Notre Dame employs video game system to help quarterbacks

Chances are if you’re a fan of college football and you’re around my age you’ve spent more than a few hours playing EA Sports’ NCAA Football on your PlayStation or XBox. I’m certainly guilty of that “crime,” if you will.

Turns out, not only are nerds like me using the video game to have fun and live out the dreams of chasing a Heisman trophy and National Title, but so are the actual athletes themselves.

*If you’ve read this story before, well, it’s because I’ve written it before. If you go to http://web.coachbutchjones.com/Dev/ and click on the “Inside Football” tab and the EA Sports menu, you’ll be able to see how UC’s quarterbacks have been using the system since Brian Kelly was the head man at UC.

Mark Schlabach of ESPN sat down and watched Kelly and his quarterbacks during a spring practice. Not only does Notre Dame employ the EA Sports Play Action Simulator, developed by EA and XOS Digital, the company that supplies film editing equipment to teams like Notre Dame and Cincinnati, but they also use new “helmet cams” mounted on the quarterback’s helmet so Kelly can break down exactly what each of his signal callers sees on each play.

Yeah, it’s like Madden 64, only, probably a whole heck of a lot better.

I am very familiar with the EA Sports Play Action Simulator, something that we used during the 2009 season where UC ran the table and went 12-0, clinching a second consecutive Big East title and a berth in the Sugar Bowl.

“It’s a good tool to have the night before a game,” Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees told Schlabach. “It’s a good thing to use as a refresher.”

Opponents’ defensive schemes can be programmed into the simulator and, in this case, the Notre Dame offense is installed in the game as well. Before each play, quarterbacks are quizzed on what their pre-snap reads are.

For example, Schlabach noted this instance, which took place in the Notre Dame hotel the night before their Sun Bowl victory over Miami (FL).

“Before taking a snap on a play called “North Squeeze 63 Dolphin,” Rees was asked to identify Miami's pass coverage. His options were: Cover 4, Tampa 2 or 2 Man. After correctly identifying the coverage, Rees had to throw to the correct receiver,” Schlabach noted.

One of the most fun parts about the simulator was the fact that it was in our hands to set up. The UC video staff became very proficient at setting up the games and making sure they worked before guys like Tony Pike, Zach Collaros and Chazz Anderson came into the quarterback meeting room to try it out.

It was fun. Just ask the guys I work with.

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Spring football is winding down in Cincinnati, and the Fifth annual Bearcat Bowl will take place on Saturday. It should be a fun night, so come on out to Nippert Stadium and watch the 2011 Bearcats in action.

NASCAR The Game 2011 hopes to attract younger audience

Last year I asked why EA Sports stopped making their NASCAR video game series. Last fall, NASCAR fans were delighted to hear Eutechnyx along with publishing company Activision were making a new video game called, appropriately enough, “NASCAR The Game 2011.”

The original release date was set for Tuesday, Feb 15, two days before the Gatorade Duel races, and 5 days prior to the sport’s biggest race, the season-opening Daytona 500. It has since been pushed back to late March, but it has nonetheless fired up the younger portion of the NASCAR fan base.

A recent report by Nielsen Media showed that NASCAR’s median fan age is the oldest when compared to the “big four” sports in America. NASCAR’s median fan age is 51.6, well older than the NBA (39.3), the NHL (43.4), the NFL (46) and just ahead of America’s pastime, Major League Baseball at 51.4.

Of course there’s two ways to read this, one is that NASCAR fans are ready for wheelchairs and it would only seem smart for advertisers to start selling Bengay at racetracks. The other is that the median age doesn’t necessarily reflect the average age of NASCAR fans.

Even so, the median age of NASCAR fans being over 50 is alarming for companies who are trying to market their sales to a younger audience, one that has a lot of buying power in our economy.

One way to bring a younger crowd, according to some, is by marketing a new video game. According to the Wikipedia page for NASCAR 09, the last video game made by Electronic Arts (who lost their license as NASCAR’s official video game producer last year) EA, “has stated they would not make another title due to slumping sales, lack of popularity, and the difficulty of installing any new features.”

Advantage Eutechnyx.

The company hit the road running last fall and has been at work developing the new game ever since. Gregg Baker, Eutechnyx’s community manager, told Sports Illustrated’s Tom Bowles about the game earlier this month.

“In the past, we've seen a lot of racing games either become too hardcore or too bland and that's not what NASCAR is about,” Baker told Bowles. “When you see a race live or on TV, it is a hugely exciting spectacle. On the surface, the idea of driving around an oval track may seem boring, but once you pick up the controller and run that first lap we think they'll have a new appreciation for it. Just the constant adrenaline rush of racing in a pack of 43 cars ... you're always keenly aware of what's going on around you, and we've made sure the sensation of going 200 mph is in there, along with all the bumping and grinding.”

The biggest complaint I had about EA’s reign of NASCAR games was the poor production of the game. And by that I mean the graphics were pretty good and the paint schemes were nice, but in the end I had to manually change so many rules just to make the racing semi-realistic.

One thing Baker is excited about is the reality of damage on the new game.

“Our game engine allows us to create the most extreme damage of any officially licensed racing game,” he said. “Anything you’ve seen at the track can happen from sheet metal tearing [which will affect car handling but can be turned off in game options] to spin-outs and full-on multicar crashes.”

Hopefully Eutechnyx gets it right. NASCAR could use some young, new fans, but in today’s world of short attention spans and immediate news updates, NASCAR’s three or four hour long races can put off some youngsters.

“One of the things that we've always leaned on gaming for is to give people the experience of driving a race car. Driving in NASCAR. You're not going to get that experience, really, anywhere else,” said Vice President of Licensing and Consumer Products Lake Davidson. “You can always go outside and dribble a basketball, throw a baseball, throw a football, and play those sports but you can't do that in NASCAR.”

Now maybe youngsters will get the feeling of jumping in a racecar and driving around Daytona. They’ll just have to wait an extra month-and-a-half before doing so. It’s a wait this NASCAR and video game fan is willing to endure.

After all I’ve heard about this game, it should be worth the wait.

To check out some pretty cool screenshots of the game, click this link: http://nascarthegame.com/media/screenshots

The main website for NASCAR The Game 2011 is http://nascarthegame.com
The current official release date for the game is March 29th and I believe you can preorder your copy at GameStop, check with your local store though.