Padre Road to Glory: Part Two

Judging Road to Glory without having even reached college would’ve been premature. Still even after just the beginning of a long journey there was a lot to take from the first update. While noticing the general improvements to gameplay there continue to be some issues with different aspects of the mode. However there remains a lot to look forward to with the special presentation that will come as the career continues and milestones are accomplished. The first of those happens following the High School tournament and needless to say my expectations were exceeded at least in that area.

High School Tournament Game Three

This was a relatively close game that had an intense fourth quarter. Despite jumping ahead 24-7 late in the 3rd quarter, the gap was closed to 24-17 with two minutes remaining. After an onside kick attempt though Padre high scored a TD to end all doubt.

Early in the second Padre jumped a the route and picked off a pass for his second of the tournament. This one came on the inside covering a the receiver in the slot. I feel like I would get more balls thrown my way as a nickel back than on the outside unfortunately.

Padre came away with the INT and seven tackles. Some of the teams in attendance included ranked schools such as FSU, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, and TCU. Auto-captured was a video of the pick, video of a tackle, and a couple terrible screenshots. There were three passes thrown my way, with the one when covering in the slot resulting in an INT. I had previously feared that as a corner I wouldn’t be able to up my star rating however Padre has now shot up to four stars!

Padre High (W) 31-17

High School Tournament Championship

So the game was close throughout, only when the opposing team completed a 24 yard pass to the corner of the end zone with a few minutes left in the fourth was it over. I was happy to see the CPU use the “Chew Clock” feature in the fourth quarter however they only did it half the time when they should’ve. The other half of the plays I had to sit there waiting for like 15 seconds as they ran the clock down before snapping the ball.

Padre had 12 tackles in this game but otherwise didn’t make much of an impact.  Teams in attendance were all ranked such as Georgia, Boise State, and Utah. There were only two passes thrown my way in this game. The star rating stays at four.

Padre High (L) 21-7

On to College

Now was the crucial decision of what school to accept a scholarship from. Interestingly this time it was not every school offering a scholarship or even a walk-on positions. The top seven ranked teams didn’t offer anything, while the rest of the top 15 were only willing to grant 6th string. BYU and Iowa, two teams who had been to my High School games twice, offered 3rd string. So it looks like that actually does factor in this year.

Ultimately I went with an unranked team that was offering 3rd string. There were a handful that would’ve made me the starter but I would rather work my way up some. The choice was made and Padre becomes a member of the San Jose State Spartans.

This is where Erin Andrews kicked back in. She mentioned how I led my HS team to the championship game and how I was going to be leaving the state because of where I took the scholarship from. Kirk Herbstreit joined via phone and talked about the decision. He mentioned how it was surprising that it was a smaller school and what that potentially meant for my career. I was also happy to see that they did use some of my video highlights for the presentation rather than just the poor ones they had taken captured. Really this was intriguing because of how well put together the report was. It was accurate, detailed, and flowed naturally. Now I’m excited to see them pop up going forward.

The new dorm room allows you to check out your highlight videos and screenshots, edit appearance, view the leaderboards and use the calendar. Similar to years past you have practice, classes, and evening events.

Practice, sadly, appears to be the same flawed system as before. As a corner it is really frustrating. The best strategy is to back off 15 yards and hope the CPU throws to your guy so you can get a tackle. Half the plays will probably be run plays which means no opportunity to score points and the rest of the time if you cover well the ball won’t be thrown your way. I did earn a handful of points (mostly two attribute points in several categories) because of two tackles I made. I think it is probably really easy to move up the depth chart if you play a position that more opportunities in practice.

Early on Monday there will be a video blowout. Look for part three of Padre’s Road to Glory series late Monday night!