What a difference a speedy WR makes in NCAA 2004

[Kodos]

In my IU dynasty in NCAA 2004, I was left with a poor receiving corp after my top WR, Courtney Roby, elected to leave for the pros after his junior season after my first season ended. I recruited a speedster that offseason, but red-shirted him because he had poor awareness. Thus, I plodded through year 2 of my franchise with no real deep threat and my pass offense was ranked in the lower half of the nation. Now I'm in year three, and my redshirt freshman with a 99 speed rating (mid seventies overall) is tearing things up both as a receiver and as a punt and kickoff returner. Thanks in large part to his emergence, I have moved into the top 30 in pass offense. I love this guy!

[QuikSand]

Did EA give you a call and complain that you hadn't been pimping them enough lately?

[Kodos]

They didn't have to call me. I'm hooked up to an electrical collar that delivers a painful shock whenever my actions do not please them.

Bastards. OWWWWWWWWWWW!

I deserved that.

[MJ4H]

I call BS.

[Kodos]

Does BS answer?

[VPI97]

LSU's Bennie Brazell + playing Online = winning record

[The Afoci]

I had a 99 speed running back. Swing passes to him were great.

[Vince]

Speed is definitely a huge factor. I got ditched by my two stud WR recruits one year, and so I 'caved' and started hitting on a JuCo transfer with great speed (4.26, I think?) but poorer ratings elsewhere. I got him, and his 97 speed is such a ridiculous advantage...stop and go routes are killer with him.

[Chubby]

I still remeber my killer WR I had in ncaa 2003. speed was like 95 and he was 6'7"! All I had to do was lob it to him any play I wanted and he would get it with his 90+ catch rating either cause he outran the guy or outjumped him.

[Kodos]

Holy crap! 6'7" and fast and good hands. Randy Moss, eat your heart out!

[Chubby]

yeah I couldn't believe it when I recruited him (iwas a decent create-a-school at the time). i didn't think he'd be THAT good, he had decnet ratings his frosh year then they took off after that. i'm sure him having like 70 catches didn't hurt either...

[Kodos]

I also have a strong-armed (88 THP, 80 THA) freshmen QB throwing it to him. I envision them re-writing IU record book together over the next 4 years. Even if the QB is a damn southpaw... :D

[ScottVib]

Originally posted by Kodos
Even if the QB is a damn southpaw... :D

Glad to see I'm not the only one who's not enthralled with their lefthanded QB ;)

[Kodos]

They're just hard to work with. They do everything backwards. Mutants!

[finkenst]

, he had decnet ratings

AGH! work flashback

f'ing decnet.

[Daimyo]

I had a guy in NCAA 2003 with near 99's accross the board on speed, acceleration and jumping. His hands were mid-70's i think, but it didn't matter. Pretty much anytime I wanted I could send him on a stop and go for a touchdown. The great part was that he nearly always took two DB's with him so it really opened up the mid-range passing game for everyone else.

[tucker342]

When I'm looking for a running back in Madden, speed is always the first thing I look at. You can teach everything else, but you can't teach speed

[Butter]

I got a RB at Northwestern who ran a 4.17 (which was UPGRADED to a 4.15 by my scout). We immediately improved from 5-7 to 12-1 the next year, finishing #2 in the nation, beating USC in the Rose Bowl. The only other notable talent I got in that year were some LB's and a new tight end.

He started his soph. year as the #2 preseason Heisman candidate. His only drawback is if you touch him, he goes down.

I also recruited a burner at Rice, and he scored 3 punt return TD's in 1 game, using very tough All-American sliders. Of course, it was vs. A&M, but still.... they USED to be good. :)

[Celeval]

That's what killed my NCAA career, actually... I recruited THREE RBs with 90+ speed in the same season. One of the ones I didn't redshirt won the Heisman going away his freshman season, and that kinda killed the realism for me.

[Butter]

Well, if I wanted deadly accurate results, I'd probably play on Heisman. I want realism, but not so much that I'd lose 77-0 to Oklahoma. 38-14, I could stomach. :)

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally posted by Chubby
I still remeber my killer WR I had in ncaa 2003. speed was like 95 and he was 6'7"! All I had to do was lob it to him any play I wanted and he would get it with his 90+ catch rating either cause he outran the guy or outjumped him.

These mutant WR's seemed to have faded from NCAA 2004. There were always a handful of 6'7" WR's in NCAA 2003. Basically send them down the field, lob it in, and more of ten than not they just out jump the little CB, over-run him and score. I found this to be this case in Madden 2003 as well. I imported drafts and use my second round pick on a 6'7" WR. He was devistating...

Again, I think they are thing of the past it seems.

[Kodos]

I'm mad at my 99-speed receiver (aptly named Damon Long) The jerk just left after his redshirt sophomore year after finishing 3rd in the Heisman race. I'm beginning to think it is a bad idea to redshirt anyone who is not just a marginal player. They leave early and often... :(

[Eaglesfan27]

Spend some recruiting points and bring him back...

[Kodos]

I tried. I spent the max, but he bolted anyway.

[tucker342]

Those were two very long seasons:D

[Chubby]

These mutant WR's seemed to have faded from NCAA 2004. There were always a handful of 6'7" WR's in NCAA 2003. Basically send them down the field, lob it in, and more of ten than not they just out jump the little CB, over-run him and score. I found this to be this case in Madden 2003 as well. I imported drafts and use my second round pick on a 6'7" WR. He was devistating...

Again, I think they are thing of the past it seems.

Not true, I had one in my created team dynasty. Still devastating :)

[Kodos]

Yeah, I took a break for a while, and then just started back up a couple of weeks ago. I played about 8-9 games this weekend. :D

[ice4277]

Shouldn't we be starting a 2005 preview thread soon?

[Kodos]

"We" being me? ;)

Actually, I did see a thread with some nuggets about the new Madden today over at IGN.

[ice4277]

OOooooooh. Do tell!

[Kodos]

IGN thread on Madden 2005 (http://boards.ign.com/PS2_General_Board/b5023/56935800/?8) Not sure if you can read it if you are not an insider, so:

I deleted out some non-content posts. The one guy who claims to know somebody inside would have to be taken with a grain of salt, of course.


ewflex11

Its not alot of info but it looks like the defense will get a much needed improvement in attention payed to it. I still believe that the screenshots of Madden 2005 isnt impressive to me. Graphically i dont see any major improvement other than more wrinkles in the players jerseys and you can see the pads protrude from their outfits.

I love the Madden series but i just cram to understand when will EA do away with the generic cleates and the unrealisitic glossy eyed zombies!!! Im wondering if ESPN football may surpass EA this yr. I know this is a debate every yr but Gameinformer showed ESPN screenshots and the faces on the players and cleates are how it should be done. ESPN cleates have each team colors and Madden has the same ole black and white shoes every yr.

NCAA seems to have some great ideas where the home crowd can cause the opposing teams offensive to make players strain to hear audibles. In the screenshots you can actually see the players turning towards the QB with their hands to their hears signaling they cant hear the playcall. Also you see in another screenshot players with a gatorade jug about to douce the coach.

IN Maddens defense the presentation was mentioned to be one of the major addressed issues this yr with ESPN like broadcast likeness and fan presentations. We shall see since EA always claim to improve this but its always seems to be minor changes.

the defense will use the right stick control called the hit stick. I guess you can control the different type of hits you can inflict on the offense.


ewflex11

no problem. i have to recant on what i said about the cleates because i just saw more screenshots of madden 2005 on maddenmania forum and it looks like they do use cleates with colors specific to the team. They still dont look as detailed as ESPN to me.


Leroyog
NCAA seems to have some great ideas where the home crowd can cause the opposing teams offensive to make players strain to hear audibles. In the screenshots you can actually see the players turning towards the QB with their hands to their hears signaling they cant hear the playcall. Also you see in another screenshot players with a gatorade jug about to douce the coach.

fortunately for me, I am not a graphics whore and will take gameplay over graphics everytime.


expertgamer23

This is the info I know from someone who works for EA.

These are the things I know so far for the game:


On defense they will be adding two new playbooks, run stopping and pass protection. Its a 5 linemen, 2Lb set for the run stopping just like in NCAA. Their getting a whole new defensive engine this time around. There will be more enhanced zones schemes (Man, Zone combined) rather then the simple cover 2, 3, ect. Also there will be more gang tackling, fields will get messed up (mud, ect), and people will bleed with cuts, ect.

Another inportant thing is that this year, many people took their D-linemen of the line which completly shut down the run, in 05 its gonna hurt you big time. You will get run over will this happens. Another improvement is of the money plays. There are way to many of them this year. I have so many different offenses, its not even funny. From those, I can run about 2 plays and rack points like its nothing. its a big flaw resulting in extremely high scoring games. Sure people will find plays that work better then others but not as many as this year.

Jetpacking (Super Catching), whatever you wanna call it is still in the game. It was meant to be in the gm this year, and to all of you guys saying its a glitch, its not. EA refers to it as "Manual Catching." They dont even know what jetpacking or super catching is. But anyway, these are the things I know for now. The release date is expected to be in the 1st week of august since their planning on releasing NCAA a week or two earlier this year comapred to last.

[Kodos]

More from IGN:

dnztravis
I got this from PS2 and Gamepro June.

I read a preveiw off of a magazine for madden 05 so here it is.
"The yearly cycle of sports games is a competetive business, and this early in the season, one main concerns is the cloak-and-dagger need to prevent competing titles from "borrowing"your big new ideas. For that reason, details on Madden05 and other sports games preveiwed are abstract and at best, but here's what we know in advance.Defense improvement will be a big focus of gameplay for tiburon is promissing a slew new new defense orientated tools for the player. Chief unmong is the new "hit stick" control, which will likely employ the the right anolog stick that will let you have diiferent tackling styles. Lastly, a new presentation style approch will let you re-create the experince of seeing a game as a fan in the stand. For the graphics tiburon will give you new textures,face models, more assceries,tats, and creases changing depending on a person and animation."


jason6191
Yeah my new Game Informer magazine they say the harder you the right analog stick teh harder the hit will be.And they also said "EA Sports is promising ground-breaking fan presentation."


expertgamer23

Sorry, I have no links to back up the statements I made but this is what I have heard from the same person who told me about the Ray Lewis cover. Trust me, all these are facts but if anything changes, Ill let you guys know. The game is still 4 months away so there will be changes made, these are the main elements being looked into this years game.


FWIW, other guys seem to think this expertgamer guy is reliable. I don't know anything about him personally.

[ice4277]

Well as long as the wrinkles in the jerseys behave realistically...

[Kodos]

Agreed.

[Kodos]

Six seasons into my dynasty, I have IU in the championship game following an undefeated season, having survived a couple of close calls against Penn State and TCU. Louisville, the number 2 ranked team, gets snubbed in favor of Ohio State to play us in the Orange Bowl. We defeated OSU 42-10 earlier in the season when they were number one. Now, we are number one. Will OSU return the favor?

I'm sure most of you win championships left and right, but I usually don't stick with a dynasty long enough to win. This would be the first championship I've won in years... Wish me luck! :)

[korme]

what level youon kodos?

[Kodos]

All-American with sliders heavily in the CPU's favor. The main problem is, the CPU has trouble running on me, but if I go up to Heisman, I can't find sliders that work for me. I've started trying to recruit weak d-linemen to compensate... 8)

[MizzouRah]

Go Kodos!

It's funny, I don't remember the last time I've won a Championship, Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, or World Series with a console game. :) They just don't keep my interest that long.

In fact, if this years games don't do it, my Xbox is getting sold in favor of a new video card.


Todd

[Kodos]

Yeah, the problem with the CPU not running effectively and me getting too many sacks has dampened my enthusiasm a bit, but I'm still having fun, so I've stuck with it for longer than usual. If I win the championship, I'm going to take over Cornell in the MAC, who I've been systematically screwing by resimming each game until they lose while building up their rivals like Penn. Right now, they are on something like a 36-game losing streak, and are ranked somewhere in the 110 to 115 range nationally. It should be fun - if I can win tonight. :)

[ScottVib]

In my fourth season with my SCLSU Mud Dogs dynasty.. last year was snubbed despite being #2 from the Title Game (stuck in the Sun Belt (replaced Idaho)). Ended up with Split National Titles (SCLSU and Texas). This year I lost my first game in 16 tries when I decided to step up to the plate and play Texas in Austin. Unfortunately I hadn't played in about 2 months and ended up losing by 10. Took out the aggression from the lost on New Mexico State in the Conference opener... :p

[ScottVib]

dola,

FWIW I stuck around to win the National Title once... with UConn in my first season having gone from Independent to the ACC (replaced Duke) beat Texas for the National Title in 2010 or so.

[Kodos]

I tried to sabotage Northwestern and build up Notre Dame to get them into the Big Ten, but no luck there. :)

[Sun Tzu]

I've had a career with ASU going on 5 years, and unfortunately I've already won 2 National Championships. I've got a star WR and a star QB who can't be stopped, even with sliders heavily in the CPU's favor on All-American. Last year he caught 101 passes for 1800 yards adn 23 touchdowns. He's only 6'1 190, and has a jump rating of 70. My QB is a 94/99 in THP/THA though, which helps in getting him the ball right on the money nearly every time. I'm really hoping they make recruiting a little bit harder in 2005 so not every other person I get turns out to be a stud. Also breaking runs to the outside is waaaaaaaay too easy. Still an incredibly fun game, even if it is very easy.

[Kodos]

Ladies and gentlemen, I present your 2009 National Champion Indiana Hoosiers!

A touchdown drive that covered 85 yards and ate up the entire third quarter sealed the deal as the Hoosiers claimed their first college football championship by defeating Big Ten rival Ohio State 28-0.

Hoo-Hoo-HOOSIERS!

[sooner333]

I tried to sabotage Northwestern and build up Notre Dame to get them into the Big Ten, but no luck there. :)

You officially suck. Go U Northwestern! :D