TIGER TV CONTRIBUTOR
Every year football video games rate college players based on their statistics from previous seasons and predictions for the upcoming season, and LSU football players are included in the lineup.
One popular game is NCAA 2010 made by EA Sports.
“The game picks their favorites,” said starting LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson. “They know who the great players are so depending on how you play on the field will be how your ratings will be.”
“I’m satisfied with my ratings on the game. I got an 89 overall as a sophomore and that’s kind of high. I’m happy with it.”
With five games under his jersey, Jefferson completed 80 of his 128 passes for 920 yards to go along with seven touchdowns. He has also rushed for 107 yards.
LSU safety Chad Jones was ambivalent about his ratings.
“As a player, you’re not always going to be happy with your ratings,” Jones said. “ I guess my speed was pretty good.”
Jones’ speed is a 92 out of 100.
LSU running back Charles Scott referred to himself as the NCAA video game “guru,” but had one complaint about the video game ratings.“I don’t know what the reasoning is but the video game has me fumbling way too much in the game,” Scott said. “Other than that, I’m pretty happy with my ratings.”
NCAA 2010 has Scott at a 94 overall rating.
Scott also joked about LSU corner back Jai Eugene being ranked as the second fastest player on the team.
“I don’t know about Jai being the second fastest. He’s fast but I’m the second fastest on the team,” Scott said. EA Sports has running back Trindon Holliday as the fastest Tiger.
Scott didn’t agree with Holliday’s 98 speed rating either. “Trindon should have been 108 on his speed instead of a 98.”
Some LSU players don’t play the video game often, but weighed in on the issue anyway.
“It’s always nice to be on a video game,” said LSU offensive guard Josh Dworaczyk. “A couple of years from now it might be something I can tell my kids about.” Sometimes they have our hometown wrong and we just make a joke about it.” Dworaczyk has an 86 overall rating.
“I played NCAA 2009 a lot but I haven’t play NCAA 2010 much,” said LSU center T-Bob Hebert.“I do know they have me as a fat red head on that game.” Hebert, weighing in at 285 pounds and 6 feet 3 inches tall, has an 87 overall rating.
Playing football in real life can help when a person is playing the video version, says Dworaczyk.
“Just knowing the offenses and being able to see what defense might give away a blitz thatI might have seen in a game helps a lot.”
NCAA 2010 also provides offenses similar to actual plays employed by the same teams on the field.
“The play books are kind of the same,” said LSU linebacker Kelvin Sheppard. “That’s the funny thing. We are always wondering how the game know this stuff.”
“We all play the game. We will compete against each other and Charles hasn’t beaten me yet but we aren’t going to get into that,” Sheppard said. “As far as the ratings go, it’s all fun and games. We just laugh about it.”
