Bumped. So much for fun than reading boilerplate game previews in preseason rags. GO BRUINS. -N

This is the second in a series of posts that will follow how I play through our upcoming season schedule in NCAA Football 10's Dynasty Mode, where one can recruit and play through numerous seasons and years in an effort to build a "dynasty", or at least a recognized program, at your selected school. I'll provide a recap of the game, what to expect from the video game version of our opponent (which may or may not serve as useful scouting tool), and a breakdown of a key play or two with pictures and video. The AI difficulty is set at a higher level than the game's default, which is more representative of real-life play.

Coming off a last-second win against SDSU via a Kai Forbath field goal, the Bruins now head into Neyland Stadium, one of the Top 25 Toughest Places to Play in this year's edition of the game. Mistakes late in the game and inconsistencies proved to be stumbling blocks in the season opener and these flaws could prove to be major problems on the road in SEC country.

The Bruins come into the game with straight B- ratings overall, and on offense and defense. Tennessee's overall rating is a B+, with it's offense at a B+ and its defense, led by Eric Berry, at an A-. Check out what happened after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Bumped. GO BRUINS. - N

This will be the first in a series of posts that will follow how I play through our upcoming season schedule in NCAA Football 10's Dynasty Mode, where one can recruit and play through numerous seasons and years in an effort to build a "dynasty", or at least a recognized program, at your selected school. I'll provide a recap of the game, what to expect from the video game version of our opponent (which may or may not serve as useful scouting tool), and a breakdown of a key play or two with pictures and video. The AI difficulty is set at a higher level than the game's default, which is more representative of real-life play.

On paper and in the game, San Diego State would seem like a guaranteed win on the schedule, which was a thought held in the back of my mind as I approached this game. SDSU's ratings were worse with C's and our B-'s gave us the supposed ratings advantage headed into the game.  Find out what happened after the flip.

Continue reading this post »

Bumped. GO BRUINS. - N

For gamers and college football enthusiasts, early/mid-July means the release of EA Sports' annual NCAA Football title; it signals the start of many video game releases in the upcoming months but more importantly, it (at least for me) serves as a marker on the calendar that fall camp and the season kickoff is fast approaching. 

This year's edition offers essentially more of the same, albeit with a few new additions here and there: tackle breaking mechanics, playable tipped balls, and (perhaps my favorite) the inclusion of marching bands in the pre-game cinematics (and yes, the band does spell out the UCLA script for our home games...I'll get pics up in the future), which ties into the overall emphasis on the gameday atmosphere:

NCAA Football 10 - UCLA Marching Band (via ncaaStrategies) [HT jaffa]

But enough with the video game chitchat...let's get to the one team we all care about: the UCLA Bruins.

Continue reading this post »

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

This year has obviously been different, with the media casting (and the president) casting us as the underdog in last night's game (interesting fact: 70% or so of participants in ESPN's bracket challenge selected us to win...so take whatever you want from that). I've thought about this different feel for this season/tournament, aside from the losses, the mesh of our team, etc. and a striking point came up in previous posts concerning our first weekend games.

The quality of our opponents from the last three years was not, to say the least, of major conference quality. Not to take anything from what Belmont, Weber State, and MVSU did during their respective seasons and conference tourneys, but I thought it was somewhat of a disadvantage for us as a 1 or 2 seed to take on what should be a win in the first round. Given that a team does the game planning, scouting, and preparation for the game, they should be fine, and I think Howland's teams do that (see our Thursday night record in Pac-10 play). It's the second round game these last three years that have been a bump in the tournament road, whether it be Alabama, Indiana, or Texas A&M.

Giving it more thought, our team gameplans for two opponents during the conference season; that day in between is just a walkthrough, a quick practice, a meeting, etc. There is simply no way that a team can prepare for an opponent in one day, that should be obvious. In the case of the NCAAs, we essentailly have to scout for three teams during the course of the week. Our current example would be VCU, Villanova, and American. In years past, it seemed to me that the first round game for our guys was simply a warm-up, and it essentially is. So to finally get to the main points of my thoughts: I think that the preparation is there for the second round game, but whether it was the lack of time with that one dead day or a rough transition from playing a okay opponent to a quality one, that second round game ends up being the wake-up call for our teams, reminding them that this is the NCAAs: a loss means the end of the road.

So what about this year? I think the lower seed (which I disagreed with back on Sunday) might have worked to our favor. Playing VCU, a quality opponent from a mid-major conference, in the first round might have served as that wake-up tournament call. I say might because, as we saw in the conference tournament, the team got the win over Wazzu, only to lost to $C. However, I believe that the team is well aware that they can't afford to slip up; the close wins of the the last three years in the second round became this year's first round close win. The results of the last three years ended in deep tournament runs, so there's a chance, a chance, that the team gets in that groove a game early this year. I'm fairly confident that Howland's preparation during this past week for our second round opponent, dependant on a first round win, would have leaned more towards Villanova. I think last night's game got us up-to-speed and reminded us that every team will be playing to win (just as VCU's coach said), a reminder that comes a game early for our team and I think that works in our favor.

That being said, we are playing Villanova in Philadelphia. Call in karma, call it a twist of fate; we've had the benefit of playing our first and second weekend games close to home. We've had the benefit of a pro-UCLA crowd because our all our games have been in California (with the exception of nearby Phoenix): San Diego, Sacramento, Anaheim, Oakland, San Jose. We are no longer in the friendly confines of California. Let's see how this team responds in what is basically a true road game in the tournament.