As UW Dawg Pound’s resident (self bestowed) “gamer nerd guy”, I was excited about the prospect of writing about EA Sports’ College Football 25 for months and now enough time has passed to where I feel like I can express just how much this game delivered what it set out to do. This is a new game for a new era of college football. It’s an undertaking so arduous that it took me quite a bit of time to settle on a direction for this post, and now I think I’ve found one.

We all have that one player in sports video games that is always a problem. Lebron James in NBA 2K13, Brian Finneran and Michael Vick in Madden 04, and Reggie Bush in NCAA Football 06 (my personal favorite) come to mind. CFB 25 is no different. Players like Ashton Jeanty from Boise State, Jeremiah Smith from Ohio State and Travis Hunter from Colorado are absolute game wreckers! There are a few Huskies that fall into that category of game wrecker, and they’ll be covered in this post here. Whether making immediate impacts or being a diamond in the rough and taking a few seasons to develop, these are the Huskies (and portal players that I managed to lure over to Montlake) who are the recipients of the Isaiah Stanback Virtual MVP Awards, named after the former Husky quarterback who could scramble and throw absolute darts in his virtual appearances for the Huskies. In other words, the perfect video game quarterback! Let’s go!

Giles Jackson, WR #5

Notable Attributes: 93 speed, 94 acceleration, 94 agility, 93 jump, 89 catching, 85 Spectacular catch.

Giles is first up on our MVP list. And for good reason; as anyone who has played a football video game knows, speed kills. Giles is a fantastic option on jet sweeps, reverses, touch passes, and screens. Basically any play that involves getting a receiver out in space where he can do something with the ball, he’s good at it. Observe this reverse play:

The extra burst also helps vertically as well. Simply put, if he’s open, get him the ball, and he will make something happen!

Jonah Coleman, RB #1

Notable Attributes: 87 speed, 90 acceleration, 92 break tackle, 91 trucking

This is a no brainer. Like in real life, Jonah is almost an entire offense by himself, with his high break tackle and trucking ratings creating nightmares for opposing defenders in the open field. And this applies regardless of the scheme you run. Just as an example, I’m running a UW Dynasty currently featuring San Jose State’s playbook, which is classified as an Air Raid variant, but is a lot more West Coast feeling. These are Jonah’s numbers heading into his senior season:

EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts

I always try to feed Jonah as much as I can, especially considering his power and downhill running style. Hopefully that leads to an improvement over the 9-3 record we had last season!

Demond Williams, QB #2

Notable Attributes: 88 speed, 92 acceleration, 86 jump, 85 throw power.

In order to get Giles (and later Denzel Boston, who emerges as a heck of a WR1 after 1 season in dynasty mode) the ball, you need a good quarterback. The Huskies have that, in Will Rogers, but given his limited mobility, what he can do in the Husky offense is also limited. Enter Demond Williams, the electric dual threat quarterback, who, if you use him right, becomes a lethal weapon in year 2 of dynasties and beyond. But, I have a bit of a confession to make…

UW’s default offense in the video game is not designed for a mobile quarterback, and it’s kind of boring. It’s not what I like out of my playbooks in these games. I tend to gravitate towards offenses with a lot of different and weird formations, while also keeping a consistent identity in how we move the ball. UW’s playbook is classified as Multiple by the game, but is decidedly pro style in nature. No, to get to the truly weird, sicko stuff, we must head to Vegas!

That’s right, UNLV has the weirdest, yet most effective playbook out there, thanks to former OC Brennan Marion’s GoGo offense! In real life, UNLV used the GoGo to propel themselves to an 11-3 record and an appearance in the Mountain West Championship. In the video game, I used it to guide the Huskies to a National Championship, and Demond to the Big Ten career passing touchdown record in a previous dynasty file. When you have formations that look like this:

EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts

You have to take advantage of the weirdness. And for this particular offense, that meant a lot of options, a lot of quarterback runs with Demond, and a lot of putting the game on Jonah’s shoulders. It really keeps the defense off balance, when they have to account for 3 solid ball carriers, plus anywhere between 3 and 4 solid pass catchers, lining up in all these different formations and personnel groupings. It’s a lot of fun! And Demond is the straw that stirs the drink! So if you’re playing the game and you want to get the most out of Demond, use him in a different offense like the GoGo!

Jack Velling, TE #12

Notable Attributes: 85 speed, 87 catch, 88 catch in traffic, 85 short route running

Our first, and most likely only, portal acquisition comes to us from the Michigan State Spartans! Just like in real college football, the game includes the transfer portal. It works almost exactly like in real life. When coaches get fired, players want to be closer to home, or play in a philosophy closer to their playing style, they enter the portal, and you have 4 weeks after the national championship to lure them to your school. Speaking from personal experience, the Huskies have a lot to build on after you complete the initial 2025 season. If you’re taking control of our virtual Dawgs, Velling is a good get, as Quentin Moore and Keleki Latu immediately leave after the initial year. He’s an excellent safety valve in the pass game and is a good option in the slot out wide as well. I fed him the ball quite a bit when I managed to get him, which was only once in the 9 months that this game has been out, and he always made things happen. This has since been fixed in updates, so virtual Johnathan Smith doesn’t get fired quite as often, but I also haven’t been able to lure Velling back, as the siren song of Oregon’s Nike money is too enticing for him oftentimes. Or so I thought, as in my most recent Dynasty, I was able to lure him to Montlake. No word on the NIL sum, but the boosters must’ve ponied up a hefty sum to lure him away from Oregon:

EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts

Tuffy Armstrong, WR #83

Notable Attributes: 92 speed, 93 acceleration, 91 agility, 91 jump

Now we get into the real interesting stuff. See, Tuffy Armstrong is not a real receiver, joining the ranks of fictional athletes that includes Jon Dowd from MVP Baseball 2005 (a version of Barry Bonds after he opted out of the MLBPA, negotiating his own licensing agreements), Roster Player from the 90s editions of NBA Live (standing in for both Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, who had similar deals to Bonds), and QB Eagles from Tecmo Super Bowl (a stand in for Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham). This is evident in several spots on the Huskies’ roster, mostly along the offensive and defensive lines, as some players chose not to opt in to being included in the game, although some like Teddy Purcell chose to opt in later on in the season.

Now, I don’t know who Armstrong could be standing in for (Luke Gayton is a possible answer, as the two men both share a position and a number for the Huskies, but Gayton has a different hometown than Woodinville, hailing from Palos Verdes Estates, California), but I do know this: Armstrong might be buried on the depth chart to start out, but if you give him time to develop, and you feed him the ball, well:

EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts

Armstrong’s pure speed more than makes up for any height shortfall, meaning he can get open both vertically and underneath, making him a constant threat in any pass heavy offense. This extends to our next and final receiver.

LaTroy Combs, WR #46

Notable Attributes: 90 speed, 87 agility, 90 acceleration, 81 catching

While not quite as fast as Armstrong, Combs develops into a surehanded option for you underneath. He’s not going to burn you deep, but he will make the catch and get you consistent yardage, as seen in this photo:

EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts

What really puts him on this list is the choice of jersey number. If you have any number in the high 40s, in my mind, you’re either a power back, a fullback, or a linebacker. Maybe an EDGE, but you’re almost always a guy who’s going to be on the more powerful side, dishing out punishment. But a receiver who wears 46? Absolutely insane behavior!

EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts

If I’m a DB and I got burned by a receiver wearing number 46, I’m hanging up the helmet and cleats!

And that brings us to our final video game MVP, which comes with a bit of a story.

Toby Erickson, LE #75

A couple months ago, my brother and I were playing this game online against each other. He chose UW and I chose UConn, as the two are close in overall rating. I fail to garner any offense. My offensive line was under a furious assault from the home Huskies’ defensive front. And the leader of this siege? Toby Erickson, another player that does not exist!

EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts

While the real life Huskies might’ve struggled generating pressure and getting to the quarterback in 2024, this virtual avatar of destruction did not, generating 4 or 5 sacks. It got to the point where I was legitimately scanning the field for him every time I lined up to throw, clumsily adjusting the pass protection assignments pre snap, and watching it all be for nothing as Erickson would just shoot through the line again. It got to a point where all I could do was laugh, and thus, among my brother and I, he has entered the history books.

When John Madden and Electronic Arts were developing John Madden Football for the Apple II, there was talk among the team of maybe making the game feature 6 on 6 or 7 on 7 football, but Madden refused, insisting instead on 11 on 11 gameplay, like the real thing. Coach Madden viewed the game as a teaching tool, stating in a 2012 Grantland article that the game is “…a way for people to learn the game and participate in the game at a pretty sophisticated level”. I know I was one of those people.

I don’t know where I would be today if I didn’t have sports video games. My first exposure to college football was through sneaking out of bed and watching my brother and my dad play NCAA Football 2005 on the PS2. Through NCAA March Madness 2005, I learned most of the college mascots, where the schools were, and how the NCAA Tournament worked. My brother brought home NCAA Football 06 one day, and from then on, football was my favorite sport. It was my first exposure to the rigors of the college football season and offseason, even though I didn’t understand how recruiting worked until I was much older. These games not only ignited my love for sports, but my love of history as well, as I repeatedly played the March Madness College Classics mode, which challenges the player to replicate (or even rewrite) college basketball history.

I remember making myself a wide receiver, and I would always have an orange visor because it looked cool, and I would catch touchdowns thrown by our boy Isaiah Stanback (fun fact: Casey Paus is the default starting QB for the Huskies in NCAA Football 06, but I always replaced him with Stanback because he was the IRL starter in 05-06, and mobile QBs are way more fun to use in video games as opposed to pocket passers, as I said at the beginning of the article). Either myself or Stanback would win the Heisman, and we would always play in the Rose Bowl for the National Championship. I remember putting up 121 points on the Cougars in the Apple Cup on the road and cringing when my Husky defense finally allowed a garbage time touchdown, the only blemish in an otherwise perfect game. I remember also making myself a 5 foot even point guard in the March Madness games and leading the Huskies to Final Fours and Championships, dunking on everyone along the way. These games shaped my understanding of the sports that we all love, and the team that we’re loyal to. It’s safe to assume that I wouldn’t be near as big of a sports fan were it not for these games. College Football 25 is a triumph of the spirit of college sports fans working to create a game that encapsulates exactly why we love the Huskies and the sport in general!

EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts