Coach Russ (NCAA 14)

[Limasbravo]

Okay, I'll try this one since I stopped my joint NCAA/Madden franchise since I wasn't liking Madden. The coach is Coach Russ, named after my father-in-law who died a few weeks ago.

Coach Russ so far
In 2018, 5th season as HC of Rice. Increased from 2 star to 3 star prestige. Overall 6-6, 5-7, 5-7, and last season 8-5. No wins against Top 25 yet, 0-9 overall. So far in 2018, only 1 loss, a heartbreaker OT loss at home to TCU, which may keep Rice from a Big 12 title game appearance.

NCAA so far
National Champs: Clemson (vs Alabama), Alabama (vs USC), VA Tech (vs Notre Dame), and Nebraska (vs Notre Dame)
Heismans: Ohio State (HB), USC (HB), TCU (QB), and Kansas (HB)


The Setup
Head coach is fast progression. BCS is all at-large bids.

Conferences are organized by geography, which works out fine, except the one Conf USA division. All of them having enough to have a conference title game.

ACC Coastal
North Carolina
South Carolina
Clemson
Duke
NC State
ECU

ACC Atlantic
West Virginia
Boston College
Virginia Tech
ODU
Virginia
Maryland

American Div A
Ohio State
Bowling Green
Cincinatti
Miami (OH)
Kent
Ohio

American Div B
Michigan Tech (teambuilder)
Michigan
Mich State
Eastern Mich
Central Mich
Western Mich

Big 12 Div A
TCU
Rice
SMU
Baylor
Texas State
Houston
UTSA
North Texas

Big 12 Div B
Oklahoma
Texas
Okla State
Texas A&M
Tulsa
Texas Tech
UTEP

Big X Div A
Minnesota
St. Cloud State (teambuilder)
North Dakota (teambuilder)
Wisconsin
Minnesota-Duluth (teambuilder)
Saint Thomas (teambuilder)

Big X Div B
Iowa
Iowa State
Carleton College (teambuilder)
South Dakota State (teambuilder)
North Dakota State (teambuilder)
Alaska-Fairbanks (teambuilder)

Conf USA East
Louisiana Tech
LSU
Wake Forest
LA-Monroe
LA-Lafayette
Tulane

Conf USA West
Air Force
Vanderbilt
Colorado
Colorado State
Buffalo
Marshall

Independents
Army
Navy
Temple

MAC East
Kansas
K State
Northwestern
Illinois
Northern Ill
UMass

MAC West
Notre Dame
Ball State
Indiana
Butler (teambuilder)
Missouri
Purdue

MWC Mountain
Utah
New Mexico State
New Mexico
Wyoming
Utah State
BYU

MWC West
Nebraska
UNLV
Nevada
Montana (teambuilder)
Hawaii
Boise State

PAC 12 North
Oregon
Washington
Oregon State
SDSU
Washington State
San Jose State

PAC 12 South
USC
UCLA
Arizona State
Arizona
Cal
Fresno State

SEC East
Tenn
Auburn
Alabama
Memphis
Mid Tenn State
Troy

SEC West
Kentucky
Ole Miss
Miss State
South Alab
UAB
Louisville

Sun Belt Div A
Georgia State
Georgia
Florida Atl
Georgia Tech
Florida Intntl
USF

Sun Belt Div B
UCF
Miami
Florida
Arkansas
Florida State
App State (teambuilder)

[Limasbravo]

Houston Cougars at Rice Owls
Week 12	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Houston Cougars (3-7 (2-6))	21	14	14	0	49
#8 Rice Owls (8-2 (6-2))	7	7	7	0	21

Houston Cougars

Rice Owls

That was the sound of the Owls hopes crashing. In the battle for Houston, the Cougars dominated the Owls for the Bayou Bucket. Incredibly #8 Rice were down 21 points before they even scored. The Cougars offense put up 35 points before the half even was over.

Third string at the start of the year, but now starting due to injury to Rodgers and terrible play by Williams, Green played well, but his stats ultimately won't show it. His stats show 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, but one was a well thrown ball that hit TE Matt Ford in the hands and the drop was picked off. The second was his fault, trying to throw deep, he was picked off.

[Limasbravo]

Rice Owls vs St. Cloud State Huskies
Bowl Season	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
#16 Rice Owls ()	7	14	7	10	38
St. Cloud State Huskies ()	3	9	7	7	26

Rice Owls

St. Cloud State Huskies

Rice Season Recap
Season ends with one a good note. After most of the year in the running for a conference title game birth or better, then having that crash against Houston, the Owls bounce back. They got their first bowl bid under Coach Russ, wining against St. Cloud State Huskies in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl.

Rice again this season made strides, getting double-digit wins for the first time under Coach Russ and the first time for Rice in a decade. First time for the school having an 11 win season.

The highlight of the year may well have been the 27-10 win at Texas A&M, whole finished #14 in the polls. This is Coach Russ's first win over a Top 25 team. They did not get into the conference title game, but they can feel great about that they ended up having a better overall record than TCU did and better overall record than Oklahoma in the other division and the same record as conference champion Texas.

And the voters agreed with Rice's leap forward. For the first time under Coach Russ, they finished in the final polls of the year, #12 in the Coaches Poll and #11 in the Media poll.

[Limasbravo]

2018 NCAA Recap

National Champion: Notre Dame 38-17 over Nebraska
Heisman winner: Gerard Jacobs HB Nebraska

Conference title game winners:
Conf USA: Air Force
Sun Belt: Miami Hurricanes
SEC: Tennessee
American: Ohio State
Mountain West: Nebraska
PAC 12: Oregon
ACC: South Carolina
Big X: Wisconsin
Big 12: TCU
MAC: Notre Dame

[Limasbravo]

Typed out a bunch of this, but got an error. So I'm not redoing it

2018 Offseason Recap

Coaching Carousel: Turned down HC offers from Houston and Carleton. There's no way I could turn them down, I accepted the Head Coach position at Air Force.

I need to bring Air Force back, they haven't won the Commander-In-Chief Trophy yet, Army has the stranglehold on it. This isn't a completely rebuild, AFA has won the last two conference titles. Senior QB Mark Wilson will be the starter, even though worse overall than Senior QB Andrew Greene. Wilson is the better player as pitchman for the AFA option offense.

That ends 5 seasons at Rice. No conference title, but finished with a bowl bid.

Amusingly, there's a Rice player transferring to Air Force with me.

Final recruiting: Changed jobs, so simmed offseason recruiting.

For AFA recruiting, I'll keep it somewhat realistic, I'll only go after 3 stars and below and only if they're interested in me. Possibly higher if it's a recruit from the state of Colorado that's interested in me.

Preseason
Poll: #59
Prestige: 4 Star
Conf Outlook: 3rd of 12
Championship Contenders: C
Toughest Places to Play: 66

[Limasbravo]

Air Force Falcons at Washington Huskies
Week 2	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Air Force Falcons (0-0)	0	0	0	0	0
Washington Huskies (0-0)	21	0	0	0	21

Air Force Falcons

Washington Huskies

Hopefully folks weren't late arriving. If they were, they have missed all the points scored. All 21 of the points in the game were scored within the first seven and a half minutes of the game.

Air Force in the debut for Coach Russ leave Seattle with the loss to the favored Huskies. Maybe it was jitters for playing for a new coach because the Falcons came out poor and they get the loss for it. First drive the defense allowed a 50 yard run for a touchdown.

First possession, AFA fumbled the ball and Hutchison scooped it up and returned it for a touchdown. Second possession, Harris picked off a bad throw and returned that also for a score.

[Limasbravo]

Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks at Air Force Falcons
Week 3	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks (1-0 (0-0))	7	7	0	0	14
Air Force Falcons (0-1 (0-0))	14	7	21	0	42

Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks

Air Force Falcons

Air Force gets their first win under Coach Russ in Colorado Springs. They were back to what Air Force football typically is, running the ball well and being efficient, taking care of the ball, and dominating ball possession.

In the end AFA wins convincingly. It looked like a blowout early with AFA taking a 14-0 lead, the first drive scoring on just two runs. However, Monroe came back to tie it at 14 all. It looked like a tie going into the break, but Carrington broke a huge run. Wilson then got out of the pocket and when the defender came up to stop him, he hit Carrington who ran the rest of the way for the score.

AFA had three touchdowns in the third to run away with the game. The star was undoubtedly Senior Marques Carrington, he ran for 180 yards and also went over 100 yards receiving. He had three touchdowns, two on the ground and one through the air.

Senior QB Mark Wilson was efficient passing; he threw 3 TD passes and didn't throw any interceptions.

[Limasbravo]

I've been playing, but haven't been able to update here, due to lots of family being at our home this week.

After starting an underwhelming 2-3, including getting blown out by Washington and a disappointing Commander-In-Chief Trophy loss at Navy, Coach Russ turned things around.

It started with a whisker of a win, just 2 points, over Colorado State. AFA then proceeded to win 6 straight, including a satisfying 2nd CIC Trophy game, win versus Army. A win in Boulder against in-state rival Colorado and then escaping with a home win, in which they blew a huge lead and won in double-overtime against Buffalo, they qualified for the Conference USA Championship Game, the first for Coach Russ.

They will be taking on #24 ranked Louisiana Tech, one of the three teams that beat AFA this season.