NCAA Football 09: Nebraska Cornhuskers

Relatively speaking, I'm an old-fashioned guy: I still own an iPod that's just an iPod, my cell phone is only used for calling people and when I pick up EA Sports "NCAA Football 09" it will be the PS2 version and I'll be playing it on a cathode ray tube (upgrades pending).

But that doesn't really bother me because this game, on whatever platform, is still the bridge that gets us from nothingness to spring practice.

With that in mind, I thought I'd take a look at the Nebraska roster for NCAA Football 09—courtesy of this video—because the first thing you're going to do after buying the game is enter/upload the names for the players and anyone who has done this knows that it's an inexact science at best.

Yes, yes, I know that you can pay people to do this for you, and there's even word that if you're a XBox360 or PS3 user you'll be able to download rosters off your respective networks but if you're as old school/thrifty as I am, the best you get is what you type in on your own and that requires some judgment calls.

Below is the roster in EA Sports position order according to me (edits welcome):

QB  QB#12 Ganz  QB#7 Spano  QB#18 Lee  QB#2 Witt

Analysis: If you had high hopes of running the shotgun zone read, abandon them now as Joey Ganz' 76 speed is nothing to write home about. Somehow, Spano the true freshman has bettered Witt the redshirt freshman overall.

HB  HB#5 Lucky  HB#34 Glenn  HB#27 Wilson  HB#10 Helu  HB#33 Okafor  HB#35 Rogers

Analysis: So Glenn is still a halfback. I have a feeling Nebraska fans won't get the true value of that position switch. Lucky represents the best offensive player overall at 93—as he should be—barely outpacing Lydon Murtha.

FB  FB#19 Castille

Analysis: I'm not sure how every fullback on the roster gets overlooked in favor of a guy who's not even a FB, but in terms of video team strength the move makes sense. I guarantee you Nebraska doesn't have an 84 overall FB on the roster.

WR  WR#87 Swift  WR#17 Peterson  WR#1 Brooks  WR#4 Holt  WR#24 Paul  WR#11 Gilleylen  WR#83 Cooper?

Analysis: It's hard to tell which incoming frosh WR#83 actually is so I made him Khiry Cooper, as it may be the only Nebraska football he ever plays. I love the fact that Niles Paul is wearing the non-receiver #24.

TE  TE#89 Teafatiller  TE#3 Cotton  TE#85 Hetzer  TE#80 Hill

LT  LT#76 Murtha  LT#74 Steinkuhler

Analysis: It's hard to predict where Steinkuhler will end up, so I made him the best frosh prospect on either side of the line.

LG  LG#62 ???  LG#65 Smith

Analysis: Who is the redshirt senior starting at left guard? Your guess is as good as mine.

C  C#67 Hickman  C#58 Caputo

RG  RG#70 Slauson  RG#73 Jones  RG#61 Huff

RT  RT#72 Burkes  RT#66 Barrett  RT#75 Thompson/Grant (take your pick of the frosh)

LE  LE#98 Potter  LE#95 Allen  LE#96 Williams

RE  RE#99 Turner  RE#88 Sievers  RE#89 Santin

DT  DT#43 Steinkuhler  DT#93 Suh  DT#97 Dixon  DT#56 Barfield  DT#91 Meredith  DT#63 Martin

LOLB  LOLB#53 Wortman  LOLB#12 Lawrence  LOLB#42 Camaruta

MLB  MLB#52 Dillard  MLB#45 Compton  MLB#15 ????

Analysis: I went ahead and made Compton MLB#45, as that's the highest ranking frosh LB on the team.

ROLB  ROLB#6 Culbert  ROLB#36 ????  ROLB#23 Washington

Analysis: Take your pick for the frosh LB #36.

CB  CB#5 Murillo  CB#14 Blue  CB#22 West  CB#26 Whitmore  CB#21 Dennard  CB#18 Sullivan

FS  FS#3 Thenarse  FS#17 Smith  FS#13 ????

SS  SS# 4 Asante  SS#28 Hagg

PK  K#20 Kunalic

Analysis: Don't really know what happened to Henery, but those are the vagaries of video game production.

P  P#97 Titchener

Based on the overall team rankings for the game, Nebraska is in the company of teams like Cal, GT, Illinois, KSU, Maryland, Northwestern and Notre Dame.

That's not exactly exclusive company, but it does classify Nebraska squarely as a wild card. Does anyone really knows how good ND or GT will actually be?

All I know is this: starting on July 15, the Cornhuskers will probably go on a 60- or 70-game winning streak, a run that encompasses at least back-to-back-to-back national titles and numerous Heisman trophies because that's the way the college football season always starts...at least in my slightly less than cutting edge house.