Excited by the end of the NFL lockout, I just couldn't wait to get back to video game football. I purchased NCAA Football 12 last week, but haven't had much time to play it yet. But before I begin a Dynasty, I wanted to make sure that the rosters for my alma mater UNLV was as correct as I could make it.
I started with the rosters provided by Operation Sports user GamingTailgate. The guys at Operation Sports and Pasta Padre do a fantastic job with their rosters every year, and my hat's off to those guys for the tremendous work they do making sure that NCAA Football fans have accurate rosters for the new games as soon as possible. However, I noticed that they had made some glaring (but understandable) errors with the rosters for the UNLV Running Rebels.
UNLV isn't exactly a top-tier team. In fact, UNLV is a bottom-tier team. They only had two wins last year. So I'm sure that neither EA Sports nor Operation Sports cares too much about making sure the rosters are as up-to-date as possible for such a team.
But I care.
So I opened up the UNLV spring 2011 prospectus for reference.
The one error that caused me to want to redo the roster was the complete omission of UNLV's potential-NFL-draft-prospect, defensive back number 10 Quinton Pointer. Quinton has been somewhat injury prone, and missed all of last year (except for one play) due to surgery. Going into spring camp, the team wasn't even sure that Pointer would be able to play in 2011. So I can understand why EA and Operation Sports would leave him out, even though they did include linebacker Bryce Saldi who has been permanently sidelined with a brain injury sustained while skateboarding. Saldi's name has remained on the UNLV team roster, and his locker and jersey have been honorarily retained for him. So again, that mistake is understandable. I even left him in. Best wishes for recovery, Bryce!
I gave Pointer relatively modest attributes since I'm not sure how well he'll perform following the surgery. He's currently tied for the third highest-rated player on my UNLV roster, with an overall of 74.
Other major changes include:
- Entering the correct home towns for every player on the UNLV roster that has a home town listed in the game. I didn't go to the trouble of looking up the closest city if someone was from a town too small to have been included in the game.
- I added UNLV's junior transfer QB Sean Reilly, who is expected to challenge Caleb Herring for his starting job. I added him, and also retained the two younger QBs, Barnhill and Sherry.
- I moved C.J. Cox from running back to outside linebacker.
- I added true freshman Dionza Bradford, who is one of coach Hauck's big-time recruits, and is expected to challenge sophomore Tim Cornett for his starting job at running back. I kept Bradford's stats fairly modest - overall of 60. He is a true freshman, after all.
- There were also a few players who were suspended due to academics and off-field issues going into spring camp. These players included receivers Michael Johnson and Brandon Babineaux and quarterback-turned-safety Mike Clausen. Johnson and Clausen remain on the team's roster, although Babineaux seems to have been removed from the team's website after the release of the spring prospectus. I left Johnson and Clausen in (for now), but they are not on the depth chart, so I have no idea if they will play. Likewise, I left them on the roster, but removed them from the depth chart.
- I also had to make extensive changes to the offensive and defensive lines and safeties. I used the Operation Sports numbers and names as a basis, but the ratings may not reflect the players' actual performances and position on the depth chart. But I'll leave it up to anybody who downloads the roster whether they want to change the ratings or not. For now.
The file is titled "Jul26UNLV", and it can be found by going to Team Management > Roster Share > Download Roster and then entering the username MegaBearsFan. I hope you enjoy it!
Since the roster was based on Operation Sport's roster, it also includes the names of all the team coaches and coordinators.
Be aware, however, that since I had to add players and modify a few stats, these rosters may not be useable in online games. So they are for Play Now and Dynasty modes only. Sorry.
NOTE: EA has acknowledged that there is a major glitch with the NCAA Football 12 rosters that causes player tendencies to change when any of their characteristics are edited (even names or equipment). Since every player in the roster has been named, this means that every player in the league is possibly playing with the wrong tendencies. EA is working on a fix for this, and it is expected to be applied in the next patch (whenever that will be). Since I'm uncertain whether this patch will be compatible with existing roster files, I'm suspending all work on this roster until the patch is applied, since I may have to wait for an updated post-patch roster from Operation Sports on which to re-apply my changes (from scratch).
UPDATE 07/30/2012: UNLV Roster for NCAA 13 is available now!
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Tags:NCAA Football 12, NCAA Football 12, NCAA Football, NCAA Football, UNLV, UNLV, EA, EA, EA Sports, EA Sports, football, football, Operation Sports, Operation Sports, Pasta Padre, Pasta Padre, NFL, NFL, roster, roster, modding, modding