Alright, so College Football 25 finally dropped, and like probably everyone else, the first thing I dove into was figuring out the offense. You gotta score points, right? So my mission began: find the best offensive playbook in this thing.
First off, I just jumped straight into practice mode. Didn’t even bother with a game yet. I needed to see the plays, feel the controls with different concepts. I started scrolling through the team playbooks. Man, there are a ton. You got your classics, your flashy spread stuff, everything.
I figured I’d try some of the teams known for offense in real life. You know the ones. Loaded up a few of those playbooks.
- Tried one of those fast-paced, spread-option books first. It was fun, lots of motion, RPOs felt pretty good. But, man, sometimes the offensive line felt like Swiss cheese against a decent pass rush. Hard to get comfortable in the pocket.
- Then I switched to a more traditional, pro-style playbook. Power running felt solid, play-action was decent. But it felt… slow sometimes? Like I couldn’t really break big plays unless the defense just completely messed up.
- Messed around with an Air Raid style book too. Lots of passing concepts, obviously. Some cool route combinations. But running the ball felt like pulling teeth. If the pass wasn’t working, the drives stalled hard.
Digging Deeper
After trying the obvious ones, I realized just picking a team’s playbook wasn’t enough. I started digging into the formations within each playbook. Some books might have like, 80% stuff I don’t care for, but 20% that’s pure gold.
So, the process changed. I started picking playbooks and really spending time in just a few formations:
- Found a playbook with a killer Pistol formation set. Good mix of runs, options, and quick passes. Felt balanced.
- Another one had some really nice Shotgun formations – Trips, Quads, Empty. Good for spreading the field if you got the QB and receivers.
- Even found some decent stuff under center in a playbook I initially dismissed. Some heavy sets for short yardage that actually worked.
I spent hours just running the same few plays against different defensive looks in practice mode. Trying to see what routes beat man coverage, what runs worked against different fronts, how the RPOs reacted. It’s tedious, yeah, but it’s the only way to really learn what works for you.
What I’m Running With Now
So, what’s the “best”? Honestly, I don’t think there’s just one. It really depends on your players and how you like to play. If you got a scrambling QB, you’ll want different stuff than if you have a pocket passer.
Right now, I’ve kinda settled on a custom playbook, mostly built around a specific team’s base but with heavy modifications. I pulled in formations I liked from other books.
My focus has been:
- Versatile Shotgun sets: Need options to run or pass effectively from the gun.
- Effective RPOs: These are still super strong if you make the right reads.
- A solid inside run game: Can’t just rely on outside stuff, gotta be able to punch it in.
- A few reliable pass concepts: Stuff I know I can go to on 3rd down.
It’s not perfect, and I’m still tweaking it after every game online. Got absolutely shut down by some dude running a crazy 3-3-5 defense last night, so I went back to the lab to figure out some answers. That’s the fun part though, right? Constantly learning and adapting. There’s no magic playbook, you just gotta put the time in and find what clicks for you and your team.
