NCAA 2005: The Passion of TCU Part 2

Jul 1, 2004

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.

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.

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.

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.

Recruiting
The five weeks of recruiting, which play out similar to the previous two NCAA's, make up the bulk of the off-season. There have been a few changes to recruiting this year, and they actually make for a better interface. You can still search for players based on region, talent level, or interested prospects. Interested players will have a green dot by their name so you can easily identify who shows at least some interest in your program. Examining a player more closely will show how high the interest level. You can then choose to either scout the player or try and recruit them.

Scouting any player costs a set number of points, based on location, but you can scout and recruit in the same week. Recruiting requires you to select a number of points to invest that week in recruiting that player and a pitch (what part of the program to try and sell the kid on). There's a nifty "target" icon that appears next to all targets. Overall the interface is a lot more attractive than last year, even if most of it operates identically.

I should also note that when you scout a player, you also can see their discipline. While there's nothing to stop you from recruiting a player with discipline problems, if your team is already full of miscreants, adding more fuel to the fire may not be the smartest plan. But, I'm all about poor discipline for my second year, just as a test, so I don't let it factor into my recruiting one bit.

There is also a new "Athlete" category for players who are able to play multiple positions. Drafting an slash type of athlete allows you to move them to different positions from season to season as needs arise, or simply to best suit their skills as they develop.

In the end, TCU comes up smelling like Rose Bowl petals, with nine high-quality defensive players, a decent wide receiver, and a potentially good third-string QB.

Position Changes
Now that you have your player pool set, it's time to give a quick evaluation. Are you strong in a certain position but weak somewhere else? You can change any player's position at this point and you'll see how their overall rating changes beforehand. Sometimes a middle linebacker will make an even better defensive tackle. That doesn't mean you should change positions, but you certainly can, which allows for a lot more flexibility when building your team.

Training Results
This is quick and easy. Based on the money allocated, the CPU generates training results for all of your returning players. What did 45% of the budget buy us? Several breakthrough improvements and not a single player with declining skills. Worth every penny. Let's just hope I can keep the little bastards in line.

Cut Players
You can have 62 players on the roster. I managed to luck out with exactly 62 so there's no need to cut, but if you do end up with extra, you'll have to shave off a few players. Just don't cut that kid Rudy. He's got something special about him, I can feel it.

Set Depth Chart
The last task is adjusting the depth chart, which should be old hat for anyone who's played much of NCAA Football 2004. Nothing's changed, just remember that composure plays a part. Freshmen tend to rattle more easily than Seniors, and composure is already in play when the season begins, so some players will kick off the year already a little rattled.

Start New Season
Now comes the fun part, starting a new season. Once you hit go on this, you will kick into preseason options. Set your schedule, check out the preseason rankings, and make any final adjustments to your team before heading into the season. What's TCU's future look like? TCU is preseason #46, but I think the team will shine this year, taking on a tougher schedule, but also packed with young talent. And what of the players who left TCU for the pros? Don't worry, we'll show them off in Madden NFL 2005 in the next few weeks. We all wanna know if Victor Von Doom can tear up the NFL.