NCAA 2005: The Passion of TCU Part 2

When last we left the TCU Horned Frogs, they were sitting pretty in the rankings at 6-0 on the season. Unfortunately, play through the second half of the season did not go as well for TCU, partly because I upped the difficulty level, but also because some of the competition got tougher. The first loss, at 8-0, came to rival Houston. Then things fell apart with a loss to Cincinatti. The purple ended the season 9-3 and were invited to the New Orleans Bowl to face North Texas.

With TCU's #24 ranking on the line, my boys fought with passion and pride. A tight, defensive game, TCU led 10-9 with just under two minutes left in the 4th quarter. Osborn's pass on 3rd and 13 was picked off. It looked dire for North Texas, who slowly worked towards the 50 yard-line, eating up clock after having already burned all three timeouts previously. It was almost over until a desperation throw found the waiting arms of a wide receiver who broke a tackle and scored to take a five point lead. With only three seconds remaining, TCU's only hope was to take the kickoff to the house. But when Johnny Storm was tripped up at the 40, any hopes of a last-minute comeback were dash. TCU lost and North Texas took a spot in the top 25.

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Let the Off-Season Begin
The devastating, last-second loss to North Texas dropped TCU from the top 25. A respectable season at 9-4, TCU still has some growing and needs to focus recruitment on defense as the questionable secondary has hurt in many of the losses this year. Coach Papa Joe enjoyed a boost to a 4-star prestige (with a max of 6 stars possible) thanks to the previous season, which will help with recruiting and also earning new job offers. As with ever sports game, NCAA Football 2005's off-season is broken into a progression of tasks, which are listed below. I'll take you through each one, just because I love you.

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School Budgets
Now that the season is over, your first task is to set the budget for the year. Instead of giving you points or cash to spend, you set the percentages for the spending focus. This task won't take more than a minute of your time, unless you are one of those obsessive types that has to ponder every move for several hours. There's not much to ponder as there are only three categories to put money in: Recruiting, training, and discipline.

I don't know about you, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna spend a lot of money on discipline and with a lot of seniors heading into the new season, recruiting is going to be very important. The amount you spend on recruiting affects how many points you'll have to send coaches to meet with players. It essentially provides for a wider net of recruits, but doesn't necessarily increase your recruitment chances. Still, I droped discipline down to 10%, mainly because I want to see if I can piss off the NCAA in the new season, and also because I want to see how much more effective it is to devote 45% of resources to training.

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Players Leaving
Looking at the list of departing players can always be a bit nerve-racking. I already know the seniors I'm losing, but I have to worry that one of my underclassman stars will try and go pro early. And that's the case as right tackle Matt Murdock and All Conference USA halfback Victor Von Doom are heading off for the pros. However, any departing athlete can potentially be convinced to stay. This is a gamble, as you'll need to spend points from the first week of recruiting in your attempt.

Fortunately, there's a meter indicating a player's interest in staying in school. If a player is leaning considerably towards heading pro, save the points. I made the mistake of spending a chunk on trying to convince Von Doom to stay put. It didn't work. But, I will be able to import him into my first Madden draft. Von Doom to the Niners? Yes, indeed.

With seniors and the two players leaving school early, I'm down 16 players. The worst part is, most of my seniors were starters, and there are a lot of holes to fill at wide receiver and in the secondary. Goodbye Clark Kent, so long Johnny Storm, adios J. Jonah Jameson. It could be a tough year for TCU.