When you think back on the greatest inventions and discoveries in world history, truly only a few things come to mind: the wheel, concrete, red bull & vodka, Chipotle, & PS2 College Football Dynasty mode. Dynasty mode is where you are the coach for your team that you select and play with over a series of years. When your seniors are done, they are removed from the game (actually, they can be saved and imported from the college football game to Madden), all the players move up a year, and you recruit players and can continue your dynasty for upwards to 30 years.
I enjoy taking average to below average programs and making them my dynasty team. Such programs I�ve had in the past have included Illinois & North Texas State in the �98 version, Vanderbilt & Mississippi State in the �99 version, Iowa in the �00 version, Minnesota in the �01 version, and Arizona State in the �02 version. Currently, I left my post at Arizona State after 2 national championships to take over the troublesome & lack of success program at Indiana. The year of this takeover is 2005.
This team has hardly any talent and it showed by me going 2-2 in the non-conference schedule (although 1 of those losses was 17-13 to Tennessee in Knoxville and they are currently the #1 team in the country). I have had some Big Ten successes, such as winning in the Big House against Michigan and defeating #5 Illinois on a INT touchdown with 20 seconds left. As I was heading into a big game @ Penn State, Indiana was 5-1 in the conference, locked up a bowl bid, and in prime position for a berth to the CapitalOne Florida Citrus Bowl.
And that�s when IT happened.
I have seen some bad things happen on the video game screen. I�ve been around the video football game long enough to know when something was just strange or when something was just plain fixed by the video game gods. Let me tell you, the fix was in.
As I am trailing to Penn State 7-0 at the half (it was raining hard, 2 turnovers, just not being efficient), I get it going. After an 86 yard kickoff return to open the 2nd half, I score 2 plays later on a slant over the middle for the 11 yard TD to tie the game. The next PSU possession, I promptly pick it off and return the INT for a TD. 14-7, not even 2 minutes in to the half, and I�m up. I�m thinking �OK, I�ll just run the ball, be efficient, play my game, and I�ll sneak out of Happy Valley with a W.� Oh how wrong I was.
Still leading 14-7 into the 4th, Penn State drives down, makes a few big plays, and scores to tie the game with under 3 minutes remaining. No problem, I�ll just drive down the field, and either score a TD or kick a FG and get out of here. I have a beautiful drive. With 1:30 left and facing a 2nd & 2 from their 19, I call a QB draw and it works to perfection. It worked so good that I knew it couldn�t be true, so as I got inside the 10, I had my QB slide down so I wouldn�t turn it over. As he was sliding down, a PSU guy dove and forced a fumble, which they recovered. Absolute bush league computer assistance. So PSU has the ball, with about 1:20 left at their own 8, gets 2 first downs, but then goes 3 & out there on their own 35. Good. Incomplete pass on 3rd down stopped the clock, I have all 3 time outs, about a minute left, and I can do it. They punt it, nobody around my punt returner, it hits him, it bounces off of him, goes 10 yards in the direction of the punt and 3 PSU guys fall on the ball. I can�t believe this. Two fumbles in consecutive plays in a video game? This was communism at it's finest.
So PSU has the ball on my 34 with 50 seconds left and all 3 timeouts left. My defense stiffens up and makes them throw 3 incomplete passes. It�s 4th & 10. I get ready for the FG block team, except PSU comes out going for it on 4th down. This forces me to call a timeout, and recall my defense. They go for it, they get a 20 yard pass down the middle to their TE, get the first down, run the ball three times, make me use my timeouts, and kick a FG for a 17-14 lead. There are 29 seconds left.
This is a crock. They gave me 2 fumbles and I am down. But hey, I�m not out yet. I still have 29 seconds left, and have a good hurry up offense. And I had a kick return for 86 yards earlier. They kick off, I�m thinking good return, my guy crosses the 20�..the 25��.the 30�..then gets hit by a PSU guy, which causes a��FUMBLE! Penn State recovers and that�s all she wrote. The last fumble made me so angry that I threw my controller straight into the ground and the buttons popped out of their holsters. This is the first time something has ever caused me to throw my controller.
Never mind that I had a TD taken away in the 1st half for a holding call on my center. Never mind that I had a 45 yard draw by my RB called back because of the same call in the 4th quarter. The bottom line is that I had 3 consecutive fumbles in the last 3 minutes of the 4th quarter. 3 consecutive fumbles in a video game! I can honestly say that I have never seen this before and will never see this again. Gone are my chances for the Citrus Bowl. It�s is now Alamo or Sun Bowl. I don�t know who is to blame for this: whether this was just Indiana football being Indiana football or the video game gods saying �you have dominated us for too long, you will learn a painful lesson and you will break your controller.�
Just for that, I will now run up the score every single time on the computer. You messed with the wrong video gamer.
-Scoops McCracken can be reached by clicking here.
