Rabbit Hole Sports: EA Sports College Football 25 Sonoma State Dynasty- Game Review: SSU 38 vs UCSB 10 and Preview: SSU vs #17 Fresno State

MONDAY- Welcome to the second entry of the Sonoma State EA Sports College Football 25 Dynasty blog here at Rabbit Hole Sports. I've decided to make a couple of changes since our last entry, so I'm going to talk about those quickly before we get into the updates. First and foremost, I know not everyone wants a breakdown of an in-depth gameplan. While I hope to have a series that eventually looks at things from that angle, I realize it's not going to be appealing to everyone reading this. I still want to look at things from a gameplan perspective, but keep things more general since that is likely going to be more appealing to everyone, and honestly easier for me to write. The second adjustment I'm going to make, is each post will consist of a summary of the previous game and a preview of the next game. So without further ado, let's get into both.

In our previous game we played UC Santa Barbara. Since I went to Sonoma State and my parents and brother went to UCSB, I decided it'd be fun to have this be a primary rivalry for us. Unfortunately due to limitations on the game they are our only rival, but that's a rabbit hole for a different time. Since I'd like this to be a competitive matchup I'm going to be editing some players on their roster each season in order to make them a similar overall to us. Resorting to editing their players is something I don't prefer. I'd rather be able to edit the grades that help teams get better recruits. UCSB has an awesome campus and if they had a football team I don't think they'd have too much trouble attracting quality talent, relative to whatever conference/division they'd be playing in. This is another thing I can not change however, so I'll be sticking with editing and we'll pretend they're just really good at developing guys to be better than projected.

This game proved that I need to be a little more generous in my editing. Our Sonoma State team is an 85 overall, with an 86 overall offense, and 85 overall defense; while UCSB is an 83 overall, with an 82 offense, and 85 overall defense. This isn't a huge differential in overall, but the Gauchos could've used another weapon or two on offense to help them out. Their primary weapon offensively was receiver Dezmon Ivey, a big-physical route-runner, who's great at catching the ball in limited-space. They also had a great left-tackle in #78, Cade Wilder, who lead the way in protecting quarterback Larry Swayne, who presented a challenge as a dual-threat.

The Gauchos ran a pro-style offensive attack, which means typically 2-receiver sets paired with either one tight end, one running back, and one fullback; or two tight ends and a running back. The strength of this scheme is getting the tight end in matchups on linebackers and safeties who also have run responsibilities, forcing those defenders into conflict, especially if the running game is effective.

Because of this I wanted to stay in base defense (4-3 personnel) as much as possible, to make sure we stopped the run and didn't allow the running game to get its footing early. With most teams running some variation of a spread-offense in today's college football, it's more often than not we start games looking to prevent big plays early, forcing teams to be patient, but against the Gauchos NFL-like scheme I wanted to make sure they didn't get established running the ball, forcing them to take some shots early. Something most pro-style offenses aren't looking to do. They take a more patient approach, looking to throw constant jabs to get you to let your guard down before going for knock-out blows. We wanted to make that patient approach more complacent.

This didn't prove to be a fruitful strategy at first, as UCSB dinked and dunked their way down the field for a touchdown on their opening drive. This forced us to be more aggressive in defending the flats and getting our safeties to help in the middle of the field. The worry here was that it would open up some one-on-one opportunities on the outside for their receiver, with the matchup against the previously mentioned Dezmon Ivey being the most concerning. Fortunately for us that never seemed to burn us. We were able to control the running game and keep the passing game to minimal gains, allowing just a field goal after their opening drive. They ended up leaning into their passing-game, dropping-back on 36 plays, and running it on 18. Between them not being able to get big plays on the perimeter, and us containing Larry Swayne in the pocket, it was a tough day for their offense, mustering just 10 points and 238 total yards.

Their defense presented a greater challenge for us. They played a base 4-3 which typically means athletic ends, as well as more gap-penetration, as opposed to read and react technique from the defensive line. Their scheme paired with the abilities of Middle-linebacker, Jose Giuliano, Outside-linebacker, Savion Anderson, and Edge, Jaymond Jones, was a headache to deal with. We were able to establish our run game early which opened up a touchdown on the outside to receiver Treyun Bell, but our first half was mostly inconsistent. Our defense played tremendously, boosting us with a first half pick-6, and holding them to just two-scoring drives despite having to play a lot of snaps.

This got us out to a 21-7 half time lead, and by being more stubborn in the running game in the second half we were able to control things more. By hitting a big shot early we forced them to play in their nickel personnel a lot more, which made it easier to run the ball. Mixing in the quarterback run game really opened things up in a 17-0 second half, and 38-10 victory.

UCSB football team in the early 80's pictured above

GAME BOXSCORE AND STATS:

KEY PLAYERS-

UCSB:

QB, Larry Swayne: 25-33, 228 yds, TD, 3 INT, 6 rush, -29 yds

MLB, Jose Giuliano: 9 tackles, TFL

DT, Matt Dragos: 5 tackles, 2 TFL, sack

SSU:

QB, Nico Valoaga: 12-21, 117 yds, 2 TD, 10 rush, 75 yds, TD

HB, Nate McNutt: 12 car, 77 yds, rec, 15 yds

WR, Treyun Bell: 5 rec, 64 yds, TD

DE, Jaime Mazza: 5 tackles, 4 TFL, 2 sacks

CB, Randall Glenn: 6 tackles, TFL, INT

CB, Eric Coward: 5 tackles, pick-6

GAME PREVIEW: vs #17 Fresno State

In our next contest we'll be taking on Fresno State, who is ranked 17th in the nation and is a fellow Pac-12 team. The Bulldogs come in undefeated and feature one of, if not, the best scoring defenses in the country (there is no way to know for sure because the game does not show you a statistic for average points allowed per game). They are lead by a strong secondary, featuring 90 overall cornerback Kerrith Ware, and 88 overall free safety, Aidan Woods. The best player in their front-seven is 87 overall defensive-end, Darryl Gideon. While I still expect him to cause a problem, he doesn't really fit the base 3-4 scheme that Fresno plays. Gideon is more of a classic edge at 6'1", 239 lbs, but he still plays the end position in their base defense. This is typically played by a stronger and bigger end who is closer to a defensive tackle than a classic edge.

Their combination of a potentially out of position interior lineman, and a strong secondary leads me to believe that we should try to run some power-run plays against their base personnel, and try to avoid obvious passing situations since that is when their defensive personnel will be playing to its strength's the most.

Offensively Fresno runs an Air Raid offense, which is known for its spread out passing-attack that makes it simple for the quarterback to find 1-on-1 matchups, and receivers running into space. The biggest strength of their personnel is the ability of quarterback Jose Weaver to scramble. With them dropping-back on most downs, this presents an interesting challenge, as we will need to cover the entire field in the passing-game, but have enough eyes on and around the quarterback to keep him in the pocket, and from hurting us on the run.

Adding to the excitement around this fake showdown is the proximity of Sonoma State and Fresno State. The two schools are separated by about 200 miles, which could create a new in-state rivalry in this new Pac-12, especially if both teams are regularly ranked. Furthermore, this game was picked as the game of the week in the dynasty, which would mean College Gameday would be coming to Rohnert Park. I like to think about how cool that would have been to experience with the boys when we went there.

That's all for this entry of the Sonoma State EA Sports College Football 25 Dynasty Blog. Be sure to check your inbox's Wednesday for the results of our showdown with Fresno State, and a preview of our contest with Oregon State. Take care, and have a great beginning of the week everyone!