Even More Details: EA Sports college Football 26

What's good, YouTube? DM Gaming here, guys, and I've got another video for y'all. Some really cool information um that I just came across, probably last night actually. It was just too late to do a video on it, uh, as I was at work.

And in today's video, guys, I have some more details for you on presentation, on dynasty, on even road to glory. So, buckle up, guys. Um, we got some stuff to go through, but before we get into that, man, if you haven't already, subscribe to the channel, guys. Get out of the portal, stop being a Point Dexter, and become a fivestar by subscribing to the channel. It's completely free. Doesn't cost you anything at all. And don't forget to click that bell icon so you don't miss a single video.

So, this article comes by Robbie Kaland. Um, I think Kalen was the same guy that did that other article. I'm not sure. But anyway, this is on CBS Sports. I'm going to post a link to this in the description box. You can come and check it out in your own time. But EA College Football 26 hands-on impressions, how gameplay, Dynasty, Road to Glory, look in the new game. He even talks about presentation. So, this is going to be a fun read. I've already read it, skimmed through it, but I'm going to go through it and break it down as well. Um, he so he says, after more than a decade without a college football game, fans couldn't wait to get their hands—this is just an introduction, guys. I'm I'm not going to read that. Let's go into gameplay first.

He says, "I think the general takeaway from most from most folks that played last year's game was that it was fun but had room to grow and improve in terms of gameplay." After playing for a few hours, he makes a quote that on an early version, they promise will get even better. "I am pleased to say that certainly they certainly made some big strides with the gameplay. It's smoother, smarter." That's what I'm interested in. "And a few key elements that were lacking last year are much improved in this year." And he starts with presentation here. And he says, "We'll start with presentation where they added a ton of stuff, including some iconic entrances that were missing from the first game. For example, Virginia Tech runs out to Inner Sandman, and South Carolina has 2001 of Space Odyssey and Sandstorm. The bands play a lot more songs. There are more songs that play over the PA that crowds sing along to. I think that's a little cool quality of life upgrade. Uh, there are more mascots. They added a bunch of turnover celebrations. I didn't see a whole lot in the game this year, but it's cool they added more." He says, "And teams have more varied and unique runouts that can change depending on how big the game is with special presentations for night games." That is super cool. So now, you know, I mean, case in point, you have different runouts depending on the game. So, not only do we have different commentary for big games, but you also have different runouts as well as different entrances, uh, different entrances for night games, which as we can probably assure, like your night games are going to be different. Why? Because they can do different things with the lights and things like that as a presentation standpoint. Uh, with their real coaches in the front row now that most coaches are in the game. Really sad that Prom isn't in the game. uh, feel like that was a missed opportunity, especially from a recruiting standpoint. He always says he ain't hard to find, but in college football 26 Prom, you are hard to find. Uh, he said, "Anyone that played the first game a bunch noticed that a lot of things were repetitive." And it certainly seems like this that will be less of the case this year. Less repetitive with commentary, less repetitive with presentation—or that that's pretty cool.

So, defensively, I'm shocked to be talking to you about defense because I have never really enjoyed playing video game football defense, largely because I've been terrible at anything other than line play. I have been a staunch offensive coordinator mode user for this game for a very long time, allowing super sim to handle defense. I've done that as well. Um, when I first got the game, I did play defense, but defense just felt off. Like I I I'll go into detail about that I guess in another video so I don't drag y'all on too long. But basically like defense feels um it feels very restrictive to me. Long story short. All right. However, the two hours I played on this game were genuinely enjoyable and I felt defense was far more intuitive and less frantic than in the past. That's good. That intuitive part right there. Physics-based tackling which debuted in Madden 25 has come to EA College Football 26. That's cool. I didn't play Madden. I played like the little um I played the little demo of it, you know, for EA Play or whatever. And I mean, yeah, the tackling and the running and stuff, it felt good. It felt good. And there's even improvements coming to Madden this year as well. If y'all want me to cover that, let me know. of has come to EA College Football 26 and makes for a much better experience as it's been tuned really well to be a smoother function. Hit sticks are far less of a crapshoot. Yeah, you can miss some hit sticks. You can trip guys up and big defenders bring down small guys easier and small defenders struggle to bring down big guys. As it should be. as it should be. I'm still not great in space. He makes a note that this is a skill issue, not a game issue. If you want to be better in space, you push the right trigger or the left trigger. It makes you square up to the ball carrier and you push X. If you push X, you can make a secure tackle. Secure tackle instead of pushing square to like dive at them and stuff. But also, they have a new block shedding feature. This is something I liked. I love that. Allows you to move alignment with your left stick movement when engaged as a defender and still have an impact as both a pass rusher and a run defender. That's huge because one thing about playing on the line is it feels very stagnant. It's like once you get locked up with an offensive lineman, you're just stuck in place unless you do like a a spin move or a swim move to the outside. And that's not accurate. I mean, playing on the D line, you seeing guys that play on the D line. This is true. They are literally, you get a strong guy in there, like an Aaron Donald kind of guy, I know this NFL, but it's still football and he can move some guys out the way. And that's that's part of even what they teach D-linemen in football. You lock up, you engage, and you got to find the ball. You can steer that off. If you can steer that offensive lineman into the gap that that running back is trying to hit, then you can do that cuz it's going to close up that gap. He's going to cut through. You get off of him; you make the tackle. So, I'm I'm really interested to see how that's going to play out. Um, I think a lot of us are because I think a bunch of us have been playing on the offensive line. I've talked to a few people that have um simply because of how the secondary is kind of janky. You know what I'm saying? All right.

Um, they also have is down here. They also have the option to choose different line stunts for every play in the playbook, allowing you to customize each play to throw some new wrinkles at the offensive line. I love this because it adds so much more depth and realism to the game. Guys, we know, you know, me being a a coach and a former player, I can tell you, you know, that you have a a base defense, you know, and I'm not talking about scheme wise 4-3, 425 or whatever. You have a certain call and then based on what the offense comes out in or and what you think may happen, you have certain checks and things. You know what I'm saying? So, I love that they're adding that to the game. It's adding so much depth to defense and I for one am excited to be playing defense in this game this year. So, kudos to them for that.

Uh, running the dang ball. Awesome right here. Yeah, the weak point of last year's game was running the football. I can't tell you how many times I got mad because I'd be following my guard through a hole and he wouldn't even consider blocking the safety in front of him and just run downfield aimlessly and I'd get tackled. Y'all, that has happened to me and it's frustrating because the lineman, you're following him in the hole and there's clearly a safety right there in front of him, but instead he peels off and goes to block a linebacker who's not even gonna make the play and you end up getting tackled by the safety. I know you're going to say, you know, as a running back, here's the deal, and this is true football. As a running back, you should always be prepared to make one guy miss because there's always going to be one guy free somewhere. All right? Be it a lineman, a backer, a safety, a corner, whatever. As a running back, as running the ball in football, you should always be able to make at least one guy miss. If you can do that, you will be an effective running back, both in real life and in the video game. Okay? But with that being said, there's logic involved with this. If I have a lead guard that's pulling or kicking, you know, or kicking, he's going to be kicking out like a back or something. So if he's pulling, he's going up in there and there's a backer off to the left or right and a safety who's, you know, that lineman should be able to say, "Hey, this safety is the most dangerous threat. Let me go get him." You know what I'm saying? Because y'all know this because y'all exper—I know y'all have experienced it as well. Running. I can't wait to see how running the ball is going to work, especially with the physics-based tackling. Uh, because one thing that I would do, y'all, I'm going to tell you this. One thing that I did to help improve the run game. First of all, scheme matters. Scheme matters. It matters what scheme you're running, and it matters what personnel you have in that scheme. If you are a power run team, okay? You don't need a bunch of agile type smaller linemen. It's you're not gonna be as effective. You know, the game doesn't just put that out in the forefront, but that's how it is. Your playbook matters. Your scheme matters if you really want to run the ball. Me, I like to run veer and shoot. Why? I just love it. I love that it stretches out the defense and it and it it it no matter what they line up in, they're going to be wrong. You have options to make them wrong. Now, with the veer and shoot, you have you're going to need more agile type D-linemen. Why? Because you're not running a power scheme. You're going to need guys that can move and stuff like that and be able to pass block at the same time, but not as good as pass block because here's the deal with the veer and shoot. It's a quick hitting offense. Okay? It's not a drop fivestep drop under center where you going to need all four seconds in the pocket. Your veer and shoot offense is a very fast-paced offense. So, you're going to need those those linemen, the agile linemen who can move, who's got good conditioning, who don't get tired as frequent and stuff like that. Those big burly guys that you see in like an option style offense, they they'll tire out running that. So, running back-wise, you can use a power back. That's fine because, you know, you're you you can get four or five yards a pop. Me personally, I like a more speedy guy because it flows with the offense, especially because you're gonna have plays where you utilize the running back out of the backfield. So, you know, I don't I wouldn't get a big burly line to run a veer and shoot offense and a powerback. It just doesn't really flow well with the tempo of that offense. That big burly back, that big running back is going to get tired as well doing a lot of uptempo and no huddle kind of stuff. So, one thing that I tell you that can improve your run game, guys. And I don't know why people don't do this enough is people don't go and adjust the game sliders. Okay, I went and adjusted the computer tackling. It's at 50%. I dropped it to about 30%. And it gave me a more realistic thing because other than that, guys, your running backs, you can't run nobody over. You can barely stiff arm them, guys. But if you adjust that tackling down to about 30%, it it gives you a more realistic uh running game experience, you're able to truck some guys, you're able to stiff arm some guys, you're able to break those types of tackles that you see in real life as opposed to, you know, cuz I play on Heisman or whatever. All-American is is even about the same, you know, where you just don't seem to break any tackles. It makes a more realistic experience. So, I I I implore y'all to go in. They give you those gameplay features to be able to adjust the AI in the game to fit your play style. Okay.

Anyway, he says that plus the physics-based tackling engine means your big back can run through arm tackles by a DB. Means long runs that were nearly impossible to create between the tackles are now very much in play. And y'all watched me play the game uh when it first came out and stuff and it was difficult to run the ball. I remember even talking in the Discord like, bro, how how are people, you know, I I I I I probably had like one or two games that where I was able to rush for over 200 yards. But then also, I learned um I got more into scheme and stuff like that and and and personnel. And when I got the right personnel in place, hey, now I'm able to run for 200, even 300-yard games. Okay, so that's cool. The new blocking engine is a fant—is is fantastic. And your linemen will make the right reads and right decisions within the scheme you're running. Guys, that is a big key note within the scheme. Okay, so here's my point on this. All right. If you're running a veer and shoot, the scheme blocking for that is different than if you're running a power spread or an option style offense or even a power option offense. Okay? Because in your option style offenses or your run-heavy offenses, they're not designed for you to break off 50, 60-yard runs, 40-yard runs. They're designed to give you a four or five-yard run per average. You know what I'm saying? So, your linemen are going to attack more of the linebackers and free up more of the safeties. In your spread type offensive games like your veer and shoots and stuff like that, your linemen are going to be more agile and they're more geared to going to the next level. They may start with a double team block, peel to the backer. If the backer's not available, they'll go to the safety type stuff because those are the type runs uh offenses and schemes that are going to spread out the defense and allow for bigger run plays, if that makes sense, because there's less people in the box. Okay, I'm sorry that was a lot.

CPU AI improvements. The game is smarter than last year with which makes for a good challenge. Yeah, cuz I on Heisman I was I veer and shoot dog, I I'll be blowing teams out. Defenses will disguise blitzes and coverages until right before the snap. That's cool. I've heard it before. I'm not saying that they haven't done it, but I I want to see it because even in older college football games, they said the same thing in 14, as a matter of fact, and I just didn't notice it as much, you know? So, they do it already a little bit in the game. It seems like they do anyway, but for the most part, you can tell when somebody's blitzing. And they read tendencies much better than they used to. So, you can't just keep running the same plays, buddy. If you're running inside zone a bunch, they might start going to an underfront to take away that double team uh with the center and guard and slow you down. So basically with the underfront is you um so basically football 101 here a little bit. You know I'm not just big on lineman knowledge but I know a little bit. Um what that what that's saying is um where was I at? You're okay. Where was I at on that? Disguising blitzes but before the snap. The tendency is much better. If you're running inside zone a bunch, they might start going to an underfront. So, basically what the underfront is is your your three technique, he's going to be more uh if I'm not mistaken, y'all correct me if I'm wrong on this, your three technique is going to be more to the boundary than he would be to the field. Um, if that makes sense. So, okay. So, in an overfront, the three technique would be to the field. That's an overfront. Okay. Uh, this means that the one technique is to the boundary. In an underfront, it's an opposite. The three technique is going to be to the boundary and the one technique is going to be to the field. And that's to stop the inside run. Okay. Uh, and like I said, for the inside zone, if you keep uh now, where was I at? If you're running inside zone a bunch, they might start going to an underfront to take away that double team with the center and the guard and slow you down. Okay. So, that that's pretty cool that they'll adjust to that. And I like it because it makes you uh people may hear that and be like, "Oh, well, my bread and butter, you know, some people only run a certain number of plays." But guys, what this does is allows you from an offensive standpoint because one thing they harp on with this game is being able to um everything has a counter to it. Does that make sense? So, hey, I may I may set up—You can use this to set up a defense. We do the same thing in play action, whatever. I might come out and run a bunch of inside inside zone to get you to hit the uh underfront. Switch to an underfront and then boom, I hit you with an outside. You know what I'm saying? So, it's the same way as running the ball, running the ball, running the ball, running the ball, run the ball, and then play action, bam, they're open. You see what I'm saying? So, while the defense is the fact that the defense adjusts more, you want that. You want the defense to adjust more to your tendencies because that allows you to game plan and open things up. Now, what I'm wondering, because he talks about this from a defensive standpoint, does the offense do the same? It's kind of not, you know, the offense should, you know, generally your offenses run what they want to run and the defense's job is to line up and stop it. But if if defensively if I'm playing a team and they notice that I'm constantly loading the box, I would hope that offensively they would start hitting the outside runs and and shoot stretching the field like, "Hey, if that box is loaded, let me put some receivers out here and stretch this defense cuz more guys in the box equals less guys on the roof." All right. Uh, if you keep throwing drag routes and underneath stuff, they'll adapt and try to take take that away. This happens much faster the higher level you go with Heisman mode being a very legitimate challenge, but one I didn't find impossible. That will force you to vary not only your play calling, but where you're going with the football on those plays. I love this. I want them to do this. Why? Because me, I'm going to line up in the veer and shoot. I'm going to go uptempo because I specialize in the tactician uh skill tree. And I am going to no huddle you to death. Why? Because no huddling. I can get into the exact same formation and run a completely different play. So, hey, let me keep running inside zone. As soon as you adjust, bam, I hit an outside run or I hit an RPO to the outside. You bring those guys down, I hit you over the top. I love this type of stuff. That's really, really cool that they're doing that. And I really hope that it is as good as advertised.

Road to Glory. So, we've gone over Road to Glory in a previous video. There are some notable differences here um in in this article than

What I talked about in a previous video. I think the game mode that felt the most vanilla last year was Road to Glory.

And the big news for the mode this year is that they've heard the complaints about starting in college and bought back the high school portion of the game. Not only that, they made it a legitimate recruiting process, which I found fun and frustrating to play. You once again pick your star level to start at, which impacts your attributes and ratings. I was right about that. Remember, we talked about that in the video because that wasn't given in the information that I had. I speculated that, hey, I wonder if we get this information. I mean, if the star rating is going to determine your overall rating. It's not going to determine any scholarship offers, and it may peak certain interest from other teams, but that is good to know. So, your star rating, guys, is just going to affect your overall, okay? But you have to try and maintain or improve on that star rating with your play on the field and get offers you want, which was not easy. And that is also a breath of fresh air to know. Therefore, you earned that offer, and it feels like you've earned it.

He said, "I did a quick run through the high school portion starting as a three-star quarterback and dropped to a two-star." As a dynasty guy mainly, I'm still not used to the Road to Glory camera angle even zoomed out, guys. Oh my gosh. And this. So, for those of y'all asking about camera angles, apparently they've got the same camera angles in Road to Glory. Um, I don't like that. I don't like that. Like I said, even because people say, "Oh, just zoom out." It's not the same as the camera angle that you get in Dynasty mode if I'm playing correctly. And I get why they do it. They want you to feel more immersed. That's why they use those camera angles to give you a sort of perspective from that single-player element. Why? Because in Dynasty mode, they're giving you this camera angle to be more of a coach's eyes in the sky type of perspective. In Road to Glory, without giving you a helmet cam, they're trying to put you in the shoes of the player that you're playing. And I get that, but the same way you make wear and tear an option, you could turn it off or on. I feel like camera angle-wise, I should be able to use the camera angles from Dynasty mode. But it kind of also be like cheating, really.

Um, he said which played a role, which it does. Yeah, it plays a role. You got to get used to that camera, but also they do a good job of giving you the high school experience where both you aren't great, you aren't that great, and your teammates can be even worse, while frustrating, throwing good passes that got dropped. It also made me feel real, made it feel real, and made the success even more fun.

He says, "The quick breakdown of the recruiting process is you pick 10 schools to be in your top 10 and play five weeks of a high school season." For each school, you can see their depth chart and where you project their other recruits on their recruiting board, the team's coaching style and scheme fit for your archetype and more. So you could tell if they're trying to go after another running back or whatever position that you play. From there, you have a tape score that you earn points towards with your play by hitting your goals, with some goals getting boosts for certain teams, which is cool. So, that means that that hey, you may complete one goal, but it's team-specific. So, for example, let's say my goal is to rush for 200 yards or something. I'm just throwing something out there, but uh one of the schools that I'm interested in plays an air raid offense. Me hitting 250 yards rushing is not going to be as appeasing to them as opposed to say the goal is to get two 20-plus yard receptions out of the backfield. That's going to be more appeasing to a passing-style offense. Does that make sense to everybody? So your goals, it's not like, oh, rush for 20-yard 250 yards, and then every team on your recruiting board is like, oh yes, we want this running back. It's scheme-specific to those teams. So, if you're trying to go to a team that you know their scheme is to throw the ball, you may want to pick goals that are more in line with you catching balls out of the backfield if you're a running back. Does that make sense? I like that. That's realistic.

Um, where was I at? Uh, for each school, you can see their depth chart where you project blah blah blah. Already read that tape score. You can also get a challenge goal from a specific team that can give you a big boost with that school. So, you can have your regular goal on the point system from 50 to 200 points, and on top of that, you can get a specific goal from a team like, "Hey, we want to see you do this." You know what I'm saying? That's cool. That's cool. And that's like Madden in the season where you have your regular season goals, but every now and then the coach drops in and challenges you with something. And uh, I think that's really dope.

Instead of playing full games, you pick four moments from a list before each game to play that have a basic goal worth 50 points and a bigger goal worth 200 or more. I didn't even see the more part. This is interesting, too, because now it's starting to make sense why you get to pick these moments because once again, it goes back to what I said: you know, fulfilling these moments is going to give a boost to certain teams, not all teams. Why? Because of scheme. So, if I'm trying to be a running back and my running back archetype is that is like an elusive back or a power back, that means I need to go to an offense that is going to run the football. If I'm a receiving back, I want to go more to an offense that's going to pass the ball. So, it does me no good to say pick if I'm a receiving back to pick a goal of rushing for 250 yards in a game. I'm just using that as an example. Why? Because the offense that I'm going to, I'm not going to be, I'm not expected to rush for that kind of yardage. I mean, if you get it, that's fine, but that's not what they're looking for. Passing teams are looking for running backs who can catch the ball out of the backfield. Okay? So, I get to pick goals that are catered to my archetype. That is dope. That is dope. That is a level of control that we have not seen in a college football game thus far. And I'm even talking previous years. So, I y'all, that is a, that's a W. That is a W. I told y'all with Road to Glory, I initially, I'm like, man, playing five games, playing moments. Huh, if they're giving us five games, it would be cool if they just let us play the full game and include those moments, but they're not. Yet and still hearing it like this, look at high school as more of like a combine for Madden. Okay? You're basically kind of going through drills and showing them what you're made of. Does that make sense? So, I get it. It's getting you into the college game faster, but like I said, I still feel for y'all who wanted the full games. Okay? So, that's good stuff.

The better you do hitting goals on those four drives you get each game, see, so it's not just a play, which is good news. It's a full drive. Um, four full drives. That's that's better. But, you know, the more interested schools will get, and once you meet their threshold, you will get a scholarship offer. You can commit at any time, but as you keep playing, if you do better, you can get more incentives and boosts to skills if you sign with that team as part of your offer. That's cool. This feels like their way of doing NIL without NIL. However, if you play poorly, you can lose incentives, and if they sign another player at your position, the tape score threshold could jump up, and you might lose your offer. Why? That is so dope. That is so cool. Why? Because it's realistic. If if if TCU is recruiting me and and Burns to play cornerback and and they sign Burns before me, hey, all of a sudden, hey, I really don't need a corner. I got one. So, if you really want to make that team, you better do better than the other guys. That's dope. I like that.

Finally, you narrow your list to a top three to get to do a hat ceremony if you haven't already committed. And in the hat ceremony, you can fake out a team. We've already known that. So, a little bit more information on Road to Glory that that does provide a level of depth that I'm kind of excited to see. Interesting. Let me know y'all's thoughts on it in the comments section down below. Um, I didn't get to any further than that as we had limited time, and I wanted to see as much of the game as I could, but I will say this portion of Road to Glory was quite fun and felt like being on the other side of Dynasty mode. We'll have to see if they did enough to make the in-college portion more enjoyable and have more variance, but this was a much better starting spot for the mode. And that is good. That's good. That's good to hear.

Now, Dynasty mode. This is one I was most interested in because I'm a big dynasty guy. Okay, so if you've made it this far to the video, I appreciate it. I'm going to try to put some timestamps in the video uh so that y'all can know when I talk about certain stuff if you want to skip ahead. Dynasty, well, by this time you already made it to the end. Whatever. Dynasty was the mode I spent the most time in, as did most folks who played the game. And for the most part, they kept the main elements the same. And see, this is it, you know, because the majority of people play Dynasty. Not not saying people don't play Road to Glory. They do. But Dynasty is a selling point in this game, and they know that. He says makes a note, and for the most part, they kept the main elements the same, guys. There's and which in Dynasty mode now there's not much that I would want them to change. Like it it's it's a great foundation to build on. Okay, which is a positive in my eyes. Their main focus on Dynasty this year seems to be improving their user experience and providing more customization options so you can get an even deeper experience if you want it. If you want it. Now, understand this, guys. Every year that the game comes out, they find an area to improve on. Okay? So, Dynasty might not get a lot of love this year because Dynasty got the bulk of the love this year, this past year. This year's game, their main focus is Road to Glory. And as you can tell, they've added a lot to it. Doesn't mean they're not going to add stuff to Dynasty, because they do. However, it's not like uh they're doing a Dynasty overhaul in this rendition of the game. Road to Glory is an overhaul. Why? Because you've added a completely different element to it, you know, that dictates what goes on. Uh now, you can skip high school, too, in Road to Glory. You can just do the traditional way. So, all right.

He says, "The big updates for rec recruiting that I could see were changes to the presentation of the recruiting board." Most notably, your team needs being at the top of the board rather than a separate page you have to toggle in and out of, which was a huge improvement. Now, he's not saying when you're on the recruiting page and it tells you, I mean, it tells you there what you need, you know, beside the player if you need that position, it'll say need it. It tells you at the top. So, it'll, you know, if I'm looking at offensive players, I'm just speculating. It'll say it'll have your offensive needs listed. One thing that I wish that they did is that the same way Madden makes a little nugget on your players if they're if they fit your scheme. They give you that little purple puzzle piece. If they fit your scheme, I wish college would do the same thing because if I need linemen, it's any offensive lineman is just going to say you need it. Okay, that lineman might not necessarily fit my scheme. So, I if I'm running a run-and-shoot offense, I don't need a big burly uh run game titan of an offensive lineman. I need a more agile, quick, somebody that can get get back to the line of scrimmage fast and run the next play type of lineman. Does that make sense? And and I think we'll eventually get that whenever the game goes into more detail of the positions. For example, in Road to Glory, they've added, I think they said 15 new archetypes, those things. So, you know, instead of my say my center lineman can be run block, pass block, agile, hybrid, those types of things. When you start to get more of that into the game, that's when you're going to start getting more of the, the that's when it opens it up for them to say, "Hey, we are now going to customize the recruiting board to fit your scheme." So, if you're running this style of offense, you may have two different linemen right here, but only one of them is going to be recommended to your team because he fits your scheme. Does that make sense? So, I that's what I want to see perhaps in next year's version of the game. It'd be dope if it was in this year's version, but I don't think that it is. It could be. Like I said, they played an early build. We'll just kind of wait to see.

Um, he says there's also more information in the main recruiting board screen, like where a prospect is in the process. Top eight, top five, top three, a red dot when they're ready to visit, and green and red flags when you've moved up or down on their list. All of it allows you to see more information without having to go in and out of each recruit's name and toggle through various screens. I like that because it gets you back into the game quicker. Recruiting is a task, man. It is a freaking task.

He said the other big changes to recruiting is the time cost for scheduling visits is now no longer than 40 hours for every recruit. I'll read that again. The time cost for scheduling visits is now no longer 40 hours for every recruit. I read that wrong the first time. So to schedule a visit, it was 40 hours. That was standard across the board. It's not like that anymore. He says, but instead it varies based on their proximity to your school and your pipelines. This is what the game was talking about when it was saying um um something. I can't even remember the term they use, like precision uh locational visits or something like that. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Go back in the video and watch it. I can't remember the term, and I don't want to look it up. But that's what they were talking about when they were referring to like the uh the location visits. Okay. So, if a if a player is in your pipeline and he's in your area, it is going to cost less for you to spend on them coming to visit. That is cool. That's cool. That's cool because it it's realistic to football. Okay. It's realistic to football. If I can say, "Hey, drive up here, whatever, you got to if if I'm in uh uh Florida and I got a guy from Oregon I'm recruiting, I'm going to have to fly him over. That's going to cost more money and more resources as opposed to if a guy is right in my backyard, if that makes sense. He says that that allows small schools with fewer recruiting hours to more easily recruit local prospects, which that is what they do, y'all. Your small schools aren't able to. They don't have the resources to recruit all across the nation. And so, they focus more on their general area. That is so freaking cool, man. Kudos to them for that because a kid in your backyard only costs 10 or 15 hours instead of 40, which also frees you up to use more hours to recruit more players.

The trophy room is back along with rivalry trophies, bowl trophies, and real awards. So, do the Walter Payton Award instead of best running back, which is another element that makes the game feel more real. So, they are got the they are adding some more of the real trophies in the game. This section was interesting. Okay.

Another interesting thing is the game is the game and coaching carousel feels a little more lively with the actual coaches in the game. So, I don't expect a big overhaul to this. He said it feels more lively because it's basically because it's real names, and you're kind of like, "Oh, I know that coach." Interesting that he would go there. Not only are most of the 136 head coaches in the game promoted, but a lot of real coordinators are as well. That means they all have attributes, traits, and coaching levels which now goes above 50. That is big. That's huge. Which tells me that the coaching skill trees are probably more intricate. Um, I can't wait to see those. I heard that they go up to 100. Anyway, which are fun to parse through. Is that the word? Anyway, and you can choose to start your career as one of those coaches and pick up all of their skills from the jump. It's also funny seeing things in the staff move page like Davos Sweeney going to the NFL, which happened at the end of the first year of my Quick Dynasty playthrough.

Here is something that I want to see, and I talked about this in previous videos when it came to coaching. Okay, we need Dynasty mode. If I'm choosing to be a coach, I want it to be a Road to Glory type experience for coaching. What I mean by that, you know, making a long story short, the same way that I can create a player, play through high school, go to college, and then go to the NFL, I feel like I should also have the option to, let's say, starting in Road to Glory. If I don't want to go to the NFL, I become a coach. It immediately takes me in Dynasty mode where I have to start out as a coordinator, okay? And I have to work my way up simply because position coaches aren't in the game. That's kind of a too big of a thing to do. But I would love if they did it, position coach, and then uh work your way up to coordinator, work your way up to head coach, and then from there have the option to export your coach to Madden and then even have it to where, hey, if I'm a coach in Madden, I can take my coach from Madden and make him a coach in college football. I think that would be crazy dope. Why? Now, now you're going to increase sales of Madden as well. Not that Madden's having trouble selling, but it it's it's a bigger incentive for people like me to go and get Madden because I love college football, but if I'm like, h man, wouldn't it be cool to go to the NFL and coach and carry that pedigree with you and then say it doesn't work out and you come back because it's happened. Nick Sabin has coached in the NFL, and he's one of the greatest college coaches of all time. Chip Kelly coached at the NFL level and college level. A lot of coaches go back and forth between the two. It happens, and the games don't do anything to um to reflect that. So, if you're going to have stuff like this happening where oh, Davos Sweeney went to the NFL, is Davos Sweeney going to be able to come back to college and coach, or once he's gone to the NFL, he's gone for good? Interesting.

From a customization standpoint, some things that didn't quite make it into last year's game that they wanted to add but weren't able to get functioning properly for launch are in this year's edition. Awesome. Big ones include formation subs, protected rivalry games for custom conferences, and being able to sim to any week of the season. Yes, any week of the season as opposed to just points in the season. In general, players are given more tools to customize the experience across the board, whether you want to have more or less control. There are also changes to wear and tear to expand it from a single-game thing to an element that players carry with them over the course of the full season and career.

So, um, that's interesting. We talked about that in yesterday's video. And y'all, it was so cool to see um it was it was so cool to see this right here.

So, I posted my video and then having Scott O Gallagher, if y'all don't know him, he's he's like the lead producer for the game. Like, dude, have him comment and say, you know, I couldn't agree more. It's foot it's it's the football solution to a football problem. The real ones feel it. The video game solution of turning quarterback fumbles up is not the move in my opinion. Just look at Riley Leonard and the Natty after that first drive. You're going to love what's coming this year.

I thought that was so dope of Scott. That tells me he watched the video. Okay, he watched the video because how would he know what to agree on? And and Scott actually followed me last year on Twitter, dude. Like it's it's just a surreal moment. And this is all thanks to y'all watching the videos and getting the channel to grow the way that it is.

Um, so the wear and tear thing, like I said, it lasts for a full season and career. That's interesting. So, it's player specific. So, you're going to have to manage how you play with your players. And I love that, dude. I freaking love that. That makes managing player usage even more challenging. But if you're getting But if you're getting fed up with injuries happening too often, you can also customize wear and tear impacts for various hit types with sliders. Guys, I say leave it and play the game realistically. They're giving you formation subs, you know, and this is going to it this single element opens Dynasty so much. And I said this last year, but it's even more prevalent this year because now you even have a season meter, which if that meter fills up, you're not going to be able to recover from wear and tear. Basically, your player is pushed to his limit. So now you need to recruit more than just you need to go after more than just that star running back. It's going to require you to have to develop your other players in the depth chart, get them playing time, get them on the field, and things like that. it. Long gone are the days where I just got this stud running back and he's the he he's he stays in the game the whole time. You know, now you're gonna have to dig into your bag. You see teams doing it all the time and that is why they do it.

All right, I'm I'm hyped. That's awesome. Overall, it feels like a lot this it feels a lot like last year. And guys, it's going to feel like last year. This is not a revamp. This is not a remodel. They didn't they didn't they didn't take something and try to make something new. That's not how a yearly release works. Last year was a very good foundation. What they've done this year is taken last year, which was a good foundation, and they're building upon it. You know, some people said, "Oh, it's just going to be a reskin." It's a yearly release, dude. They don't just overhaul the game. Now, same thing I told that guy in the comment three years from now, when you look back on the that game, let's say College Football 28. When you look at 28 compared to 25, it's going to be a night and day drastic difference, but there's a stepping ladder to that. It takes a lot to develop a game. It takes a lot to add and code and all of that. So, every year we're going to get different improvements to different sections of the game. And then over time, you're going to get to where like Madden is now where Matt the first Madden 20 is going to look it it's way different than Madden 25. like just night and day difference of what the game is. You know what I'm saying?

Um, with just a bit more going on and better user interface. To me, that's a win because I enjoyed Dynasty mode in 25 and we'll be ready to sink more hours into this one. Me, too. It wasn't much wrong with Dynasty mode in my opinion.

And that's the article, guys. God bless. We've almost been on here an hour. I should have did a live stream for this instead. If you've made it to the end, that's awesome. That's great. I appreciate you. Um, no problems. If people want to fast forward to certain parts because I don't even have a way to put in the the time stamp. I'd have to go back and find all of that. But beautiful article. Like I said, I'm going to put this in the description box down below for y'all to check it out. Man, I am stoked for this. I didn't have any issues with 25. I still play 25 to this day. So, seeing the stuff that they have in 25 and then seeing what they're adding to 26 to me is the stuff that we've been wanting and it it gives you a lot more in-depth experience. the different stuff with presentation. And guys, there's going to be way more stuff than this in the game. When they start doing the deep dives and stuff, that's when we're going to get a lot more details on stuff that even the uh content creators weren't shown cuz they're not going to show them everything because they don't want they do want some surprises and some stuff to be revealed later on.

So, that's all I got for right now, y'all. I appreciate y'all's time. Till next time, thanks for watching. Peace.