. Down 33-10 before railing via the short game to the eventual loss.

 

Then in what I must say was the most boringest game I've ever played, they beat (at the time) #2 ranked LSU 13-3. All points came in the first quarter, and then both teams defense took over. The rest of the game was the following: sack, fumble, drops, and punts. 300 yards offense was all that was done total (that's both teams, if we're lucky). Amazingly the only INTs came in the first quarter as well (3 in total).

 

Next is Peoria State Blue Raiders. They first played then ranked #23 Georgia Tech and did pretty well. 24-6 was the score. But against PSU they got creamed 56-21.

 

My third team: Ottawa College Conquerers started off against #3 LSU and got beat 38-17. They then turned around and beat up on #3 WVU 44-17. Key advice for WVU. They can't defend the long bomb at all. Cornerbacks suck.

 

But my favorite team is the Toronto College Knights. They faced off against #2 Texas Longhorns and had a solid game in which they won 33-10. Don't let the score fool you. Only 1 TD for my offense, the rest was field goals and a defense TD.

 

They then played #8 Louisville. I thought I was proud of the efforts for defense considering how shitty my teams are on defense, but this game made me smile. The offense was clicking: the backup halfback ran for 100 yards 2 TDs, main receiver gets 3 TDs and 200 yards, the defense comes up with quite a few turnovers (1 INT for a TD). It was just an all-out brilliance showing. Of course, next week I'll probably lose and it'll matter not.

 

Playing bad teams and doing better than expected is awesome. However, I've now jinxed myself and will likely lose all my ranked team games.

[teke184 0]

Might be time to move up from junior varsity level.

 

I'm on whatever the "default" level is which, IIRC, is Varsity.

 

I like to make sure I have a feel for some strategies and potential drawbacks before I go up to higher levels.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

I love the polls. My team (preseason #1) goes through a brutal schedule (A+) with 5 teams who spent some time in the top 5 and stomps them all, including a 56-14 beatdown of Colorado (an abberation though, my QB couldn't miss the long bombs and CU insisted on blitzing their safties all game). The reward? A #2 ranking below a USC team that played all of 2 teams in the top 25 (Cal and UCLA I believe). Not only that, but it's almost impossible to be a runaway #1. Some other program will end up with 20-25 1st place votes.

 

Now in the preseason I have A+ Overall, Offense and Defense with an A Special Teams, and they rank me 3rd. The game media's voting is almost as rediculous as the real thing.

[Mike wanna be 0]

Just had a very fun win on Heisman over Oklahoma, 28-21 OT. Loving this.

 

And I don't even put anyone back for punt returns anymore. It's not worth it. Gets annoying.

 

I've actually managed to return both a punt and a kickoff for a touchdown. I have no idea how I did it. Kind of just picked a direction and prayed.

 

But yeah, most punt returns end up lasting about 3 or 4 steps.

Special teams is just finding the seam and getting lucky with the blocks. I've had returns that looked like sure TDs screwed up by a god-awful "block" attempt where he pushed the defender right into me, and I've had ugly returns turn into TDs because the blocker pancaked the defender (usually causing a roadblock that holds up at least 3 other defenders in the process as they get up).

 

And I think strength of schedule was taken out of the rankings to try to even out the balance between major conferences and mid-majors (as you can't really fault Utah for having to play 8 games against the terrible Mountain West).

[Guest Princess Leena]

When you get a chance to run a return back, it's all about finding seams.

 

But, with punt returns, fumbles happen far too much. If you're getting hit a couple seconds after catching the ball... very good chance it's a fumble and 6 the other way. Which just murders you.

 

And with the stupid camera, you can't always tell if a tackler is close, or not.