EA Sports seems to have a pretty clear understanding that you, and me, and your friends, and everyone else who gets their hands on EA Sports College Football 25 is going to want to play Dynasty Mode. The defining game mode during EA’s previous foray into the sport, EA knew that knocking Dynasty Mode out of the park for the initial version of the game was going to be of the utmost importance — if this sucked, and it’s clear that the goal was to get you to pour money into Ultimate Team, this game would come under a bevy of scrutiny from all over the place.
Uproxx Sports obtained an advanced copy of EA Sports College Football 25, and unsurprisingly, firing up Dynasty Mode was No. 1 on the list of priorities. I was able to start sinking my teeth into a career that started as an offensive coordinator at Akron, and while a full review will come later in the week, here are some early observations of a game mode that I am going to play for months and months on end.
1. Recruiting, in all forms, is remarkably in-depth
As the saying goes, recruiting is the lifeblood of college football, and Dynasty Mode really does understand that. The catch: You don’t just recruit high schoolers. There’s an element of keeping your own players out of the transfer portal. If you played NCAA Football, you remember that there are the various criteria that you sell recruits on — Proximity to Home, Academic Prestige, all that stuff. These still apply to recruits, but they also apply to guys on your roster, and your ability to keep them from entering the transfer portal. Some of your players want to play more, others want to play for a more prestigious coach, and you get weekly updates on the risk that these kids could transfer. And of course, recruiting itself is a gigantic endeavor, as you only get a set number of hours per week to sell recruits on your university. Will you use that time to continue to chip away on the quarterback you’ve ID’d as a gem, or will you use it to start pursuing a backup option at defensive tackle, because you did not make a top-5 for your top target and you’re now locked out? If they ever made an NFL Head Coach version of this game, you could spend hours upon hours on recruiting — both your players and other players.
2. The Coach Skills tree is awesome
It’s such a fun addition to the game. Instead of just getting random attribute points, you get to build out what archetype you want your coach to be: Motivator, Tactician, and Recruiter are the three that you can pick when you start Dynasty Mode, while Architect, Strategist, and Talent Developer also appear on the tree. The latter three are, in part, dependent on the first three — for example, to unlock the Architect archetype, you need to build out the Tactician and Motivator skills and win four rivalry games. We’ll have more on this as the week goes on, but I absolutely love that you can basically turn your coach into whatever you want him to be. A guy who is good at everything but not excellent at any one thing? An insane recruiter who runs into issues on gameday? An Xs and Os genius who struggles when he gets out on the road? There’s a little bit of everything in here. Frankly, I’m sure there is a way to game this that I am just too big of a doofus to understand, but it’s still fun.
3. Coordinator role =/= coordinator responsibilities
I found it interesting that I was able to play offense and defense despite starting my career as an offensive coordinator at Akron. If you’re like me, and your plan is to grind at the lower levels until you get up to a head coaching job at a big school, do understand that you take on everything. You’re putting together the whole recruiting class, you’re calling plays on both sides of the ball. Is it a good thing? A bad thing? Well, your mileage may vary, but I generally wished you had coordinator responsibilities for a coordinator position, just to give it more of a lifelike feel — I, as an offensive coordinator, should suck at calling a defense, and it should be considerably more difficult to bring in a linebacker than a wide receiver. Again, this is a total personal preference thing.
4. It’s hard to be good at a small school
Which is a good thing! I don’t want it to be easy to play a P5 team as a smaller G5 school. As I mentioned, I started my Dynasty Mode as an offensive coordinator at Akron, and my first game against a P5 school was a total disaster — I went to Columbus to play Ohio State and got my ass kicked, 41-23. My quarterback could not stop turning the ball over. My defense kept getting carved up. All the Stadium Pulse stuff led to issues — false starts, guys not knowing the play, etc. — that you expect in this environment. I will say, as a recruiter, you can punch above your weight if a kid’s dealbreaker is something you can offer, like Proximity To Home or Playing Time, although it does seem like that might get patched sooner rather than later.
5. The FCS teams are in the game!
Not actual FCS teams, but FCS East, FCS Southeast, FCS Northwest, FCS Midwest, and FCS West. I missed them dearly.
