Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

[Nunyerbiz]

PANTHERS BEAT BULLDOGS IN CLOSING SECONDS, 28-25
Pitt overcomes four turnovers and holds Georgia to under 250 yards offense, squeaking out a thrilling road win


Either the Georgia offense is grossly underperforming this year or the Pitt defense is really good. The 2022 season has quickly turned into a nightmare for the Bulldogs, as they fall to 1-3 heading into an always challenging SEC schedule. Big plays were hard to come by for both teams in a generally defensive struggle, but the Bulldogs especially struggled on 3rd down. Pitt held Georgia to only two 3rd down conversions on eight attempts and managed to control the game despite the struggles of the Panthers offense.

Speaking of which, the sophomore struggles for QB Jesse Ramsey continues.... He threw another three interceptions this game and looked lost for most of the 1st half. Thankfully he found his footing later in the game, including a stellar lasts second drive as Pitt marched 80 yards in only 43 seconds to win the game. On the season, Ramsey has 10 touchdowns against 15 interceptions.

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1) Ramsey gets crushed and floats a 43 yard pick six to Bulldogs LB Horatio Blanco to open the scoring.

2) Georgia's Nathan Jones punished Pitt defenders all afternoon, breaking eight tackles on his way to 111 yards and a touchdown.

3) While Ramsey had yet another three interception afternoon, he did also manage three scores including this rushing touchdown run. (Nunyer's Note: Is it just me or does his left foot look like he's wearing some big Ronald McDonald clown shoe?)

4) TE Nap Tyler pulled down both of Pitt's touchdown receptions, including the last second game-winner on this 18 yard toss from Jesse Ramsey.

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NUNYER'S NOTES

This write-up kinda sucked because it's been about two weeks since I've played this game and don't remember enough about it... and really I didn't even play... but I sim -> watched it. That said, it was pretty insane, I think it ranked #3 on the ESPN Classic list for this dynasty... The sim>watch play engine continues to hate Ramsey... he was pretty bad in the first half... The second half was Pitt holding the Bulldogs to a bunch of field goals allowing a slow comeback. The final drive was actually amazing to watch, as CPU Pitt went roughly 75 yards in four plays to win the game... all with one timeout and roughly 45 seconds remaining... with two of the three longest plays of the day happening on the final drive.

[djp73]

a bit more breathing room in that one!

[Nunyerbiz]

Much like the only good scene from Godfather Part 3... Just When I Thought I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In!

The Rhinos aren't dead quite yet... I figure at my current pace, I should have the in-game 2022 season done around the same time as the real 2022 season... but anyways... here's the last game I played:

The THREE INTs in one game is pretty cool!




FULL DISCLOSURE: I don't even remember playing this game... it was quite awhile ago.... I think I rolled off two in a row and only posted one... But anyways, stay tuned for insanely inconsistent updates... the Rhinos will never die... just slowly fade into obscurity... But seriously, next update I'll try to do some recruiting stuff as I forgot where the hell I am at in this thing....

[Nunyerbiz]

NUNYER'S NOTES

Ok, so it's fairly obvious that this thread has kind of fallen off the table from my perspective. Part of it was just getting a little burned out on the game, as I did the bulk of this content during the pandemic while I was unemployed, and I played a lot of NCAA and spent a lot of time in photoshop and excel. Anyways, about 9 months ago I landed a job... unfortunately that job had weird hours and I usually came home exhausted and not in the mood to really touch any video games at all, including NCAA. (Nested Nunyer Sub-Note inside main Nunyer Note: Please don't consider this as any kind of sympathy fishing... I lead a pretty much blessed life... and in the grand scheme of things, I have zero things to complain about... just wanted to sorta / kinda explain why this thread has largely dried up)

Anyways, I'll be starting a new gig in a week and will be getting back to a good old-fashioned 9-5, Monday-Friday schedule... and I'm looking forward to getting back into NCAA stuff. That said... I'm probably going to retire this thread at the end of the season. I think this incarnation of the Rhinos have run their course. But I have recently made some minor upgrades to my PC setup... and I'm still kicking around the idea of making a youtube Rhinos series just for a change of pace / new hobby. If I go that route, the "official" home of the Rhinos would still be this forum, as I'll have a thread here to link the videos and make silly posts. If and when that happens, expect me to steal and recycle a lot of my own gags and storylines from this thread... I still want to have a goofball misfit rebuild angle... because I basically ripped off Big Ole Drewski's formula when I started this thread and I'm not going to stop now. Anyways, as the fall approaches and I have more time on my hands... I'll make some more updates.


But anyhoo... onto my most recent game, played last night....





GAME NOTES

Holy hell, I think Nigel Tuffnel from Spinal Tap cranked up the defensive sliders to 11 for this one... Just a ton of fumbles and sacks and interceptions and general madness. A grand total of 13 sacks, 4 interceptions, 5 fumbles (although only 1 of 5 lead to a change of possession) and my first safety in who knows how long.

While rust definitely played a factor, I've come to accept that I just can't do poor Monte Hall any justice. I think I've been spoiled by one too many elite QBs on this team... and Hall's 85 THP is just not enough for my old-man reflexes and lacking stick skills. The game doesn't track school records for interceptions for a single season, and I'm far too lazy to research things myself, but I'm guessing Hall has to be on pace for most INTs in a season... which is saying something considering the first season or two of this dynasty.

On defense, the D-line on this team continues to be scary dominant. Granted, CPU QBs love to have happy feet, particularly run-first QBs... but they just consistently get penetration and wreak havoc in the backfield.

Next week, the Rhinos will travel to wherever the heck the Air Force Academy is located to play a surprising 6-0 Air Force squad that has climbed up to 7th in the rankings. (Colorado? Is that were the Air Force Academy is located? Sounds right.)

I'll still be making Pitt updates, but they might just be quick and dirty.

To end this rambling mess of a post... here's a random screencap of Rusty Nonek. I think that's supposed to be a "shadow" being cast from his headset microphone... But it just looked like a big turd on his sweater vest... and that made me chuckle... because I'll forever have the comedic sensibilities of a 13 year old.

[Nunyerbiz]

Not really much of an update here... but did manage to get the Rhinos imported to College Football Remastered on my PC... Check out Rusty Nonek in all his 1080p glory! Somehow I forgot to give him the sweater vest... but the almost equally awful grey slacks / doo-doo brown polo combo almost makes up for it...



I have a relatively beefy PC, so Remastered actually runs pretty well... I think any future Rhinos content past this season will be on that platform. Will make tweaking and editing the dynasty file so much easier.

[Nunyerbiz]

NIAGARA SURVIVES AIR FORCE GROUND ASSAULT, 28-24
Rhinos stay undefeated, but a possible QB controversy is brewing in Niagara Falls

Niagara fell behind by a score of 17-0 early in the 2nd quarter and the undefeated season clearly was in jeopardy. Part of the struggle was due to the continued erratic play of 5th year senior QB Monte Hall. The one-time unheralded 1-star recruit sat on the bench over four full seasons until it was his turn to take the reigns. Despite staying in the top 5 in the nation for total passing yards, Hall has been highly prone to turnovers. So far over eight games, Hall has tossed 20 interceptions against 24 touchdowns and has also lost a fumble. Despite throwing a pretty 19 yard touchdown to TE Nicos Papadatos as time expired in the first half, the coaching staff had already decided to give the rock to backup and heir-apparent Hayden Fynbo.

"That was my call," said Niagara Head Coach Rusty Nonek, "Air Force was getting too much pressure with the pass rush... and while I love Monte, the kid ain't exactly fleet of foot. I thought Fynbo could add a new dimension with his scrambling."

While the sophomore did throw an interception of his own, the offense appeared energized by his presence. The read option play, never much of an "option" with Monte Hall, was effective for the Rhinos in the 2nd half. Hayden ripped off a big 16 yard run to keep a drive alive to setup the game winning touchdown one play later. He then followed that up by gaining 29 yards thanks to a pretty spin move that drove the final nail in the Falcons coffin.

The other hero of the afternoon was reserve halfback Bobo Langerudy. From 14 yards out, Bobo broke a tackle in the backfield and then rumbled untouched the rest of the way for the game winning touchdown. It was Langerudy's first touchdown on the season.

Next week, Niagara crosses the border back to Canuck Land to host Iowa State. This week the Cyclones snapped a four game skid by beating rivals Kansas State at home by a score of 31-28. The win improved their season record to two wins against four losses.

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AROUND THE NCAA
(well not really, just an update on what Pitt has been doing)

After the poor 0-2 start, the Pitt Panthers have heated up. They've rattled off five consecutive wins to climb back up the the 11th place in the polls. In week six, they travelled to the west coast and put a whooping on San Jose State, winning by the score of 56-20. They followed that up by returning home and defeating the struggling Wisconsin Badgers by a score of 34-28.

Later tonight they will look to keep the winning streak alive, as they'll head over to South Bend to face long-time rivals Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are having a horrible year, with only a single victory in seven games. They suffered perhaps their most embarrassing defeat in program history back in week one, losing 24-17 at home against the Portland Culinary Institute Hipsters of the FCS Northwest division.

[Nunyerbiz]

NUNYER'S NOTES
Today's topic: A completely pointless exercise in world building....

So still formulating ideas for the Youtube reboot... Got a roster largely set, got College Football Revamped running largely stable with 60ish frames per second. Recording tests have gone well...

Then I started writing down rough script ideas for the intro episode... and fell down a rabbit hole of goofy world building that I'll likely never use... and because I enjoy being an amateur photoshop hack... I started thinking and tinkering with throwback / historical Niagara logos from decades past...

I always considered them a bit of an outsider school... and in my head canon their original founder banned ice hockey from being played... so nobody in the Great White North ever paid them any attention. They never really had an identity or a rich tradition. So... they would chase a lot of trends and switch things up alot... So a few ginger ales and two hours of photoshop hackery later... I made these... like I said... not really sure if I'll ever do anything with them... but wanted to share... because why not? It's my thread, I'll waste your time if I want to and you can't stop me!


So... being an outsider school... I figured they would have been founded under a different name. There actually is a really low-brow Nunyerbiz level gag I have in mind for this image in the opening video... so we'll see... but anyways...

School founding in 1874 thru 1947:

Spoiler

School changes to "Niagara" and mascot changes to "Rhinos"
1948-1960

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I guess this is my take on a early 60s vibe...
1961 - 1974

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... then of course the university had to embrace the beautiful ugliness of the disco era...
1975-1983

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I think this one needed a little more work, might go back and revisit it... but really only found a decent "futuristic" font that would have fit right in during the opening credits of a 1986 sci-fi movie.
1984-1996

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This is the one that I made originally for this thread... so nothing necessarily new here:
1997-2013

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I never much cared for the helmet logo in teambuilder, so just found a decent Rhino logo on Adobe Stock and went from there....
2013-Present

Spoiler

[Nunyerbiz]

NEW THREADS AND A NEW OFFENSIVE LOOK CARRY RHINOS
Niagara remains perfect, QB platoon delivers in a 63-24 blowout over Iowa State

This season has been a bit of a mixed bag for first year starting quarterback Monte Hall. While he has remained Top 5 in passing yards for the #1 team in the country, he's also 2nd in the country with 20 interceptions. (Editor's note: Niagara is technically the only team in the country as they are based in Canada). The Rhinos running game has been somewhat inconsistent, so more of the load has fallen on Hall. After getting heir apparent Hayden Fynbo more involved last week against Air Force, Niagara continued that trend. The QB platoon was almost a 50/50 split between the two and the offense responded with almost 600 yards offense and 63 points.

Sophomore Fynbo won player of the game honors, with an impressive 8-for-8 passing performance including two long touchdown strikes. He added an additional 95 yards on the ground capped off by a beautiful 31-yard touchdown jaunt on a read option play. Senior running back LaQuincy Kemp did his part as well, picking up a somewhat rare 100 yard rushing game to go along with two short touchdown dives. All of this extra help appeared to put Monte Hall at ease, as he looked impressive as well. The senior finished 14-for-17 with 191 yards and two passing touchdowns.

The Rhinos also introduced some new uniforms this week. Originally meant to be road uniforms, Coach Nonek decided to introduce them this afternoon at home. He called Iowa State late last week and told them to pack up their home red uniforms. When asked why he made the change, he simply stated that he wanted the home fans to be the first to see them in action.

Next week Niagara enjoys a relaxing bye week before staying right at home to host another struggling team in the 2-4 Maryland Terps.

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NUNYER'S NOTES

First game played on the PC via the College Football Revamped mod. Game played really well... but now without having to go back and forth to the PS3 to see if editor changes actually worked, I decided to play around with the unis... so much faster to do all on the PC. I never liked the alternate helmet, honestly don't think I've ever used it on this thread. It's identical to the home helmet, just with the secondary logo, which is a lame representation of Rhino horns. It's awful. So decided to white out a helmet and take the also rarely used Alt2 jersey and change the number / player text colors. Think they look decent... will probably play around the rest of this season, might debut some slightly tweaked uniform for every game.


AROUND THE NCAA
(well not really, just an update on what Pitt has been doing)

Painful game to sim watch, as the Irish curbstomped the Panthers by a score of 41-17... Pitt was only down 14-10 at half, but three 2nd half turnovers and a defense that looked lost was too much to overcome. This week they play the Utah Utes... and that's a game that I'll probably play and will probably do a proper update post as well. The CFR mod brings updated Pitt unis... and the royal blue and yellow is so fresh and so clean... gotta play a game with them.