Michigan Wolverines: How to handle the new D?

[Redwurm]

so is this is a wise move when it comes to setting up your D to play online? I've always just kind of stayed with the presets (maybe changed around the WR/RB depth chart a bit). But I'm a bit more interested this year with all the new changed the wolverines have.

Plus, it still doesnt seem like anyone really had a straight forward answer on howto accomplish the new D. 3-3-5 or 4-3?

[gameface1324]

As long as you don't play Utah, OSU, Appy St, or Toledo, you should be fine

[Maize]

Quote: Originally Posted by gameface1324

As long as you don't play Utah, OSU, Appy St, or Toledo, you should be fine

[ddanese1978]

Quote: Originally Posted by MattSharp

So Michigan fans, how do you plan on replicating the bizarro defense UM is planning this year, where it's a 3-4, but one the 4 "LBs" is a safety, i.e. Stevie Brown this year? I haven't thought of a good solution, especially because the 3-4 that the game uses takes the #2 MLB and makes him the 4th LB. Of course if you could do formation subs this would be much easier, but that is STILL not a part of this game. Plus you are going to end up with way too many LBs. There are like 9 in the game already. If you move Brandon Smith and Stevie Brown (like IRL) then you end up with 11. Any ideas?

Hey I play madden football and to do formation subs is east.. you just click triangle while your in formation and it takes you to top of screen to replace subs.. in each formation....

I have yet to figure out how to do it in this years NCAA??? does anybody know how to change individual players in individual formation subs??? I.E put Brown in at MLB... or put Grady in at full back spot on just one formation???

Any help would be great

[thezer0v]

Quote: Originally Posted by ddanese1978

Hey I play madden football and to do formation subs is east.. you just click triangle while your in formation and it takes you to top of screen to replace subs.. in each formation.... I have yet to figure out how to do it in this years NCAA??? does anybody know how to change individual players in individual formation subs??? I.E put Brown in at MLB... or put Grady in at full back spot on just one formation??? Any help would be great

Wait, I thought Grady was off the team. Or has he already been "punished" for the DUI.

As for individual formation subs... they were not in the game last year ether... sucks.

[WolverinesFinest]

Quote: Originally Posted by ddanese1978

Hey I play madden football and to do formation subs is east.. you just click triangle while your in formation and it takes you to top of screen to replace subs.. in each formation.... I have yet to figure out how to do it in this years NCAA??? does anybody know how to change individual players in individual formation subs??? I.E put Brown in at MLB... or put Grady in at full back spot on just one formation??? Any help would be great

Formation subs didn't make it for NCAA 10 but I think they almost have to for NCAA 11 because it's asked for by so many users.

As for the safety thing with Michigan it will take some creativity to simulate what it will be in real life but i will say with formation subs there would've been no problem doing this.

[sundaz3]

I think that some of you are confusing the 3-3-5 Stack with the 3-3-5 Nickle. Coach Rodriguez is all about the stack, and it's taken more than a while to learn how to utilize it playing as WVU.

Change your D to the 3-3-5 stack, and it uses a safety to play as your 4th linebacker. You may need to move people around to get who you want to play the position, but that is the true playbook that they will use defensively.

[BigHouse14]

In doing my work on the Michigan rosters there's a few problems, I'll share what my decisions were to help you make your own:

First, the hybrid DE/LB spot is a bit awkward. Because this player is usually not in a 3 point stance and is instead standing up, it means the base 4-3 defense is already simply inaccurate. You could theoretically move a Van Bergen to DT and then move Herron to DE and that would replicate the Mich. defense when Herron puts his hand down as a pure rusher. However, this can create problems when you're doing a more traditional 3 man down front, as the depth chart would be whacky and have Graham-Martin-Herron. There simply isn't a way to avoid this. As such, I eliminated the 4-3 as a base defense.

The 2nd consideration is to use the 3-4 and have the traditional 3 DL (Graham-Martin-RVB), with Herron playing 1 OLB spot, and Stevie Brown playing the other OLB (this is the hyrbird LB/S spot). Then, you need to move the other LB (in this case it is like Fitzgerald) to MLB. That would actually give you a perfect lineup of the correct 3 down linemen and the correct guys playing the LB spot. The key would be to adjust Herron a bit to make him a bit more of a DE/LB hyrbird, and to adjust Brown to make him more of a LB/S hybrid. Also, you'd likely need to adjust ratings for moving Fitzgerald to MLB.

My only problem with this is that it requires significant editing of rosters. Fine for OD (mostly, see below), but not great for online. Simply put, moving someone to MLB won't just work to make Fitzgerald and 80-something overall, he's probably low 70s. Secondly, and this effects OD, it is really hard to make a S into an OLB but still retain the good traits in coverage that a S has over an OLB without creating a superman. Put another way, making Brown (and Hawthorne, the backup @ the hybrid S/LB spot) too good in coverage as a LB would make him too sick and unrealistic. But making him too weak as a LB would make him completely ineffective serving ina 3-4, and way too much of a tweener. If you try to adjust for this too much you can end up either creating an OLB who looks like he will be greatest player ever, or someone totally unrepresentative of the actual player.

My solution was simply to say I'm going to convert them to a 3-3-5. This, easy enough, keeps you with the correct 3 DL, and you can place Herron as one LB, Ezeh as the Mike, and Fitzgerald as the other OLB. Doesn't account for shifts according to field position, but NCAA doesn't do that anyways - you'd have to do it with formation subs in play choice screen. The 3-3-5 allows you to play 2 safeties (in this case the S were Woolfork and Emilien) as well as a third SS down, who would be stevie brown. This best replicate Brown's role as a hybrid LB/S, as well as Herron's role as a DE/LB. So the solution is- use Herron and Fitzgerald as OLB (really, whoever it is in the game will be fine), and move the hybrid S/LBs to the SS. Then select the 3-3-5 defense as your base defense.

The only problem is getting the computer to do this in a dynasty, but that's another issue.

Hope this helps. When working on the rosters, I had a huge issue with how to actually deal with this. You end up having too many SS, but either way you're either going to have a ton of SS or a ton of LBs - there's no real way to get around it. IMO, the 3-3-5 works best.