Tweaking the NCAA12 Huskers
With two days of good gameplay under our belts you by now no doubt know that Taylor Martinez' digital doppelganger can't throw the deep ball. Like at all.
There was a crucial moment in my third or fourth game of NCAA Football 12 where digital Tim Beck (played by me) made a great playaction pass call that left Ben Cotton running a wide open seam pattern down the right hash. All T-Magic had to do was lay it out there and let Cotton run under it so that's what I directed him to do.
The ball landed with a sad, lonesome bounce on the turf somewhere on the left hash. If it's in the game, it's in the game.
The throwing ability of Taylor Martinez isn't really a problem when it comes to NCAA12. When we all get back to real life football sometime in August we'll see again that it's an area of improvement for the young quarterback.
But what I am interested in is what changes you are making to the Huskers on the game. Consider the comments section an open forum on how to get the best or most realistic experience out of guiding Nebraska in the game.
Because I'm impatient, I downloaded the first rosters that became available. Using that as a starting point, here are my changes, thoughts and questions so far:
--Cody Green became walk-on Tyson Broekemeir. Why? Because that's how thin Nebraska is at quarterback. His attributes were appropriately downgraded.
--Jamal Turner moved from QB to WR and Bubba Starling from WR to QB. (That's where they're at on the PS3 rosters). I gave Turner a bit of a speed boost as well as slightly tweaking a few other attributes not to make the team better but because everyone assumes after the spring game that we'll see him on the field this year. After all the tweaking was done, he ended up as the fourth-ranked WR on the team, a not very aware but very fast dude, which seems fair enough for a freshman. As for Starling, it may be your only chance to ever see him in a Nebraska uniform so I say leave him on there.
--The running backs are a mess. Tray Robinson became Braylon Heard for me while Lester Ward, now a TE, became Ameer Abdullah after a literal downsizing. Like real life, it's pretty inexperienced after Burkhead but, also like real life, Burkhead is a bulldog with the ball in his hands.
--There were more roster tweaks that could've been made but at this point I just wanted to play, so I left the defense alone after making sure that a few key freshman were included on the game.
--I haven't yet started to mess with the playbook because I'm not quite sure what I don't like about it yet, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this. I'm more of a realism over effectiveness guy so if you tell me you just subbed SMU's playbook -- which hardly seems like a good idea given Nebraska's receiving corps -- I probably won't listen.
--Why does Eric Martin have a gut? I thought he was slimming down to play DE.
--The Predator dreads on Brandon Kinnie have to go. Apparently EA got a lot of feedback from gamers saying they wanted dreads in the game but college players aren't around long enough to have signature haircuts and Kinnie, last I saw, didn't have dreads that obscured the top half of his number.
--I won't bother you with the story, but just trust me when I say I was at the forefront of the red athletic shoe movement back around 1993-94 (Air Maestros). Since then, I always seem to own at least one pair of red shoes and even I think Nebraska's shoes on the game are hideous. Wear the White/Team Color shoes and what you get are mostly red shoes.
Those are my thoughts, questions and concerns so far, let's hear yours.
7/14/2011
I think that they got our playbook about spot on. Offensively I wouldn’t substitute another playbook for ours. You’ll see a lot of what we did last year on it, and with some of the 11 personnel packages out of the spread (Cotton) that adds a power element to it. I would see to it that Cotton and Reed are formation subs. Obviously one being for passing downs and another for run blocking. I like Reed’s versatility in this game too. You can flex him in the slot from time to time and get some help to the WR corps. There is an 11 spread package that is really nice in the playbook. It gives a lot of I principles and when you put Cotton in motion for run plays you get some real edge blocking on sweeps and QB Iso. . .
For a Counter Tray and 34 Iso you can find the play in Pistol, Tight I, 11 Spread, and one back as well. In this regard you have a first down play that you can use from different looks. Same principles, same play, different look. It’s much easier to run the option this year as well. If you get into the Pistol and can get the inside iso working, when you put out the zone read from it causes a lot of problems because both plays look very similar in the beginning. Pitch/space relationship is much easier to discern as you make your reads going down the line too. In essence we have a lot of I, some one-back, based out of spread principles, (which is the general direction that we are going). Choose your play selection along those lines and you’ll start to establish a rhythm. Last year you could wait for the receiver to break their route to throw it. This year you gotta chuck it as they begin their break. If you wait until the receiver has broken the pattern it will be too late. . .
I’m not going to lie. In last year’s game I went to TCU’s defense to get more speed on the field after Dynasty Year 3. This year you get some really neat defensive formations to choose from and you can put PJ Smith as your Peso Back and get speed that can provide credible run support. Your Dime Packages (David) and Nickle (Compton and David) are solid through and through. Again put PJ Smith out there as your Peso Back and you get Hagg 2K12. You can show a lot of looks and with the depth we have at the defensive line you can keep the front four fresh throughout the game. . .
I redshirted all of the offensive line class except for Tyler Moore and snuck one in there for Chase Rome too. Anywhere I could sneak a Redshirt in I did. It’s a nice insurance policy while you learn the in’s and out’s of recruiting (which seems to be the same as last year’s in large part). . .
So after my Dynasty Season has begun can I still adjust the player attributes? I left Turner at QB (redshirt and I was going to use him as my Tommy Armstrong-like recruit) but would love to move him to slot. Can I tweak those attributes now or do I have to wait for the season to end? I would read the manual, but yeah, there is no manual this year. Kind of wish it was still in there so I could’ve avoided this, but or well. . .
And yes the predator dreads just look awful. . .
7/14/2011
You can edit after the season for sure, and maybe during.
I think the PB needs a few less SG sets, and swap those for a couple I and pistol sets.Taylor needs an immediate bump in speed, but I’m really not going to mess with any attributes until I get a good 360 roster. I’m also trying to get a feel for which base difficulty to start with for my slider adjustments.
7/14/2011
I think Nebraska got hosed on the offense side of the ball with one exception…Bulkhead is a beast
7/15/2011
so how good is neb on 360 im about to get the game in the next couple of days
7/15/2011
we are good for the most part, other than the fact that taylor martinez is awful. He isn’t even very fast, and he completely misses about 50% of his throws. I also think our offense got hosed in the game. I also think that it is garbage that our defense is rated a b+. We are going to be a top 5 d once again this year so it’s pretty dissapointing to see a b+.
7/15/2011
Taylor is god awful slow in the game and there is no way he should be. Rex, Cotton, Kinnie, and Reed are pretty salty. Nebraska offensive line has less than to be desired IMO. Marlow is too slow in the game too. The defense is pretty solid but I played Iowa my first game before I started my dynasty and Iowa torched Dennard for something like 9 catches, not too realistic there. The defense should be a solid A to an A+ but the offense should probably be downgraded since we dont really know what its going to be like with a new O coordinator and at the end of last season the offense was god awful.
7/19/2011
I just wanna be realistic enough for one item only….what’s an appropriate speed for Martinez? I wanna be able to make him fast enough without feeling guilty for having a bias. Speed, acceleration, agility…what do you have on all those for Martinez?
7/21/2011
With some hindsight (a dynasty season nearly complete) I would like to conclude with the following:
1) Martinez got screwed on speed. No way should I struggle to get outside on a zone read even when the defensive line collapses on the fake. . .
2) Dennard got screwed even more. I should be able to press all day and not get beat. The guy is a monster in real life, and he got no respect in this game. Pretty disappointing. . .
3) As a whole The Blackshirts got screwed too. You just can’t run sweeps and perimeter running plays on his side in real life. Sometimes he struggles to get angles and gets beat to the corner. Just doesn’t happen in the games. . .
4) Use your slants, Kinnie is good at getting separation and is pretty dependable. . .
5) Great WR Screen in the formation labeled Twin TE in the Shotgun. Nice call for zone coverages. . .
4) As a whole
7/30/2011
If Dennard Robinson is rated at a 95 in speed, Martinez shouldn’t be far behind. I’ve looke around and one guy had Martinez at at 91 speed and a 77 awareness. I think 91 speed puts Martinez in the top 10 quarterbacks for speed which is about accurate.