NCAA Football 14

[SirFozzie]

Good to see that the series will continue, as EA Sports College Football

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Good to see that the series will continue, as EA Sports College Football

Me too.

[whomario]

Have there been any improvements to Road to Glory since NCAA12 ?

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by whomario

Have there been any improvements to Road to Glory since NCAA12 ?

The consensus here seems to be no.

[ColtCrazy]

Bought the game, and very impressed so far.

I did make the mistake of playing my first game online in the Ultimate Team section. I knew my team wasn't great, I refuse to pay money to buy upgrades, but I got destroyed by a team with a heck of a lot more talent then me.

Then I put in BYU's sliders with some adjustments (in my favor while learning) and played just a half of IU-Illinoise before bed. Got to halftime I was up just 10-7 at the break. Nice balanced game with offense spurts between some solid defense though the running game needs to be revamped for the CPU. Will tweak the sliders more towards BYU's next.

Will start my IU dynasty after a few more test games.

[General Mike]

Played my 2nd game with BYU14's sliders, but hadn't made his latest tweak to run blocking.

Won 35-24 with Rutgers (tweaked the roster) at Louisville

Stats RU (me)/ LU
FD: 17/ 17
Total Offense: 533/ 401
Rushing: 33-221-2 / 19-94-2
Passing: 19-25, 312 3 TD, 2 int / 20-33 307, 1 TD, 0 INT
Fumbles lost: 0 / 0
Sacks: 5 / 0

Got one long rushing TD (71 yards) so that might have skewed the stats a little. I'll make the run block adjustment now and do one more test game before I start a dynasty with some school.

[BYU 14]

That seems pretty solid Mike, take that one long run out and you are in the 150's rushing.

The run blocking adjustments help the CPU more on edge runs as the line stays on blocks a little longer, no real difference inside, where I think the CPU does well.

On the human side the reduction makes it so you have to hit the hole/cut back a little quicker, should still get good numbers with a good back and a solid line.

[General Mike]

Game 3. WMU (me) at Northwestern.Adjusted the run blocking this game.

Stats WMU (me)/ NW
FD: 17/ 9
Total Offense: 287/ 175
Rushing: 32-55-2 / 28-125-0
Passing: 17-36, 232 0 TD, 2 int / 10-17 50, 0 TD, 0 INT
Fumbles lost: 0 / 1
Sacks: 3 / 5

Had 27 minutes time of possession in this one, so while I didn't really move the ball a lot I kept their no huddle offense off the field. I didn't get my first TD until 1:17 left in the 3rd after I got a fumble call reversed to set up first and goal. Then was able to get another score with less then 2 minutes left after a 4th and 5 conversion in no mans land.

I think I'm starting to understand what works on defense in this game now.

[ColtCrazy]

First full game using BYUs sliders:

South Carolina 18 @ Louisville 41 (me)

Score seems lopsided but the stats were fairly even

SC/Lou

Rush 29-129/32-140

Pass 19-28 214 2-0/ 17-23 222 2-1

FD 16/17

SC just hurt themselves going 3 for 11 on 3rd down. Stalled a lot of drives around the 40. 14 of Louisville points came on drives that started inside the SC 5 (long KO and a fumble)

Pretty pleased with the stats overall. Two short drives and a garbage td by me make this look worse than it was.

[sooner333]

Does anybody use the power ups earned to improve your coach?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sooner333

Does anybody use the power ups earned to improve your coach?

I'm using the hell out of them in my initial dynasty (Ga State, standard sliders). It definitely makes a difference in recruiting although it's not as though I'm dominating anything to this point.

[BYU 14]

One final tweak 07/24/13 - Think I have a wide enough sample now to say the passing game is solid, human run game still a tad too powerful, so raised CPU rush defense to 75. Also raised offsides and false starts to 85, dropped holding to 40, want to see some penalties and linemen getting off blocks! This should do it

Skill: All-American
Speed: Normal
Threshold: 28
8 minute quarters

Sliders (Hum/CPU)
QBA: 5/10
PB: 60/65
WR: 40/45
RBA: 45/65
RB: 25/45
PC: 70/70
Int: 30/30
RDef: 40/75
Tack: 35/35
FGP: 55/50
FGA: 50/40
PP: 50/50
PA: 45/35

Penalties

Offsides and False start: 85
Holding: 40
Off and Def PI: 0
Clipping: 50
Int grounding: 60
RP: 52
RK: 0

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by sooner333

Does anybody use the power ups earned to improve your coach?

Yes, they are part of the game and I *think* the CPU is using them, so I am as well.

[General Mike]

Started a dynasty as the WMU Offensive coordinator. I can't recruit my way out of a paper bag.

[Groundhog]

I wish if you were the Off/Def coordinator it only allowed you a share of the recruiting budget and scholarships.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Yes, they are part of the game and I *think* the CPU is using them, so I am as well.

This, very much this.

The number of points teams seem able to pour into recruits has me convinced that the CPU gets the same benefits (when their coach is a level X) that I have access to.

[Simbo Klice]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

This, very much this.

The number of points teams seem able to pour into recruits has me convinced that the CPU gets the same benefits (when their coach is a level X) that I have access to.

Yeah, you can actually look at the coach levels and what they've upgraded in their skill tree under the coach toolbar.

Does anyone have a tip on nailing down insta-commits once you have that upgrade? I'm at level 3, which says it gives you a 20% chance, but I went through a week 1 offering everyone on my board who I was #1 with a scholly and came up empty.

btw, the game sims are pretty good, but once you build a monster team, it seems like you basically can never lose. My Kent State team has had 1 game within 21 points in the past 2 years, with 4 consecutive NC's. And this is with a move to the B10.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by Simbo Klice

Yeah, you can actually look at the coach levels and what they've upgraded in their skill tree under the coach toolbar.

Does anyone have a tip on nailing down insta-commits once you have that upgrade? I'm at level 3, which says it gives you a 20% chance, but I went through a week 1 offering everyone on my board who I was #1 with a scholly and came up empty.

btw, the game sims are pretty good, but once you build a monster team, it seems like you basically can never lose. My Kent State team has had 1 game within 21 points in the past 2 years, with 4 consecutive NC's. And this is with a move to the B10.

I think the insta commits are just luck. You might have a 20% chance, but it's a dice roll, so if you have 10 guys who list you #1, you still aren't guaranteed to roll the right number on any of them.

[Groundhog]

The game finally clicked with me yesterday. I started a few dynasties but ended up creating a new MAC school in Team Builder with a cupcake roster and have had a lot of fun so far. I’m playing on Heisman with tweaks to BYU’s sliders, as I managed to beat a ranked team 40-22 my first game of the season. I think when using a team that is heavily outskilled the sliders don’t reflect that, and I was able to control the game using basically nothing but Cover2 and Cover3. I increased the AI’s running and running D and that seemed to solve it – I got torched by NIU’s HB the next game.

[Simbo Klice]

Originally Posted by General Mike

I think the insta commits are just luck. You might have a 20% chance, but it's a dice roll, so if you have 10 guys who list you #1, you still aren't guaranteed to roll the right number on any of them.

After a little playing around today, I think how many points you are giving them the week when you offer plays a factor. I had some success just giving 50-100 points to lower priority targets and then offering the scholarship. If they commit, you can't pull the points back though.

[finketr]

Yeah.. so we're up 28-23 with 1:59 left ..
3 kneel downs leaves :35 on the clock running with Idaho having no timeouts...


and yes! The brilliant HC punts the ball with :19 left on the clock. WTF>

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Simbo Klice

If they commit, you can't pull the points back though.

Maybe I'm crazy from the heat or something but ... I think that once a recruit commits to you (or anybody else obviously) then the points go back into your bank anyway; i.e. once they commit to you then you don't have to keep recruiting them, those points can be assigned to another target.

[Groundhog]

Yeah you do get the points back.

[JonInMiddleGA]

One of the crazier nerdy things I've done in a while might just be keeping track of every single coaching change through the first three seasons of my solo dynasty.

Since I've got them all, I decided that I'd try to get them better organized than the awful chicken scratch on paper & then edit the coach names so I can more easily spot the fun stuff going forward.

In-game to see that Southern Miss fired their head coach & hired Bama's DC is one thing ... to match that to real-life names and think "damn, Southern Miss just hired Kirby Smart" (or Ball Sate hired Bud Foster) seems kinda more fun to me.

One of the things I hope this bit of grognarding will do is give me some fun 15 years down the road if I see something like "Dabo Sweeney hired at South Carolina"

edit to add: one of the more odd bits of this might be having to decide who to name as the fictional OC from Georgia Tech or South Carolina, or the several others where the HC actually keeps the coordinator role. Still, I think even that will make the overall experience more interesting for me

[finketr]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

One of the crazier nerdy things I've done in a while might just be keeping track of every single coaching change through the first three seasons of my solo dynasty.

Since I've got them all, I decided that I'd try to get them better organized than the awful chicken scratch on paper & then edit the coach names so I can more easily spot the fun stuff going forward.

In-game to see that Southern Miss fired their head coach & hired Bama's DC is one thing ... to match that to real-life names and think "damn, Southern Miss just hired Kirby Smart" (or Ball Sate hired Bud Foster) seems kinda more fun to me.

One of the things I hope this bit of grognarding will do is give me some fun 15 years down the road if I see something like "Dabo Sweeney hired at South Carolina"

edit to add: one of the more odd bits of this might be having to decide who to name as the fictional OC from Georgia Tech or South Carolina, or the several others where the HC actually keeps the coordinator role. Still, I think even that will make the overall experience more interesting for me

Having just finished 6-6 with GSU and only got blown out (20+ point loss) 4 times against the best teams on the schedule, i just went through the coaching carousel and that takes forever so I simmed/skipped ahead and took a job with SJSU...

We'll see where we go from there.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by finketr

Having just finished 6-6 with GSU and only got blown out (20+ point loss) 4 times against the best teams on the schedule, i just went through the coaching carousel and that takes forever so I simmed/skipped ahead and took a job with SJSU... We'll see where we go from there.

I've actually had fun with the carousel (and have now turned down something like 150 jobs) ... but it's a lot more fun now that I've seen correct names associated with some of their new jobs

I'll hit the highlights once I finish tagging the names for the last 50 or so changes. Through three seasons, a total of 311 moves.

[finketr]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I've actually had fun with the carousel (and have now turned down something like 150 jobs) ... but it's a lot more fun now that I've seen correct names associated with some of their new jobs

I'll hit the highlights once I finish tagging the names for the last 50 or so changes. Through three seasons, a total of 311 moves.

How many coaching changes are there after a typical RL season? I wonder if 100 changes isn't that odd.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by finketr

How many coaching changes are there after a typical RL season? I wonder if 100 changes isn't that odd.

By my count there are 32 new head coaches this season in real life (among teams that are in the game)

I have 26 new head coaches going into my fourth season of the game. I imagine that the numbers are pretty close to realistic overall.

Some of the things I've seen while looking at this are pretty cool, for example
Terry Bowden fired as Akron HC after season 1
Terry Bowden hired as Buffalo OC for season 2
Bowden is passed over the for vacant Buffalo job (coach left) for season 3
Bowden is promoted to HC for the vacant Buffalo job (coach left) for season 4

Other stuff seems pretty messed up, such as the unusual number of HC that get fired after one season on their new job, that's happened several times already in just three seasons, seems far too high for my non-researched taste. And I do mean fired, not just guys who got a better offer & jumped ship.

And then there are other kinda (IMO) unrealistic quirks that come up but don't really bother me a lot. That category includes stuff like teams effectively trading coaches (OC from A leaves for B, who then gets the same job at A) and 2-3 cases where team A fires both their coordinators, hires both coordinators from from team B to replace them.

If I were to magically tweak something about the AI for this I'd probably ask for an increased chance that HC's take their coordinators with them to a new gig. I think that's only happened maybe once so far. I'd also increase the number of new coordinators a bit, right now it's about 1 or 2 per hundred changes not counting those generated to replace retiring coaches, and I'd wish that coaches didn't disappear (apparently) if they didn't have a job at the conclusion of the off-season where they ended up unemployed.

[Kodos]

In real life, I believe IU and Arizona did the OC swap before last season.

[Jon]

If you get hired as a HC, do you hav the option of hiring your own coordinators?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Jon

If you get hired as a HC, do you hav the option of hiring your own coordinators?

Unfortunately that seems to be no. I've lost coordinators every season so far & the AI automatically replaces them just as they do for an AI controlled team. On the bright side our/my prestige has gone up every year so my replacements have been at worst equal & usually better than what I had anyway.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

One of the things I hope this bit of grognarding will do is give me some fun 15 years down the road if I see something like "Dabo Sweeney hired at South Carolina"

It's Swinney

And it actually be much more shocking if he ended up at Auburn than SC....

[JonInMiddleGA]

At the start of Season 4 of my single-player dynasty

-- 23 teams still have their original starting coaching staff intact (6 of those are in the Pac10/12)
-- 40 teams do not have a single original coach still on staff

[muns]

14 has been my best experience with the series so far. I cant complain about anything. I love the recruiting, the game play and the little touches are great. For example I like seeing other teams scores after i have completed my game. For me this is leaps better than 13. I have only played dynasty though.

Edit- almost forgot the read options also make the game much better

[nilodor]

I'm loving running the option so much that I might take Air Force for a spin. It's really quite fun. In my Arizona State dynasty I'm running the ball almost 70% of the time, primarily out of the option.

[Poli]

Seriously. That option stuff is crazy fun.

[ColtCrazy]

Started a dynasty, I'm the OC at Texas St. We're 2-0 to start the season and just saw a very cool statistic. My RB, Terrance Franks, is my offense. After beating ODU, it showed a graphic of his performance (277 total yards) vs the rest of the team (280). Never saw that before. Pretty cool.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

Started a dynasty, I'm the OC at Texas St. We're 2-0 to start the season and just saw a very cool statistic. My RB, Terrance Franks, is my offense. After beating ODU, it showed a graphic of his performance (277 total yards) vs the rest of the team (280). Never saw that before. Pretty cool.

"They better enjoy that guy while he's here, because it won't be long before he's playing at the next level"

It's cool the first dozen or so times you see it

[ColtCrazy]

Finished up season 1 as OC at Texas St. Lost a heartbreaker at Arkansas St. Had the ball 1st and goal to win it and just couldn't get into the end zone. Came back to beat W. Kentucky (which was sweet, I hate Petrino) to win the conference and go to the New Orleans Bowl. Our RB, Franks, won the Heisman thanks to a 2000 yd, 38 TD season.

In the bowl game, Middle Tennesse St. stacked the line and slowed down Franks, forcing me to use Rex Grossman, er, Tyler Arndt, who was bad Rex in the first half with 3 picks. Down 35-17 going into the second half, Arndt became good Rex and managed 400+ yds passing as we spread MTSU out. That opened up some lanes for Franks who got a couple of TDs. We tied the game at 38 and scored the winning TD with 2:00 minutes left.

First time in a long time I felt like I had accomplished something on NCAA. Bobcats finished #19 in the polls. I ended up taking the last head coaching job available at Colorado St, promptly ending up with the nation's fourth worst recruiting class (and the ones I signed in the offseason were the best of the bunch). Here goes season two.

[finketr]

Originally Posted by Poli

Seriously. That option stuff is crazy fun.

yeah.. i seem to only have success with the read option.. haven't gained a yard with a pitch option..

on a related note: how the hell do you run the veer or inverted veer?

[Groundhog]

Yeah read option is a lot of fun, I get the right read probably 70% of the time, and it generally leads to nice gains. I find I'm running the ball at least 80% of the time, passing only on 3rd and medium+ or the odd play action.

[ColtCrazy]

4-1 in my second year, first as HC of Colorado St. Had a huge upset at Texas A&M only to get thrashed at Boise St. (got antsy, went away from the run and threw some stupid picks)

Getting into the run option as well. Do pretty well on it. My backup QB comes in just to run it. He's averaging about 8 yards per carry.

[finketr]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Yeah read option is a lot of fun, I get the right read probably 70% of the time, and it generally leads to nice gains. I find I'm running the ball at least 80% of the time, passing only on 3rd and medium+ or the odd play action.

And sometimes you just get smashed regardless of the right read.. like the corner/safety/LB crashing into the QB as well...

It's also amazing how well one can pass when you are playing lesser competition. I guess i should have kept the FCS schools on the schedule...

and 70-80% rushing:
recent games:
53-345 rushing
6/11 passing for ~100yds

43-280 rushing
6/14 passing ...

[Poli]

Originally Posted by finketr

And sometimes you just get smashed regardless of the right read.. like the corner/safety/LB crashing into the QB as well...

It's been a few years since I sat in on a spread option clinic, but as I recall if there are two defenders outside the tackle to the read side the proper read is either an automatic give or to call an audible.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Poli

It's been a few years since I sat in on a spread option clinic, but as I recall if there are two defenders outside the tackle to the read side the proper read is either an automatic give or to call an audible.

This is correct because the 1st outside can crash on the RB and the 2nd go to the QB, which I see as well. I audible to the screen into the pressure when I get this alignment.

[JonInMiddleGA]

On the one hand, I can do beastly things to the AI offensively against the out-of-the-box settings for All-American.

On the other hand, I've rarely managed a play action pass that didn't result in a sack (or at least a hurry) and I think I've gotten positive yardage on maybe two screen passes over at least a couple hundred games over the last two versions, to the point that I've abandoned them entirely.

WTH?

[flounder]

Has play action ever worked on any version of NCAA and Madden?

[ColtCrazy]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

On the one hand, I can do beastly things to the AI offensively against the out-of-the-box settings for All-American.

On the other hand, I've rarely managed a play action pass that didn't result in a sack (or at least a hurry) and I think I've gotten positive yardage on maybe two screen passes over at least a couple hundred games over the last two versions, to the point that I've abandoned them entirely.

WTH?

That's odd. Screen passes work fairly well for me at times, I've hit a 73 TD with it and I've been stopped for 0 or 1 yd. Play action works for me, but only when I've been 3:1 run-pass ratio. Then I've hit some great plays. So it does work, but only if you really set it up it seems. Otherwise I get creamed. Shame, some of the best patterns are in play action so I just hot route the RB to pass block to take away the play action and run it as a normal pass. I can't run the standard option at all, it always gets stuff, even if I read it right. Read option works well though.

I know I'm Colorado St., but I simply can't play defense. I sim some to speed up the games on D, but when I play I'm atrocious. Even against the weakest teams I give up 21 pts at least.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

That's odd.

Yeah, I'm fairly sure it's just something that I do/don't do.

But I also just scored 105 points (8 min qtrs) in my fifth season opener and could easily throw for 750-1000 every game if I wanted to, so I figure there's a tradeoff in there somewhere

I know I'm Colorado St., but I simply can't play defense. I sim some to speed up the games on D, but when I play I'm atrocious.

If I had to play D manually, I'd just give up the game entirely. It's pretty much pointless for me to even try, has been on every version of the game I've ever touched.

[ColtCrazy]

Ha! I hear you. If I went pass wacky, I'd throw for 600 yards but also have 6 or 7 interceptions, even with BYU's sliders. Different Strokes!

Okay, damned if I can figure this out. I went in and made my own defensive playbook (I've used my own offensive playbook since I started by dynasty) and shut out 5-0 UTEP 30-0. I played a 3-3-5 which I hadn't used before. Held them to 90 yards total offense….this from a defense that hadn't allowed less than 21 points or 400 yards all season.