NCAA 2005 - The Good, The Brock, and the Ugly

So I picked up my copy of NCAA Football 2005 last Thursday.  Right off the bat let me tell you it's a great game.  The EA Sports college football franchise is second to none and this year's edition is the best yet.  For one, it's got a homefield crowd control that makes it harder for visiting opponents.  Say you're playing with Florida and you go up to Neyland Stadium in Knoxville to play the Vols, those redneck football fans are gonna be screamin' their asses off (even more so because Tennessee hates UF) so much that if, while on offense, you try and call an audible, your receivers may not hear you and run the wrong route.  There's other real-life simulations like players can commit off-the-field infractions that force you to discipline them so that your school keeps its integrity (You can also create your own fans' signs!).  So when your star cornerback "assaults a police officer without violent behavior" (whatever the hell that means), you'll have to sit him for a couple games while your school's lawyers find out the best way to prove the Miami Police Department set him up.

(I would have a picture here showing Antrel Rolle that would add more punch to the joke but Blogspot's software doesn't support picture insertion.  But that is definitely a whole other column.)

Anyway, I started my new campaign with the 'Canes and immediately screwed up - I started my 2005 season, which is at home versus Florida State, without a practice game.  I hadn't played a football video game in like 7 months or something.  So I got spanked around the field.  To add insult to injury I was shutout...and then when I faced FSU again in the Fiesta Bowl, I didn't score for 2.5 more quarters.  So I finished my season 9-3 and on a very disappointing note.  (The other loss was at home against Wake Forest...Yea, I don't get it either.)

With my coach (that'd be me) already on the hot seat, I did some hardcore recruiting and set my 2006 schedule.  I started the season at #4 and proceeded to pound the crap out of the crappier Miami (of Ohio).  Then for the home opener against Florida.  The battle for the Seminole War Canoe or whatever the hell it's called.  Now I'm slaughtering Florida, I mean really demoralizing them.  After the first play of the second half where Kyle Wright launched a 77 yd TD to Roscoe "the demagogue" Parrish, it was 17-0.  My defense was playing its heart out.  Then for the rest of the game little by little, stupid little things started happening and Florida got back in it.  I scrambled with Wright and tried to do a baseball slide so that he wouldn't get hit and/or fumble.  The game makes me dive foward and he fumbles; Florida gets a TD 3 plays later.  Within a couple minutes it seemed, they had a 3rd and long on my 33yd line, safety Greg Threat is one on one with the right-side wideout, he beats him to the ball on the fly pattern, goes for the pick and tips it right back to the wideout who catches it as he's running into the endzone.  Pure freakin' luck.  Little things like tipped balls or dropped passes kept happening and UF scored the winning touchdown with 48 seconds left.  My team had self-destructed...again...to a rival...again.

Maybe it's just that the game got harder from the 2004 version or maybe it's just way more lifelike as Miami has a tendency to self-destruct.  Just ask Brock Berlin.  But maybe it's that stupid computer assistance thing that every video game has where it helps itself get back in the ballgame.  Maybe it's a combo of all three - I don't know.  All I know is that after that UF game my job security was at a D+ rating.  My program is on the verge of going from the most prestigious ranking of 6 stars down to 5 stars.  That didn't even come close to happening in last year's game where I played probably 15 total seasons with 3 different teams (Miami and two created teams).  I had the game on the same difficulty level too. 

To non-video game enthusiasts this column means absolutely nothing.  But to the ones that play video games on a day-to-day basis, you know how sickening and annoying this can be.  I still recommend the game because it's the most lifelike college football game I've ever played.  But maybe it's a little too realistic.  How're video games supposed to know Brock Berlin and Miami's young receivers fold late in a close game?  I blame it all on Lee Corso...the bastard.