NCAA Weekly, Vol. 8.1: Two polar-opposite approaches, two similar results
a pair of turnover ships, passing in the night
Back in more youthful days - i.e., when I had Actual Real Free Time and not just Substack Free Time - I would indulge in more than a few hours a week of the NCAA Football series. By the time the currently-final edition of it came out in summer 2013, you could do a lot with various modes on the game. The most interesting nerd one was these sliders you could edit for your create-a-coach:
Turning up or down the dial on any of those was a fascinating experiment in theory, but the middle one in particular is the fun one. Were you a guy who wanted to call Engage Eight every play? Were you simply happy to sit in Cover 2 Man for an entire 20-minute simulated game? Or did you appreciate a mix of the two? The answer is very likely that last one, but I always liked the idea of going hardcore on one or the other. Truth be told, my most frequent action defensively was to pick a defensive end and spam his sack total. Actual coaches are smarter than this, which is why they earn more than Substack money.
If you turn the Aggressive button up to a pure 100, it would likely look a good bit like Sam Houston State.
BELOW THE LINE ($): one 100 Aggressive, one 100 Conservative, two good ideas