Your NCAA Football 09 Nebraska Cornhuskers
8 comments so far
July 14, 2008 by
Relatively speaking, I'm an old fashioned guy: I still own an iPod that's just an iPod, my cell phone is only used for calling people and when I pick up EA Sports "NCAA Football 09" it will be the PS2 version and I'll be playing it on a cathode ray tube (upgrades pending).
But that doesn't really bother me because this game, on whatever platform, is still the bridge that gets us from nothingness to spring practice. With that in mind, I thought I'd take a look at the Nebraska roster for NCAA Football 09--courtesy of this video--because the first thing you're going to do after buying the game is enter/upload the names for the players and anyone who has done this knows that it's an inexact science at best.
Yes, yes, I know that you can pay people to do this for you and there's even word that if you're a XBox360 or PS3 user you'll be able to download rosters off your respective networks but if you're as old school/thrifty as I am the best you get is what you type in on your own and that requires some judgment calls. Below is the roster in EA Sports position order according to me (edits welcome):
QB
QB#12 Ganz
QB#7 Spano
QB#18 Lee
QB#2 Witt
Analysis: If you had high hopes of running the shotgun zone read, abandon them now as Joey Ganz' 76 speed is nothing to write home about. Somehow, Spano the true freshman has bettered Witt the redshirt freshman overall.
HB
HB#5 Lucky
HB#34 Glenn
HB#27 Wilson
HB#10 Helu
HB#33 Okafor
HB#35 Rogers
Analysis: So Glenn is still a halfback. I have a feeling Nebraska fans won't get the true value of that position switch. Lucky represents the best offensive player overall at 93--as he should be--barely out pacing Lydon Murtha.
FB
FB#19 Castille
Analysis: I'm not sure how every fullback on the roster gets overlooked in favor of a guy who's not even a FB, but in terms of video team strength the move makes sense. I guarantee you Nebraska doesn't have an 84 overall FB on the roster.
WR
WR#87 Swift
WR#17 Peterson
WR#1 Brooks
WR#4 Holt
WR#24 Paul
WR#11 Gilleylen
WR#83 Cooper?
Analysis: It's hard to tell which incoming frosh WR#83 actually is so I made him Khiry Cooper as it may be the only Nebraska football he ever plays. Love the fact that Niles Paul is wearing the non-receiver #24.
TE
TE#89 Teafatiller
TE#3 Cotton
TE#85 Hetzer
TE#80 Hill
LT
LT#76 Murtha
LT#74 Steinkuhler
Analysis: It's hard to predict where Steinkuhler will end up so I made him the best frosh. prospect on either side of the line.
LG
LG#62 ???
LG#65 Smith
Analysis: Who is the redshirt senior starting at left guard? Your guess is as good as mine.
C
C#67 Hickman
C#58 Caputo
RG
RG #70 Slauson
RG#73 Jones
RG#61 Huff
RT
RT#72 Burkes
RT#66 Barrett
RT#75 Thompson/Grant (take your pick of the frosh.)
LE
LE#98 Potter
LE#95 Allen
LE#96 Williams
RE
RE#99 Turner
RE #88 Sievers
RE#89 Santin
DT
DT#43 Steinkuhler
DT#93 Suh
DT#97 Dixon
DT#56 Barfield
DT#91 Meredith
DT#63 Martin
LOLB
LOLB#53 Wortman
LOLB#12 Lawrence
LOLB#42 Camaruta
MLB
MLB#52 Dillard
MLB#45 Compton
MLB#15 ????
Analysis: I went ahead and made Compton MLB#45 as that's the highest ranking frosh. LB on the team.
ROLB
ROLB#6 Culbert
ROLB#36 ????
ROLB#23 Washington
Analysis: Take your pick for the frosh. LB #36.
CB
CB#5 Murillo
CB#14 Blue
CB#22 West
CB#26 Whitmore
CB#21 Dennard
CB#18 Sullivan
FS
FS#3 Thenarse
FS#17 Smith
FS#13 ????
SS
SS# 4 Asante
SS#28 Hagg
PK
K#20 Kunalic
Analysis: Don't really know what happened to Henery but those are the vagaries of video game production.
P
P#97 Titchener
Based on the overall team rankings for the game, Nebraska is in the company of teams like Cal, GT, Illinois, KSU, Maryland, Northwestern and Notre Dame.
That's not exactly exclusive company but it does classify Nebraska squarely as a wild card. Does anyone really knows how good ND or GT will actually be?
All I know is this: starting July 15 the Cornhuskers will probably go on a 60 or 70 game winning streak, a run that encompasses at least back-to-back-to-back national titles and numerous Heisman trophies because that's the way the college football season always starts...at least in my slightly less than cutting edge house.
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James Moore Jul 14 08
Dude I LOVE this article!!! I felt a part of myself in it. I too will begin a 60-70 game winning streak, 4/5 National Titles, and of course Lucky will win the the Heisman. Man of every article ever posted here this one is certainly one of my favorites. Even naming the players (like me). How bout a review of it in about one month as a featured article here?
Now my Husker experience is full circle from the game to the real thing!!!
Great post Brandon!!!
AlexCA Jul 14 08
Brandon, NEVER PAY FOR NCAA ROSTERS. The NCAA community is trying very hard to get this message out there as best we can. The Rosters for sale are stolen from people spend countless hours entering in names from every D1 team. The Complete rosters will always be free and are VERY easy to get this year with the addition of EA Locker. You can visit http://www.freencaa09rosters.com/ for more information about FREE ncaa 09 rosters. The reason we're trying so hard to stop people from buying rosters is because it is actually against the NCAA rules that prohibit people from profiting off of their athletes. If this continues, EA will be forced to remove the name editing feature all together.
Brandon Jul 15 08
Thanks James. I'd love to do a review but because I'll be playing the neutered version on PS2 I doubt that it would be worth much.
How about this, if I finally take the plunge and make the upgrade to the PS3 I'll offer my thoughts.
DT Jul 15 08
#62...good one! As in all fantasy games, it looks like in the wonderful world of EA, suspensions for sexual assault don't exist.
#15...Fischer?
#36...Austin Stafford?
#13...PJ Smith?
Take the plunge, Brandon...I did and have no regrets at all. I even got to surf the internet on my PS3 when my computer broke down last fall (of course, this is more like "boogie boarding" as compared to the "surfing" we've come to know--sure, you can surf all day, but I just hope you don't want to type anything).
AlexCA brings up a point concerning all that is wrong with the NCAA. They make how many umpteen millions off the sale of this game, but instead of trying to go after the relative few who are trying to profit off selling names (a farce, considering the names of the individuals who, as you illustrate here, it is painfully obvious which of the CGI players are supposed to represent--at least 90% of the time) they're gonna make EA shut the whole system down that the millions of fans like us enjoy being able to add that extra dose of reality to their game?! What a joke! That's like the NCAA saying "Oh there are a couple of guys out in Jersey selling bootleg college shirts without paying royalties...so I guess we just can't sell any more college shirts anywhere now." How much money is being profited from the sale of computer game rosters anyway? That must be a multi-thousand dollar industry, at least. Really, it's actually just a cheat code when you think about it...no more, no less. But all the same, I think I know one person who ever paid to have rosters loaded to a memory chip...and that's out of the dozens (if not hundreds) who I'm familiar with that buy the game each year. But in the bigger picture, it looks like the NCAA is profiting pretty well off of the representation of athletes in EA games here for the last 15-20 years. (Past and present players alike when you consider the "all-time" teams whose players are listed in the same manner...Got any guesses who #27WR is on NU's all time team?) But that begs the question: Who's #5RB on the Huskers supposed to be? Boy, I wonder...good thing I came across this list here on BRN! You better look out, Brandon...you just ID'd Marlon Lucky as the RB for Nebraska on a website that sells ads to generate PROFIT!! The next thing you know, they'll be shutting down websites who make posts like this.
But Boz had it right...National Communists Against Athletes (and now fans as well).
ze bop Jul 15 08
Grown men playing fantasy fb? For shame!! It makes me laugh actually, but anyhoo, I haven't a clue about that stuff, but how many Steinkuhlers do we have on this team?
We look kinda thin at TE as usual, hope Hetzer has learned how to put on his uni.
I don't know, the roster doesn't overwhelm you with star power, but maybe Lucky will truly surprise us all. I hope so. I think Castille is the man to watch.
But, BO will have them playing well as a team...so I'm not too nervous about it.
K, boys, back to your video games.
ze bop Jul 15 08
p.s., shouldn't this be 'NCAA FB '08'?
Raz Jul 16 08
Great stuff man. Nice to know there are other nerds like me. I can never start my dynasty until I name all the Huskers and some other All-Americans!
patrick gosline Aug 20 08
make rosters from great teams of the past , such as the 83 and 95 huskers. this is a crucial feature left out of ncaa 09. please respond with any suggestions where to find these rosters. respectfully master pgozy g....