The first college football video game in 11 years was a hit for casual and competitive fans a year ago. So what about EA Sports’ College Football 26?
Our Chris Vannini reviewed the newest edition of the game on Thursday to help you decide whether to buy it. A lot has changed on the field and in the various modes, and I’ve spent a lot of time on the game this week focusing on strategy for a follow-up to last year’s gameplay guide.
Here are my eight tips for how to get acclimated quickly — and win:
1. Committing to the run is an even better idea this year
Last year, I emphasized running the ball when you’re on the road, but it was still difficult at times — especially if you were a small school trying to take down a national power. My 46 rushing yards with UTSA in a Playoff loss to Georgia was evidence enough that it’s still difficult to run against the nation’s best teams. Regardless, it’s much more fluid than a year ago.
One of the main changes EA made was adjusting the offensive line’s targeting mechanics. You’ll see early on that linemen do a much better job of getting off double-teams to create holes on interior runs and getting to the second level when the running back breaks away from the line. You can finally see your offensive linemen get off of a block and then go pancake the safety coming at you fast. There will be times when you still have to move the defender’s angle into the lineman, but it’s still progress.
EA did a nice job on inside zone runs and dives, allowing the offensive line to get off double-teams and also picking up a linebacker planning to shoot through the gap. Too many times last year the line would just ignore somebody running right at them.
If you’re struggling with moving the ball on offense, I suggest getting a good running back and calling any shotgun inside zone play over and over again. I’m positive you’ll find more success this year than last year, both offline and in online head-to-head games.
2. Stiff-arms are your friend
Now that I’ve told you to run the ball more, you need a ball-carrier move to help you turn 20-yard runs into even bigger gains.
Last year the spin move was hard to deal with, especially with players like Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins, who had abilities that made their spin move even better. This year, at launch, the stiff-arm is really good — so much so that I think it needs to be turned down a little bit, because you don’t even need a big, powerful, ball carrier to execute it.
Just press the A button on Xbox or X on PlayStation each time a player is near you. Depending on the timing, you’ll stiff-arm them to the ground and keep running, break the tackle or fight for extra yards.
In fact, it’s good enough where I’d suggest just pressing a stiff-arm even when running through a hole in the offensive line because you can bounce off tacklers. You won’t have success every time, but it works well in most cases.
3. Get good at ‘switch sticking’
I mentioned this last year, but I have to bring it up again: You need to use the “switch stick” feature in games.
For those who didn’t play last year or use the feature, EA has created the “switch stick” to allow you to switch your user-controlled defender before the ball is thrown. It’s different from switching players after the ball is thrown because this allows you to jump from your user to a safety or to a cornerback in order to bait a throw and get an easy interception.
This feature created a massive skill gap last year and is going to be a big part of the competitive game again.
4. Man coverage has a game-changing feature
If you’re struggling on defense, try using more man coverage.
I’ve been playing EA football games for a long time and have always preferred zone coverage over man, even when man coverage and heavy blitzing was popular. I enjoy the chess game that comes with trying to shut down a person’s offensive tendencies with a variety of zones.
But man coverage is really good in this game and takes more tendency-guessing than in past years.
The best way to beat man coverage in the past was to spam corners, posts, slants, drags and whip routes over and over again. There were often abilities that would help man coverage, but those routes would still get open. Now, EA introduced the ability to guess your opponent’s route and allow you to completely shut it down if you guess correctly.
For example, if your opponent loves to put their slot receiver on a slant route, you can now tell your slot corner to defend the inside part of the field and the slant will not get open. You can also do the same with whip routes, posts, corners and much more — though it is based on direction. If you predict left and the receiver runs a route to the right, he will be wide-open, leaving the defensive back at the line of scrimmage. That’s enough of a penalty and skill gap that man coverage won’t be overpowered at the start.
It’s a guessing game that I really like this year because you can also scheme around that and bracket receivers even if you guess wrong.
I’ll always be primarily a zone coverage player, but I’ll definitely be mixing in more man in CFB 26.
5, Everything you do in Dynasty mode must be intentional
Gone are the days when you could recruit every five-star, stack up your roster every year and cruise to championships.
Dynasty is my favorite mode in the game, so I was really excited to get my hands on the revamped mode and am loving the new version.
The best advice I can give to people interested in Dynasty is to really think everything through. In my first season as the UTSA head coach, I played it like I did last year: recruited all the best players I could, didn’t care about dealbreakers and just tried to win. We went 8-4 and then I watched as 21 players went into the transfer portal. My team was decimated and at the same time I lost recruiting battles across my board because of EA’s new “dynamic dealbreakers.”
You have to prioritize the right players for your program, whether it’s a scheme fit or specific dealbreakers you want to work with, and then plan for the future when players are likely going to transfer.
The chaotic transfer portal can be frustrating, but it’s also fun trying to put the team together again each year.
The best part is the progression system. When you recruit each player, look for specific archetypes that fit your scheme. EA has changed the name of the archetypes and added a lot more like “north/south blocker” for running backs, “contested catch specialist” for receivers and so many more. Each archetype has a ratings cap and abilities they can unlock in the offseason when the progression happens.
To get the most out of those recruits, instead of letting the “training results” part of the offseason be done by the AI, you should do it manually. There you can pick what attributes you want to improve on your player and add abilities based on the amount of skill points they acquired during the season.
It takes some getting used to and some tweaking to really know what type of team you want to build, but this gives us control like we’ve never had before. Just don’t go into it thinking you’re going to sign every player you want, especially if you’re at the lower-level schools. Instead, recruit with an intent to fit your scheme and depth needs, fill roster holes with the transfer portal and then do player progressions manually.
Trust me, you’ll have more fun and more success.
6. Struggling to defend the run? Try messing with the new safety adjustments
Now that we know the run game is good, you have to be able to stop the run. I’ll give you two tips here: find a way to shoot the run or use the new safety depth mechanic.
For years, one of the best ways to stop inside zone runs has been to go to a traditional four-defensive lineman formation like nickel over or 425 Over G, then user-control the linebacker on the side of the running back, stand right over one of your defensive tackles and run directly through the hole and dive to make the tackle in the backfield. It works well again this year, but there are times when you don’t want to be stuck in one formation or are struggling to get a read on your opponent’s tendencies. Or you’re just playing Air Force and going crazy with all the misdirection, like me.
To counter some of that, you can bring the safeties into the box with one adjustment. At the play menu, click the right stick in on the controller and change the safety depth option to tight or close. Tight will bring the safeties 5 yards off the line, while close will bring them 8 yards off.
Be careful, though, because they are easy to beat deep, so I suggest using this against obvious running formations or in the red zone.
7. Can’t find a playbook or formation you like best? Look for these three concepts
One of the things that keeps college football games fresh is the variety of playbooks.
With so many teams, schemes and personnel groupings, it can be a bit overwhelming to find the playbook for you. Instead of telling you what playbook to use, I’ll give you concepts you should be looking for in your playbook to build your scheme around.
First, you should find a formation with spacing that is comfortable to you. I’m a compressed fan, so I like a lot of 2×2 tight sets, which allows me to attack the sidelines with corner routes and speed outs, as well as motion players over and create more versatile sets easily. Do you like being under center so you can mix in some runs? Well, there are a lot of options, but it’s the same if you prefer to be in the shotgun too. Even if you like the option game, there’s something for everybody; just take the time to experiment.
Second, once you find out what makes you most comfortable, now you have to find routes that work best. There are some simple routes that work every year, no matter what defense becomes popular, but they’re sometimes hard to find. You’ll want to find routes that are good versus man coverage and zone coverage, like whip routes, slant routes, post routes and wheel routes. Wheel routes from the slot or tight end are especially good against both zone and man.
The added hot routes make it easier to create these route combinations on the fly, but there are still some plays that have better stock routes than others.
Lastly, find a play, whether a run or a pass, that you can get to the line and snap quickly without a lot of hot routes. Finding a good quick-snapping play can make things difficult for any defender, no matter how good they are.
Don’t feel like you have to settle on one playbook — this is college football, where you can throw for 400 yards one game and then decide to run the option next game if you want. Have fun with it!
8. Defense is hard, again, but one change can help your coverage
If you’re struggling on defense, don’t worry, most people are right now.
Still, there are ways to get stops like using the man coverage function I talked about above. And if you’re a zone player, there’s another new addition you should try.
EA introduced custom zone stems, which is similar to the route stems it brought in last year. Route stems are great because they allow you to set a route and then push it as far up field as you want or bring it closer to the line and get a sharper cut. It’s the same for zone stems.
First, you need to get used to making individual adjustments to your players in the secondary. It’s easy: Just press Y on Xbox or triangle on Playstation twice and you’ll see a bar on the screen that gives you more coverage adjustments. The same works for linebackers if you double tap right on the D-pad. From there, you want to select the icon over the defender you want to customize and then hit L1 on PlayStation or LB on Xbox. That allows you to drag the zone you want deeper if you’re worried about a deep throw or closer to the line of scrimmage if you are worried about a shorter throw.
Now, this isn’t an every-down adjustment. It takes time to set them up, but it’s nice to mix in a few times a game to catch your opponent off-guard. I like to use them on my hook curls in the middle of the field so I can slow down deep posts and crossers on important downs.
This is just another way to confuse your opponent. If you’re starting to get the hang of it quickly and you mix the zone stems with your switch stick, you’ve found some defense. Have fun winning games.
(Image courtesy of EA Sports)
