11 Years in the Making - College football 25

[Rocky Style]

Forgot to mention, but Jordan McCloud is in the running for the Heisman in my game.

[ClassOf2005Bull]

6 minutes ago, Rocky Style said:

Forgot to mention, but Jordan McCloud is in the running for the Heisman in my game.

I'm assuming this is still season 1 with him at Texas State??? 

[Rocky Style]

8 minutes ago, ClassOf2005Bull said:

I'm assuming this is still season 1 with him at Texas State??? 

I am not sure.  He is going off virtually at least.  Also Miami of Ohio is ranked #4 in the country out of the MAC and blocking me from the playoffs I think.

[ClassOf2005Bull]

11 minutes ago, Rocky Style said:

I am not sure.  He is going off virtually at least.  Also Miami of Ohio is ranked #4 in the country out of the MAC and blocking me from the playoffs I think.

Yeah, they're gonna patch the game to fix the wonkiness. Too many G5 teams were taking up playoff spots and they need to balance the sim engine out. I'm just playing in "Play Now" till we get some fixes, but I've messed around inside dynasty just to get a feel for it.

[Rocky Style]

11 minutes ago, ClassOf2005Bull said:

Yeah, they're gonna patch the game to fix the wonkiness. Too many G5 teams were taking up playoff spots and they need to balance the sim engine out. I'm just playing in "Play Now" till we get some fixes, but I've messed around inside dynasty just to get a feel for it.

Well even the old game went sideways after a few years.  You would have like an extremely dominant Wake Forest dynasty or other random teams by the CPU.  I don't expect the algorithms to hold for too long with all the simulations in the background.  But yeah in year one for me Miami OH is destroying in the polls.  It works both ways though because I'm in top 25!  

I guess it's all theoretically possible so I roll with it.  

Edited July 25 by Rocky Style

[ClassOf2005Bull]

8 minutes ago, Rocky Style said:

Well even the old game went sideways after a few years.  You would have like an extremely dominant Wake Forest dynasty or other random teams by the CPU.  I don't expect the algorithms to hold for too long with all the simulations in the background.  But yeah in year one for me Miami OH is destroying in the polls.  It works both ways though because I'm in top 25!  

I guess it's all theoretically possible so I roll with it.  

Well in the old versions the flexbone was overpowered in simulations. That's why Navy always became a powerhouse and the pro-style offense that Saban ran 10-years ago simmed terribly, so Alabama would always fall off. Now, it's just bonkers b/c I don't know if it's the playbooks simming well or if the sim engine just needs a tune. So many schools now run a variation of the spread that a lot of offenses around the country are homogeneous - most are just a twist of the same thing. So it could be the playbooks sim really well and since they are all similar chaos erupts or it could just be they need to tune the code for upsets. It's part of the reason why I love to run the flexbone. It's different and not the same **** thing every other virtual coach is running. Got 133 AI coaches chasing after the same nickel and I'm over here chattin' kids up about "bully ball".

[BULLSHTR]

2 hours ago, Rocky Style said:

I am not sure.  He is going off virtually at least.  Also Miami of Ohio is ranked #4 in the country out of the MAC and blocking me from the playoffs I think.

This is the simulation engine that Ryan Day told his players to study opponents with.

[Outlaw]

12 hours ago, Rocky Style said:

Forgot to mention, but Jordan McCloud is in the running for the Heisman in my game.

Jeff Scott could have used him but he chose some   ACC guy Fortin transfer  and  big12 Gerry B0hann0n  fbs wins who lost his job to a true freshmen. it all worked out jeff got fired and we got Golesh to develop Brown. I hate to see how Brown would develop under howdy who. Glad to see him move on and show out at JMU while being coached up by a guy that knows what he is doing.

Edited July 26 by Outlaw

[Rocky Style]

Here's some odds and ends from my season.  I won several games by the skin of my teeth or by controlling the clock with the run so the defense never gets on the field.  Tulane was a last second corner pass prayer to Atkins.  In the end, starting to get better at offense but the defense is still baffling.  

Meta:
The simulation chose Miami OH to go on a huge run, but they ran into UGA in the playoffs quarterfinals and lost by 1.  I had no chance against Alabama, and pulled off a miracle shutout vs. Miami.  Cheesed and simulated defense against Memphis and only played offense (I was scared).  Ultimately, ran into a Alabama-tier Charlotte team on the road.  I don't know why the computer chose them to be so unbeatable.  They even had a Kick 6 to add insult to injury.  Angry.

Heisman Finalists:
Winner: WR guy from Miami OH
#2 Jordan McCloud
#4 Shedeur Sanders

Bowl Projections:
Boca Raton Bowl v. Pitt
Boca Raton Bowl v. Virginia Tech
Fenway Bowl v. Cal

AAC Championship:
#19 USF v. #15 Temple
Put on an absolute clinic in a sold out Lincoln Financial Field (31-7).  It was finally coming together.  Basically ran the ball for the entire 1st QTR and punched it in to demoralize the crowd.  I felt like I was finally having a complete game in a big game.  And handling the crowd noise.  But...

Bowl Game Letdown:
Fenway Bowl #24 SMU vs #17 USF
I was excited to see Fenway Park, but no they did not render Fenway Park for one bowl game.  This is played in a big generic stadium that they use for Hawaii in this game.  I barely survived by running out the clock, which put the confidence back in the basement.  Who knows.

Offseason:
- FSU wanted to hire me as their head coach after they lost in the 1st round of the playoffs.  This seems on brand for FSU fans and donors.  +1 for the AI here.
- WR Sean Atkins drafted in the 7th round
- Final Rank #12 with two losses against Bama and Charlotte finishing ahead of Miami OH
- National Signing Day: #28 recruiting class 5(4), 22(3), 5(2) 
- Preseason Rank: #22 - Gonna ride Nico's kicking to another championship (maybe) and only recruit 4 stars until they are gone.  Also, Nico is my number one transfer risk due to NIL.  
- In a parallel reality, a ranked USF will go into an unranked Gator swamp in 2025.

Edited July 26 by Rocky Style

[BULLSHTR]

I only got 3 hours of sleep last night, thanks to this game.

Played through next season. Here are some of my observations of the away games. Bonus observation of our home games at Ray J at the end.

 

Alabama: This game really sets the tone for the season. Felt like a playoff game more than the actual playoffs lol. Unfortunately, it puts every other game into perspective as being kind of lame.

Southern Miss: Stadium isn't bad, but feels "old" and not in a prestigious way. The crowd was half empty as well.

Tulane: Another step down from even Southern Miss, in terms of collegiate atmosphere.

FAU: This stadium felt like a high school all-star game or something.

Charlotte: Very low rise. Nice, but again, high school-esque.

Rice: This was the biggest surprise. Never been to a game here IRL, but what a stadium they have, considering how low people think about Rice as a program. Definitely going to this game on the road IRL this season. Unexpected vibe from Rice. Later found out that Superbowl VIII was hosted here and is where JFK gave his "We go to the moon" speech. JFK even directly prefaced his ~"we choose to do it because it's hard" line with "why does Rice play Texas?" xD

 

Ray J: ig, this felt like an exhibition game at an NFL stadium. Even with people in the seats, the red showed through. it was a clash of colors. the pirate ship looks stupid. the fake shantys at concessions look even stupider. Nothing new here that I haven't been saying since 2007, but I was amazed at how accurately CFB25 captured the vibe of the different stadiums. At least, the upper deck did finally fill up for the conference championship game against Tulane (in game). This video game did not pull any punches when it came to emulating crowd support for AAC teams. We have to get out ASAP and i'm so relieved that the admin finally understands the importance of an OCS to develop a true college football culture.