A special shout out to the guy that snuck a video camera into the E3 gaming convention and recorded himself going through the NCAA Football 2013 selection screens to get all of the team ratings and player ratings for the next version of the college football gaming dynasty.
He may have filmed the 16 most boring minutes on YouTube, but he gave us college football fans and gamers some golden offseason fodder to argue about. Starting with the overall team ratings, Notre Dame is given a 97 overall (WOWsers!), with a 94 offense rating, 95 defense rating and 6 star prestige. I would love to say I agree with this number…but it seems high to me. For context, 97 ties ND for the 6th highest rating behind Wisconsin, Texas, LSU, Oregon and USC who each are rated 99 overall. Tied with the Irish at 97 overall are Florida State, Georgia, Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Michigan. Other Irish opponent ratings include: Navy (77), Purdue (87), Michigan State (93), Miami (91), Stanford (93), BYU (89), Pittsburgh (85), Boston College (85) and Wake Forest (81). Considering the real life talent differential between teams like USC and LSU compared to Boston College and Wake Forest, there certainly doesn’t seem to be much ratings disparity built into this year’s version of the game.
Grantland-X is going to appreciate the Notre Dame QB rankings, which are as follows:
With Rees having far more experience under his belt than any of the other 3 scholarship QB’s, we can’t be shocked that the guys over at EA Sports took the safe route and rated him slightly higher than Hendrix and Golson. Tommy’s speed rating is surprising, as I would have expected it to be in the mid-to-low 60s. The fact that Hendrix’s strength is a 53 and break tackle is a 67 is ludicrous – each should be much higher. I would probably lower the awareness rating for both Hendrix and Rees as well. Throwing power and throwing accuracy ratings are not yet available, but based on Tommy’s inferior athletic ratings coupled with the fact his overall rating is the highest, you would expect him to show the strongest numbers in those categories. Of course, whether or not you agree with those ratings is an entirely different story.
Moving on to the running backs:
I love speedy RBs when playing this game, and the Irish backfield stable does not disappoint. For those of you that plan on playing in Dynasty Mode, the Carlisle/Atkinson combination is going to be one of the strongest in the country when you enter your 3rd season and they are each seniors. Here’s to hoping that the on the field product turns out similarly.
And now the entire EA Sports ND roster (note: their 70 man roster is mostly made up of current players and early enrollee freshmen. For the few freshmen enrolling in the fall that appeared on the roster, I generally didn’t try to guess who the game was referring to.)
The Top 10 ND Players:
***Update: Manti Te’o is tied with Matt Barkley and Montee Ball as the highest rated player in the game. Tyler Eifert is in a tie for 4th with Marcus Lattimore. The Irish coming in with two of the top 5 players in the game? Not too shabby….
Questions/Comments:
– Would you have expected Manti to come in at 99? – Ben Turk’s second half of 2011 must have really stuck with the developers. – It’s always good to have 3 offensive linemen in your top 10. – Good tight ends create incredible mismatches in this game. Go to Eifert, and go to him often.Players ranked 11 through 30:
Questions/Comments:
– Would you have Stephon Tuitt above KLM? – Are you surprised that Bennett Jackson was given such a high rating with little playing time? – I’d be pleased if John Goodman put up an ‘88’ performance on the real field.Players ranked 31 through 70:
Questions/Comments:
– How about Chris Salvi getting some love??!! – FYI: Josh Atkinson was given a 95 speed rating – 2 below his twin brother. – The developers apparently didn’t take Floyd’s mention of Jalen Brown’s skills into consideration. – I would have expected Schwenke to come in around 80. – Cameron Roberson – fullback??? – Apparently they think Dan Fox is a class above Carlo Calabrese.How do you feel about the team rankings and the individual player rankings? Would you have made any significant changes if you were running the show at EA?
Proof that, sooner or later, everyone comes around to love the Irish.
After growing up as a Notre Dame hating, misguided youth, it only took one visit to campus during high school for Twibby to realize the error of his ways. From that point on Twibby and the Irish have had what can only be described as a true Hollywood love story. When he's not reminiscing about his time in South Bend and pondering ways to get a 5th year of eligibility as a student, Twibby writes about Notre Dame and the rest of the college football world for HLS. Along with the Irish, he is a diehard fan of the Chicago Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks and Cubs with a strange affection for Northwestern Wildcats football.
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I think LNIII’s rating is missing a few zeroes
I would have liked to see GA3 ranked over Amir, just by virtue of what we’ve saw at the Spring game.
*we
Until we get the THA rating, I can’t really make the decision, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be benching (or flat cutting) Rees given that only a 1 drop in OVR picks up so much speed. I think it’s pretty hilarious they have a guy that’s never played a snap with higher awareness than Rees as well. More generally, the ratings on the whole have me a little concerned. We clearly shouldn’t be a 97, Texas at 99? Their D will be great sure, but come on now. They’ve really got everyone jacked up pretty high this year, which is…interesting to say the least.
Texas at 99 was crazy to me too – their defense is a 99 and offense is a 91. Who knows how EA uses those numbers (is it a formula?) to come up with the overall rating.
I’m with you on the QB situation too – being able to scramble a bit in the game is huge.
I believe they do some formula based upon the ratings of the position players. Their D will be one of the best in the country, but still, any team being a 99 is pretty goofy. This is the 1st year I can think of where they’ve had so many. Something very strange is up this year w/r/t their roster ratings.
would not change anything about the team, but would change how the QB throws.. like the LB that can be 15 yards down field and jump up to int you..? If you play you know what I mean. One thing on D I do is find tall S’s or ATH that are fast to be MLB’s that I play, dont play any other Pos.. How about any one else?
Ha, I know exactly what you’re talking about with the LBs. They make impossible moves where they basically teleport 2 yards horizontally and jump 3 feet in the air in a split second to pick you off.
yeah, that always pisses me off. I hear Madden did a lot to fix that kind of thing
How about the insanity that is:
-Tommy Rees strongest QB on the roster
-Tommy Rees with best acceleration
A lot of somethin somethin being smoked in those offices…
They read an erroneous police report that said Tommy outran that SB po po and could only be brought down when the cops brought in a CPR dummy dressed in red and yellow. They threw the dummy at his feet and it took him to the ground when Tommy tried to hurdle the obstruction.
Do people actually try to play with the default rosters? I took one look at the roster problems and downloaded one from the internet. Every platform has 1 or 2 guys who go through every team with a fine-toothed comb once actual depth charts come out and rerank everyone.
where do you get those? i’d like to have one for ncaa 12 so i can play it until 13 comes out…if i get it
These videos are from traditionsportsonline.com if any of you are looking for a place to play the game when this comes out.
where do you get those? i’d like to have one for ncaa 12 so i can play it until 13 comes out…if i get it
meant for the post above…apologies
***Update: Manti Te’o is tied with Matt Barkley and Montee Ball as the highest rated player in the game. Tyler Eifert is in a tie for 4th with Marcus Lattimore. The Irish coming in with two of the top 5 players in the game? Not too shabby….