Alright, so I decided to really dive into getting ready for a pro style offense, thinking ahead for NCAA 25, you know? Wanted to get the feel back, the rhythm of it. It’s a different beast than all the spread stuff everyone runs these days.
Getting Started
First thing I did was fire up the game I’ve been playing, the one with decent team customization. Went straight into the custom playbook area. I didn’t want to mess with existing team playbooks too much, wanted something I built myself, focused purely on pro style concepts. Stripped out a lot of the shotgun formations initially.
My main goal was building around under-center formations. Felt good getting back to basics. I focused on these core sets:
- I-Form (Normal, Tight, Twins)
- Singleback (Ace, Big, Jumbo)
- Weak I and Strong I variations
- Maybe a bit of Pro Set for flavor
Just having those felt like a solid foundation. Didn’t want to get too complicated right off the bat.
Running the Plays
Then came the real work: practice mode. Spent a good hour, maybe more, just running base plays. Didn’t even worry about the defense at first, just wanted to see the blocking develop, get the timing down on handoffs and basic pass drops.
Key plays I drilled:
- HB Dive / HB Iso: Gotta establish the inside run. Ran these over and over.
- Power O / Counter: Wanted to see how the pulling guards looked, get a feel for hitting that hole.
- Play Action Passes: This is the heart of pro style, right? PA Bootlegs, PA Deep Outs, PA Posts off those run looks. Timing the rollout and the reads took a bit.
- Basic Dropbacks: Curl Flats, Slants, Drive concepts. Simple stuff, making reads against Cover 2, Cover 3.
It was kinda tough at first, especially the passing. Pocket presence feels different when you’re always under center. Got sacked a bunch just trying to stand in there. Found myself messing with hot routes a lot, changing slants to fades, drags to ins, based on how the defense lined up pre-snap. That felt pretty important.
Realized I needed to work on the audible system too. Setting up a run play, seeing a stacked box, and quickly switching to a pass, or vice-versa. That quick decision making is crucial for this style to work, otherwise defenses just tee off on you.
Putting it Together
After getting comfortable with individual plays, I started running simulated drives in practice mode. Trying to call plays sequentially. Run, run, play-action pass. Or maybe start with a pass to loosen them up, then hit ’em with the run. It’s all about setting things up.
Played a quick exhibition game against the CPU, forcing myself to stick only to my custom pro style playbook. It was a grind. Yards were harder to come by compared to spreading the field. But when a Power O broke for big yards, or a play-action pass hit deep after pounding the rock, man, it felt satisfying.
Overall findings: It takes patience. You can’t expect to score in two plays. It’s about controlling the clock, wearing down the defense, and taking smart shots downfield. Definitely need a good offensive line and a QB who can throw accurately from the pocket. Still got lots to refine, but it feels good to be practicing this way again. Looking forward to trying this philosophy out when the new game actually drops.
