Over the weekend, I got the chance to try out the new EA Sports College Football 25. I’m visiting family this week in Utah and my brother Jake just happened to pre-order a copy, getting it on Friday. Naturally, I decided to play the game as Stanford, giving me an opportunity to review the game for those who might be interested in playing as the Cardinal.
Before I dive into my five takeaways, let me first say Jake absolutely smoked me playing as his favorite team BYU. He was giving me all sorts of insights into the game and really knows his stuff. He’s definitely helped my football IQ grow as a result.
#1. Elic Ayomanor is fun to play with: The highest rated player for Stanford on offense is redshirt sophomore wide receiver Elic Ayomanor, who is rated an 88. He has tremendous speed, great hands, and nice agility, making him a terrific deep threat. You don’t wanna fall in love with the deep ball too much since it isn’t a super high percentage play in general, but if you use it right, you can hit some home runs with Ayomanor. He is explosive in this game.
As a quick extension of this, Stanford has lot of speed at the wide receiver position in general: Tiger Bachmeier and Bryce Farrell can both really move, Mudia Rueben has solid speed, and then I expect freshman Emmett Mosley V to bring some speed as well. He looked nice in spring ball. If you enjoy throwing the deep ball and picking up big gains in the air, Stanford is a pretty fun group to play with.
#2. Ashton Daniels is a nice dual threat quarterback: Junior quarterback Ashton Daniels is mobile, making him a guy who you can gain a lot of yards with on the ground. Just roll out and if you see green, feel free to go for it. He can run. On top of that, he has a cannon for an arm, making him a nice quarterback to have along with Ayomanor. I feel like these are legit strengths of Daniels in real life. Having watched him practice live, he can certainly put some stink on the ball and chuck it deep with accuracy. Cardinal fans are going to have a lot of fun playing with him.
#3. Man defense works out well: I found that playing man defense works well if you are playing as Stanford. Linebackers Tristan Sinclair and Gaethan Bernadel are physical in the box, cornerbacks Collin Wright (the highest rated player on defense at 88) and Zahran Manley are both really good on the outside and then safeties Scotty Edwards and Mitch Leigber are nice as well. The defensive line isn’t great at putting pressure on the quarterback, but the edge rushers are solid.
With good corners and safeties along with inside linebackers, playing man defense isn’t a bad way to go. And then of course, playing Cover 3 works out well, too. Just have the corners do their deep one third along with one of the safeties. There’s also some cool stuff you can do by blitzing one of the linebackers to put a little pressure on the quarterback.
#4. Lots of room for growth in the running game: Sophomore Sedrick Irvin, Jr. is a nice running back, rated in the mid 70s. He’s pretty shifty, has good speed, and is a guy who you can have some success with handing the ball off to. What’s exciting is that there are some talented freshmen coming in at the running back spot as well in Micah Ford, Chris Davis, Jr., and Cole Tabb. As the rosters get updated over the course of the season, there’s a chance the Cardinal running back room gets better as Ford, Davis, and Tabb get rolling. Running back has the chance to be a really dynamic and fun position for Stanford, both virtually and in real life.
#5. The game captures Stanford Stadium well: Across the board, the game does a great job of capturing the different college football environments and Stanford is no exception. Stanford Stadium and the Stanford Tree both look great. If you want to recreate home games on The Farm from the comforts of your own living room, playing this game will definitely do the trick. You can also play against Cal for The Axe and recreate some classic rivalries.
Parting thoughts: This game does a great job of capturing the fan experience. My brother really enjoyed the way you can customize your home screen to your favorite team. BYU being his favorite team, he’s got his home screen set to BYU. It shows the mascot, stadium, a ticket to a rivalry game, etc. When the game begins, the fight song of the home team plays and they try to tie in different traditions that teams have at the start of the game. Little things like that.
If you are a diehard or even casual college football fan who likes to game, EA College Football 25 is definitely worth the purchase. The game play is great and just the overall aesthetic is amazing. It’s another great way to engage with your favorite college football team.
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