The Madden Files – 2013

The 2013 season was not for the faint of heart. The Minnesota Golden Gophers made tremendous strides after a challenging 2012 season and the Batavia Colliders imposed their will on the rest of the NFL. Read on, friends.

Minnesota Golden Gophers

The haters hated on Coach Kelly Krebs and his purportedly “weak” recruiting classes. After struggling through 2012 with his predecessor’s players, Krebs finally got to put his stamp on the team. Kicker Erik Richardson was a First Team All-American, despite being a “mere” 3-star recruit. Another 3-star recruit, TE Adam Hill made his presence felt by gaining over 1,200 yards receiving, scoring 10 touchdowns, and making the Freshman All-American Team. Ditto for 3-star CB Keron Day, who was a Jack-of-All-Trades for the defense, despite being a 69-overall. Krebs gets the most out of his guys.

In three seasons of recruiting, though, Krebs has only managed to land one 5-star recruit. He had to make some big promises to CB Sidney Moses in order to sign him. He even promised that Moses would make the Freshman All-American team. That promise would seemingly be broken as Moses was consistently smoked for touchdowns, but towards the end of the season he secured two interceptions and 7 pass deflections, which was enough to make the squad – and increase Coach Krebs’s integrity (or loyalty, or something.)

Despite this, Krebs was forced to start an old nemesis at quarterback: Kerry Harmon. You might remember Harmon from his stepping in during his sophomore year for an injured Marcus Stephens. Harmon was a 67 at the time, so all he did was hand off to legendary Gopher HB Matt Lane (in the membrane.)

Well, now Harmon was a big bad senior and an 82-overall, by far the best QB on the team. Unfortunately, his throw power was a paltry 82, so QB play would be a struggle. Krebs coached him up and Harmon achieved more than anyone thought was possible, right before he turned back into a pumpkin at the worst possible time. More on that later.

The Gophers scheduled Alabama and Virginia Tech so they could go up against Hammond and Franssen. Alabama was ranked #2 when the Gophers took them on, but you’d never know it. Hammond was held in check and Minnesota won 22-7.

Virginia Tech was unranked early on, and they gave the Gophers everything they had. QB Adam Franssen threw for 3 TDs and ran for one more as time expired to send the game into overtime. The Gophers managed to secure the win in overtime 34-31. Unfortunately, Franssen’s hero season was cut short early as he got injured. Hammond, for his part, was a Heisman candidate for most of the season, securing over 100 receptions and 21 touchdowns. Sadly some other receiver had 25 touchdowns and won all the awards, relegating Hammond to the Second Team All-American squad.

Freshman Jason Enright barely played for Oregon as he was buried on the depth chart and the newest member of a stacked running backs room. He did manage to score a touchdown, though.

The Gophers kept on winning, including a 52-3 thrashing of #16 Wisconsin in week 4. Kerry Harmon found a wide receiver in local kid Jacob Brooks, a scrappy white kid from Coon Rapids, MN with 90-speed. But the story of the season was senior defensive tackle Jason Moore. Moore was only a 78-overall, and I never manually controlled him, and yet he went ballistic for 18 sacks on the season. Moore was a drive killer, often getting a sack or TFL on crucial third down plays. His inspired play earned him First Team All-American honors, the Nagurski, and the Lombardi awards. He’ll look fondly upon that hardware as he works in insurance or something, as his football playing days have come to an end, an NFL dream unrealized. He was so good that he almost brought home a National Championship. Almost.

Minnesota kept falling behind in games, and QB Harmon enjoyed turning the ball over. But he also enjoyed throwing long bombs to WR Jacob Brooks and TE Adam Hill. They managed to beat #15 Ohio State in overtime, 33-24, on a game-sealing pick-6. They came from behind in the final moments to beat #16 Iowa 28-24. They kicked a field goal as time expired to beat #14 Michigan 20-17. They fell behind at Northwestern before creating a bunch of fourth quarter turnovers to beat the Wildcats 47-28. Somehow they’d managed to stay unbeaten all the way up until the last game of the season.

Number 19 Penn State came to town and their goddamn running back rushed for over 200 yards against the Gophers. Minnesota fell behind by two scores but managed to come from behind thanks to a last minute rushing touchdown from Harmon and a two-point conversion. They somehow pulled that game out 34-31 to secure a perfect 12-0 season.

Then, something happened I wasn’t expecting. The Gophers had to play in the Big Ten Championship Game. In NCAA 2008 there was no such game, the Big 10 championship was just given to the top team. They pulled #5 Wisconsin, who was 11-1 (their only loss being the 52-3 thumping at the hands of Minnesota.) Wisconsin played much better this time around, but they were no match for the team of destiny. Krebs’s squad won 31-14 and he won his first conference championship. They were ranked #2 overall and had an invitation to the national championship game.

They played Stanford, who had been number one in the country for most of the season. The game was played in Lucas Oil Stadium, which is a dome, so it was weird that I could see the players’ breath. Maybe they didn’t turn the heat on or something.

Kerry Harmon moved the Gophers down the field on the opening drive, but an errant throw was intercepted in the end zone. This would portend tragedy.

While Jason Moore secured another sack, he wasn’t effective in the run game, and Stanford ran all over the Gophers (they clearly watched tape of the Penn State game.) The Gophers were able to move the ball through the air, but were stymied in the run game, which unfortunately put the game in Harmon’s hands. On his second drive he threw another red zone interception.

Harmon slung the ball all over Lucas Oil Stadium, throwing for over 400 yards, but his receivers were overmatched by pro-caliber corners, who baited Harmon into three more interceptions. After throwing 5 picks on the day, Harmon and the Gophers came up short in their ahead-of-schedule bid at a national championship, losing 30-28.

Krebs parlayed the solid season into a decent recruiting class (ranked #29 overall, an improvement over the past two years.) He almost landed WR Jesse Garcia, who had Minnesota at the top of his list after an A+ visit to Minneapolis. Ultimately, though, Garcia decided to join his friend Jason Enright at Oregon.

Fans are optimistic as Krebs managed to sign 4-star Athlete Lamar Whitehead late in the process. Whitehead was slotted in at QB, where his abilities far exceed that of those on the roster. Another 4-star Athlete, Cody Johnson, looks to assume the starting HB job during his freshman season. The Gophers haven’t had a decent runner since Matt Lane, but that could change soon. And while Krebs hasn’t been able to secure any 5-star recruits outside of Sidney Moses, he has shown he can get the best out of his lower-rated overlooked players. Despite the appearance in the National Championship game, the Gophers head into 2014 unranked.

Time to prove the haters wrong, once again.

Batavia Colliders

It doesn’t matter what kind of hardware RB Jyhe Holliday amasses, coach Amari Jenkins clearly doesn’t see him as a scheme fit with his 85-speed. And so they drafted HB Perry Higgins out of South Carolina in the first round. Perry turned out to be an 83-overall with 95 speed, a dream come true for Jenkins. He also had “A” for potential. Dude’s about to be a superstar.

Unfortunately, Higgins didn’t make it out of the preseason. It was brutal for the Colliders, as you can see. Higgins was a 20-year old with 95 speed and I didn’t get to play with my new toy. Holliday it is, I guess.

The Colliders drafted WR Lawrence Beck in the second round, who managed to get the team’s first ever kick return touchdown. They got Michigan QB Lee Howell in the third round so the Colliders could add some QB depth. Their starting QB, Greg McLain, continues to progress and is an 89-overall, but he’s exactly the wrong kind of QB for the Colliders’ system. He has really high short accuracy and a noodle arm. And so, coach Amari Jenkins is exploring all QB options. Rumor has it he’s biding his time until Virginia Tech QB Adam Franssen declares for the draft. But given their winning ways, the Colliders would have to put together some package to move into position to draft him.

Given that the theme of the 2013 season was injuries, McLain decided to join the party and miss the back half of the season. Backup Zac Crane came in and played very well, tossing 16 touchdowns against only 2 interceptions. Howell even managed to get some playing time, completing 20 of 27 passes with 4 passing touchdowns and 2 rushing touchdowns. Despite their great play (and young ages) both QB’s regressed at the end of the season (in fact, the vast majority of my players regressed, which is dumb/bad.)

The Colliders had to rely on Jyhe Holliday again, and he admittedly came through, earning Pro Bowl honors, Offensive Player of the Year, and Running Back of the Year. All he does is produce. Tramell Diggs was once again the league’s best receiver, proving to be a steal in the third round. Speaking of steals, 5th rounder Brenden Ulm put together another gem at defensive tackle, securing 16 sacks. Defensive tackles might be overpowered on this NCAA/Madden 12 package. Still, it’s fun to watch him push aside the lineman and make a beeline to the QB while I mess around with whatever safety I’m controlling.

My project player, Sintamuel Cheeseboro, finally made the Pro Bowl at corner. I love that the Madden developers were inspired by that Key and Peele sketch when naming their players. What’s also randomly funny is the selection of guys with really long Greek last names.

The Colliders managed to go 15-1, suffering a 13-10 loss to the Fransburg (r)EvoLUtion. The computer then decided to run the table in the playoffs, giving head coach Amari Jenkins his second title in three years (and a fat contract extension.)

In other league news, the Dingle Blow-Ins used the #1 pick in the draft to get QB Troy Newell from Oklahoma. He was an 88-overall and earned the Offensive Rookie of the Year award as he led the Blow-Ins from worst to first in the NFC North. Hopefully the Immersion Blow-Ins of fantasy football fame can have a similar arc next year.

It was a great season for the Colliders, which is why it is so maddening that most of my players regressed. Winning the Super Bowl should make you better, not worse. Offensive Lineman Bubba Hurst was named Offensive Lineman of the Year, so naturally he lost two points. And remember, none of these guys are old because every franchise was a cupcake squad full of rookies in 2011. Madden is janky, friends.

I’m still looking forward to Minnesota putting out pro prospects so the Colliders can draft them. One thing I’ll say for this version of the game, as opposed to the last one, is that it is taking much longer to turn Minnesota into a dominant squad. As for Madden, I’m still struggling a bit to play defense on long bombs. My guy is running to the spot, and it should be an interception, but then he just stops and lets the WR have it. Probably a skill issue, or maybe it’s because my players have low awareness right now.

My favorite part of Madden is taking guys from college to the pros, but I will say that I like the recruiting and scouting on Madden 13 (and I presume, later Maddens) much better. I like spending recruiting points on exactly what traits I’m looking for, and I like the XP-based system of upgrading guys. With the Madden I’m playing now I just have to leave it to chance for guys to progress or not. That’s definitely not as fun.

Anyway, thanks for reading and don’t forget to let me know if you want to be a recruit!

© 2024, Josh Hammond. All rights reserved.