Friday, August 22, 2008
Junior running back Jocques Crawford couldn’t wait to check out the video game “NCAA Football 2009” on his Play Station 3.
Crawford was certain he’d call up the Kansas running back depth chart and find a player listed with jersey No. 3 — the video-game version of himself. Only he didn’t.
“I wasn’t too happy because I don’t know where I am on the game,” Crawford said. “I don’t know if I’m that No. 21. I don’t know who that is — maybe it’s me.”
The only way to identify players on the game is by their jersey numbers. EA Sports, the company that created the game, cannot use real names of players because it would violate NCAA rules. The absence of his number upset Crawford.
But that’s not the only problem Crawford had with the game. Even if No. 21 is supposed to be representative of him, he thinks the ratings are off. The game rates each player on a number of categories, with 0 being the worst and 99 being the best. No. 21, for example, has an 87 speed rating and a 74 strength rating. If No. 21 is supposed to be Crawford, he thinks he should rank higher.
“I don’t think they rated anyone right,” Crawford said. “Our guys have much more abilities than what they put on the game.”
Crawford’s roommate, sophomore receiver Rod Harris, had a solution for the ratings disparity. Before Harris went home to Bryan, Texas at the end of July, he changed all the Jayhawk players’ overall rating to 99.
Problem solved. But now Crawford can’t play with the Jayhawks when he challenges teammates on the video game because it would be unfair.
When he recently played against sophomore receiver Dezmon Briscoe, Crawford opted to play with West Virginia. He thought the combination of speedy quarterback Pat White and playmaking running back Noel Devine would be enough to beat Briscoe, who picked to play with Clemson.
Crawford was wrong. He said Briscoe stuffed the Mountaineer running game and marched to an easy victory. Most of the Jayhawks cited Briscoe as the best NCAA ‘09 player on the team.
“He said he was the ‘truth of the game,’” Crawford said. “Obviously, he is.”
Senior receiver Marcus Herford isn’t ready to jump to the same conclusion. Herford says he’s a pretty good “NCAA Football 2009” gamer as well. He said he hadn’t played Briscoe before but would challenge him in the future to find out who was the best.
Herford agreed that most of the Jayhawks didn’t receive appropriate ratings. Instead of changing everyone to a 99 rating, however, Herford just went player-by-player and adjusted the numbers based on his own opinion.
Even Jayhawks who don’t play the game were offended by the ratings. Junior safety Justin Thornton, who prefers playing Madden video games, said fans shouldn’t pay too much attention to the player ratings.
“How are them guys going to know how we work and how things really go on around here?” Thornton asked. “They can go off the stats and what they’ve seen but they really don’t know what goes on and the work we put in.”
One player who should have no beef with the ratings is junior quarterback Todd Reesing. Reesing, or No. 5 quarterback in the game, has an overall rating of 92 — the team-high.
— — Edited by Ramsey Cox
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