What NCAA Football 09 Can Teach Us About Our Golden Bears

Just picked up NCAA Football 09 with Darren “I can pump out illegitimate kids faster than I can run my 40 yard dash time” McFadden. Actually, I just rented it. As a proud owner of NCAA Football 2008, I haven’t just yet brought myself to purchase the game. I know it’s got a lot more features (online dynasties, ability to share rosters, custom music after key moments in games, more fluid gameplay), but quite frankly, I want to wait for a version of the game where my Bears are actually ranked. Fickle, eh?

With that said, after a few days of putting my time into the game, I’ve walked away with some observations and thoughts as to what we might be able to expect for this upcoming season. Keep in mind, to take this all with a grain of salt, as the EA developers are as authoritative of a college football source as Mark May is.

Starting with Our Offense…
…Our Offensive Line is dominant. I have only been sacked a handful of times, which is a testament to the quality of the line, considering my current dynasty squad in NCAA 08 makes me look like Jimmy Clausen back there. It also didn’t matter which running back I threw in there, they were constantly opening up huge holes for big gains. Speaking of running backs…

…James Montgomery is your starter! Wait, what was that? Montgomery transferred to Washington State? In March? Four months before EA released the game? Come on guys. Apparently the developers at EA Sports didn’t get the memo…


…Continuing on the running backs, Jahvid Best is an absolute freak in the game. One crease, and he’s gone. A small hole? Gone. One free safety between him and the end zone on a HB pitch? Gone. Noticing a pattern here? I haven’t had a chance to play enough with either Slocum or Vereen, mainly because I haven’t needed to. Cal will probably using a more balanced rushing attack in terms of splitting carries, but if Best is 100% like Tedford is saying he is, expect him to have a big year…

…like Nate Longshore or Kevin Riley might have. Nate, is a star “impact” player in the game, and his accuracy shows it. He was spot on in most of his throws, and EA even boosted up his speed rating for good measure. In my game against Maryland, I started with Nate in the first half, where he was 14 of 21 for 176 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT. However, Cal was still down by 10 points midway through the 3rd due to shoddy tackling (more on that later). I benched Nate and replaced him with Riley, who proceeded to go 9 of 14 for 156 yards and 1 TD (from a 76 yard Best flat). More interestingly, Riley led a late comeback overtime win over the Terps with the help of a Darian Hagan interception in the end zone on Maryland’s OT possession. What does this mean for our QB battle? Absolutely nothing…

…Generally speaking, reception yardage came mainly from my tight ends and half backs. Hell, even Tau’fou’ou got more catches than Jeremy Ross did in the game. Very rarely was I able to hit a WR deep, and most of their catches came on wide receiver screens and 15-20 yard slant and curl patterns. This seems to be pretty consistent with what I would expect at the beginning of the year as we break in our new receivers: Take advantage of their size and blocking skills on the screens, and build their confidence with intermediate routes. I’ll be ecstatically surprised if our receivers begin burning defenders right off the bat…

…Again, expect our tight ends and half backs to be pretty involved in the passing game, according to EA. Morrah is essentially a bigger and slower wide receiver, and Tad Smith apparently catches everything thrown to him. Throw 6’7 freshman Spencer Ladner into the mix, and Tedford’s hypothesizing that we might see one of our explosive tail backs line up in the slot on certain plays, and expect our passing yardage to be pretty evenly spread out…

…Moving on to defense…
…Our defense is very…how should I say this…Bob Gregory-ish. That is, we give up a lot of yards, and expect opposing teams to score consistently in the mid 20 range. Why? We usually force a decent amount of turnovers, and step it up a bit more in the red zone, forcing just as many field goals as we do touchdowns…

…Our linebacking corp is rock solid. After every game I’ve played thus far, all of my linebackers are highlighted by orange or red circles indicating their confidence levels. However, I can’t really say the same about our…

…Secondary. For what it’s worth, I expect our secondary to be a lot better in real life than they are in the game. That is, they had better be. Any time I bring any sort of blitz to disrupt the passing game, my DBs are getting either A) burned or B) Shaken off with the slightest shove from a receiver. To be honest with you, a lot of times, it looked a little bit like this: (cue at the 1:36 mark)…



…Our D-Line will be just okay. It’ll be better than last year’s (which isn’t saying much), but still expect a most of our sacks to come from one of our linebackers…*cough Follett…


…Finishing with Special Teams…

…And there isn’t much to say because I rarely punt. I don’t care if it’s 4th and 30 on my 8 yard line. I am going to convert on your ass. I think I have a 40% 3rd down conversion percentage, and a 95% conversion rate on 4th downs. Unbelievable. Only real notable notes…

…Jordan Kay still has no leg power or accuracy for any field goals longer than 35 yards. And Bryan Anger is as much a beast in the game as he is in real life. We’ll see how accurate he can be…

…So what does it all mean?

…Again, not much. You don’t have to log in hours to the game to know that Cal is going to be productive, not prolific on offense. Expect the ball to spread around more, and a bigger emphasis on the running game. Our defense will be more or less of the same thing, just with the linebackers being involved in nearly every play on defense. And special teams won’t be much of an issue if Tedford decides to man up and decide to never punt. Again. Kidding, not everyone can have a 95% conversion rating on 4th downs.