Commentary: Evaluating Iowa’s NCAA 11 ratings
EA Sports’ NCAA Football 11’s Tuesday release allowed anxious gamers to finally get their early college-football fix. The game’s newest installment also provides the opportunity to evaluate how well the EA crew did with its ratings of Iowa players.
This year’s game rates Iowa as an 89 overall — with its offense, not its defense, listed at 92. Instead, the defense is only rated an 89 — a number many Hawkeye fans feel slighted by. But offense and defense team ratings are only as good as individual player ratings. (All overall ratings are out of a maximum of 99.)
Defensive Line
Adrian Clayborn is good enough to be on the cover of the video game, but his ratings don’t reflect his talents. He anchored an Iowa defense that didn’t allow a rushing touchdown through the first five games last season.
While Clayborn is listed as an “impact player” (each team in the game has three), he isn’t the squad’s highest rated player. His 91 is lower than strong safety Tyler Sash (94), offensive tackle Riley Reiff (93), and free safety Brett Greenwood (92).
How can the Orange Bowl MVP not be Iowa’s highest-rated player?
ESPN blogger Adam Rittenberg dubbed Clayborn the best player in the Big Ten this season, and many scouting services project him to be a first-round pick in the NFL draft.
And yet, he has a lower speed rating than backup lineman Lebron Daniel.
Did Daniel run down Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt and throw him to the ground like a rag doll in the Orange Bowl? We didn’t think so.
Running backs
One position NCAA 11 gives Iowa far too much respect for is running back.
Adam Robinson is slotted as a 90 overall.
Are you kidding?
No offense to Robinson, but a 90 is very high praise for a player who ran for 834 yards and five touchdowns while essentially platooning at his position in his redshirt freshman season (2009).
Granted, he recorded the most single-season rushing yards by a freshman in Iowa history. But it’s fair to say he owes a lot of that yardage to last year’s offensive line, which was one of the best in the nation. Ninety and higher ratings should be reserved for players who have clearly separated themselves from the pack — Robinson hasn’t done that yet.
Jewel Hampton is rated an 89 despite not playing a single snap last season. That’s not to say he’s not capable of playing at that level, but one point short of a 90 rating is a little too much respect for a guy we’ve only seen have success backing up Shonn Greene.
Quarterbacks
Iowa’s quarterbacks may be its most accurately rated players in NCAA 11. Senior Ricky Stanzi is spot-on at 89 overall, while redshirt sophomore James Vandenberg received a 78.
That being said, we’re also not confident Stanzi deserves an 83 speed rating, especially considering that’s only four points lower than Robinson’s rating. Stanzi has displayed some elusiveness at times, but it’s typically not because of his speed.
To nitpick, we’re not so sure Stanzi’s arm should be rated as being more accurate than Vandenberg (Stanzi 88 throw accuracy, Vandenberg 87). Although we only saw Vandenberg in action in a few games last season following Stanzi’s injury, he showed a better ability than Stanzi to pinpoint his targets. In Stanzi’s defense, he clearly has a stronger arm than Vandenberg and should have better than an 87 for throw power.
If only players were given a “knows how to win” attribute — Stanzi would be a 99.
Linebackers
The linebackers are one of the major questions for Iowa heading into this highly anticipated football season, but the group is much better than their NCAA 11 ratings indicate.
Jeremiha Hunter, the team’s most experienced linebacker, is rated an 82 — the same rating as fellow linebacker Troy Johnson and lower than Tyler Nielsen (85).
Apparently EA failed to notice Hunter was second in tackles for Iowa last year and has started all but one game in the past two seasons. Nielsen and Johnson have one career start combined.
Jeff Tarpinian, who, in real life, is listed as the first-team middle linebacker after spring practice, is rated even lower (74) and has only a 67 hit-power rating.
Michigan kick returner Darryl Stonum would probably question that low hit-power rating after getting plastered by Tarpinian on an Iowa kickoff last season.
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
Someone explain to us why A.J. Derby is listed as a tight end.
The heralded Hawkeye recruit — who typically plays quarterback — is listed as the third-string tight end behind Allen Reisner (85) and Brad Herman. Fellow freshman C.J. Fiedorowicz (75) — a true tight end — is rated behind Derby.
Other than Derby being in the wrong position and Derrell Johnson-Koulianos sporting a goatee, everything is pretty accurate with the receiving corp.
Johnson-Koulianos is the highest rated wideout (88), and Marvin McNutt is second-best (84).
If Johnson-Koulianos shows off his 85 speed, 95 acceleration, and 86 pass-catching skill ratings, it could be a record-breaking season.
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