So let’s talk about video games: EA Sports College Football 25 released this year for the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S and is the first college football game since 2014. It’s the most exciting sports game release in a long time, so of course I had to get my hands on a copy.
How good am I at the game? Well, we don’t need to talk about that right now. And certainly not about the fact that I defend myself about as well as a fly trying to stop a bull running at full speed toward its target.
Instead of talking about my horrific, tragic and disgusting Let’s talk about what we’re doing here at the Tar Heel Blog this season: I’ll be running a simulation for every UNC game this season to see if the video game predictions match what actually happens on the football field. Here are the rules that apply to our new weekly series:
- The playing time is set to 12 minutes.
- The simulations are carried out with current squad information to take into account injuries/changes in the squad list.
- The time and location of the game will match the actual schedule. For this week, I simulated the UNC vs. Minnesota game at 8:00 p.m. ET.
- The simulation is executed 10 times.
- Since Mack Brown has decided to use both Max Johnson and Conner Harrell instead of a traditional starter this season, each quarterback will be simulated five times. You know, for science.
- To avoid meteorological oddities, the weather conditions in the game are always set to clear.
Now that we know how the season will go, let’s waste no time and dive into this week’s simulation of UNC’s away game against Minnesota.
Max Johnson
Game 1: UNC 31, Minnesota 32
Player of the game: Omarion Hampton, 136 rushing yards, 2 touchdowns
Game 2: UNC 21, Minnesota 34
Player of the game: MN WR Daniel Jackson, 5 catches, 56 yards gain and 3 touchdowns
Game 3: UNC 23, MN 17
Player of the game: Max Johnson, 238 yards, 62.1% completion rate, 2 touchdowns
Game 4: UNC 35, MN 28
Player of the game: Max Johnson, 285 passing yards, 67% pass rate, 2 touchdowns
Game 5: UNC 23, Minnesota 14
Player of the game: Omarion Hampton: 120 rushing yards, 1 touchdown
Overall result: UNC finishes the season with 3 wins and 2 losses
Conner Harrell
Game 1: UNC 48, MN 20
Player of the game: Conner Harrell, 157 passing yards, 68% completion, 45 rushing yards, 1 passing touchdown, two rushing touchdowns
Game 2: UNC 27, MN 10
Player of the game: Connor Harrell, 153 passing yards, 39 rushing yards, 54% completion, two passing touchdowns
Game 3: UNC 20, MN 9
Player of the game: Omarion Hampton, 138 rushing yards, one touchdown
Game 4: UNC 29, MN 45
Player of the game: MN QB Max Brosmer, 266 passing yards, 64% completion, 23 rushing yards, 2 passing touchdowns
Game 5: UNC 37, MN 16
Player of the game: Conner Harrell, 220 passing yards, 72.7% completion, 25 rushing yards, 2 touchdowns
Overall: UNC finishes the season with 4 wins and 1 loss
Overall, UNC won 70% of the simulations run against Minnesota. Perhaps the most interesting thing about these simulations is that UNC had several strong fourth quarters. In Conner Harrel’s first simulated game, the Tar Heels managed to score 21 points in the fourth quarter and beat the Golden Gophers, which was pretty unrealistic considering Minnesota didn’t score a single touchdown in the first three quarters of the game. It’s also worth noting that both quarterbacks were pretty accurate in most games, which, if we’re to believe Mack Brown, really shows that this team is well-positioned no matter who is put on the field. Well, at least in the video game world. We’ll see what actually happens on Thursday night.
What did you think of this week’s simulation? Do you think UNC’s chances of winning this week are as good as the game says? Let me know in the comments below and also tell me if there’s any other information you’d like to see from these simulations in the future. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to export video highlights from these simulations yet, but maybe I’ll figure it out at some point.
