It's in the game | by Pat

Today marks the official release of the highly anticipated NCAA Football 2006 video game. And while we don't have a video game system installed in the BGS Lounge, we do understand the importance of this game to the general world of college football. Fans love it for the realistic stadiums, rosters, small touches unique to each school, and the opportunity to make things right in the world.

The NCAA Football series is so ingrained into the fabric of college football that when recruits take their visits to various universities to sample the college life, playing this game with guys already on the team is as much of a staple of the visit as meeting "some friends of ours" named Tiffany, Crystal, and Veronica.

We'll leave the game review to other sites, but did want to mention one specific ND improvement. This year they modified the offensive playbook when you play as the Fighting Irish. It seems the new "Charlie Weis" playbook is a bit more advanced than last year's Diedrick-inspired design.

update: While we're talking video games here, Jay reminded me of the fact that Weis was used as a consultant in the creation of NFL Quarterback Club '99 for the Nintendo 64. Here's a nice quote from the game's lead designer, Bill Lacoste:

Another innovation big change in this year's game is the completely rewritten AI. In reworking the AI, we got the advice of an NFL pro, Charlie Weis, the offensive coordinator of the NY Jets. He spent some time with us here in Austin and spoke to everyone on the team about the principles of football and the responsibilities of every player on defense and offense depending on the coverages or plays that we were going to run. The great thing about Charlie is he didn't just give us this information and then leave. He worked with us through the entire development process to make sure we captured the feel of running an NFL offense or defense.

Given the affinity towards video games found in nearly every recruit, I wonder if Weis causally mentions that fact.