In what has become a holiday of sorts, EA Sports' annual release of their NCAA Football video game series is tomorrow (or tonight at midnight, if you are a nerd like me). My buddy Noah, who writes for Operation Sports, just sent me a link to a full spreadsheet of the player ratings for NCAA 09. Some Michigan players of note:
- The QB situation is ugly. Steven Threet is 77 overall, and backup Nick Sheridan is a 74. Freshman Justin Feagin comes in at a lowly 68, though he does have solid 85 speed.
- Our best player? RE Tim Jamison, who is rated 92 overall. Didn't see that one coming. LE Brandon Graham, who was somehow a 99 overall last year, dropped to an 84.
- As for the running backs, Brandon Minor is the highest rated at a solid 89, followed by Kevin Grady and Carlos Brown, who both come in at 86. In one of the greatest crimes against reality ever perpetrated by EA Sports, Sam McGuffie (#34 in the game, which doesn't have the updated numbers for freshmen) only has an 82 jump rating. Sam respectfully disagrees:
- Brown is an intriguing possibility at quarterback for those who don't want to run the spread with Threet or Feagin. He has 84 throw power and 68 throw accuracy, which may be just enough to keep the defense honest if you want to use his 94 speed and acceleration to shred opposing defenses with the run.
- The Wolverines' greatest strength (by far) is the defensive backfield, comprised of CB Donovan Warren (91 overall), CB Morgan Trent (88), FS Brandon Harrison (90), and either SS Charles Stewart or Stevie Brown (both at 83 overall). Freshman CB Boubacar Cissoko, who will play nickel corner in the game, is also rated an 83.
- Kicker KC Lopata is a 58 overall. Seriously. He was 11-12 on field goals last year but is worse in the game than any player on Northwestern. What gives?
- Other players of interest: DT Terrance Taylor (89 overall), MLB Obi Ezeh, who was given #47 instead of #45 (85 overall), WR Greg Mathews (86), TE Carson Butler (82), P Zoltan Mesko (82).
- It is pretty tough to tell who the freshmen are, since the numbers don't match what they wore in the spring, and EA tends to make all the freshmen pretty unremarkable until they prove their worth on the field. McGuffie and Cissoko were the only freshmen who were easy to distinguish, so I won't attempt to put numbers next to the rest of them.
(Picture courtesy of Gamespot)
5 comments:
For those of you who want to get even more in depth in the game, check out Noah's articles on playing cornerback and safety in the game:
http://www.operationsports.com/feature.php?id=585
http://www.operationsports.com/feature.php?id=574
Programming this game must be an absolute pain in the ass compared to the NFL one. Way more teams, more players, and constant roster turnover. They must have a bunch of recruiting junkies on their programming team.
Lopata might be 58 overall, but his power and accuracy ratings are 82 and 80... not sure what goes into the overall Kicker rating, but those are decent kicking numbers...
His awareness rating is a 58, which I think plays into the how "clutch" the kicker is. I'm pretty sure that affects how poorly Lopata is rated, as well as the fact that 82 and 80 are pretty subpar by NCAA 09 kicker standards. Minnesota's kicker has 84 kick power and 85 accuracy, but his awareness is a 74, and he comes out at 71 overall.
After playing a couple games with Michigan, I haven't thought Lopata was at all a liability. I just wouldn't take any 50+ yard field goals with him.
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