In a long-awaited release earlier this week, EA finally announced the release date for the much anticipated EA Sports College Football 25 which will drop on Friday, July 19th. With the release right around the corner, many fans are already asking for PTO and making plans that weekend for 72 hours of uninterrupted bliss. However, before the game drops in July lets breakdown the projected top ranked players in this year's version of the game.
The top returning RB in college football, Gordon possesses an elite ability to break tackles and has home run speed capable of taking handoffs to the end zone in the blink of an eye. Whether on a HB dive, toss or screen, Gordon is going to be a fan-favorite for his ability to reel off long runs.
The most famous and versatile player in college football, Hunter and the Buffaloes have taken the football world by storm since the core Jackson St squad moved to the Rocky Mountains. After a prove it season last year in which Hunter did exactly that, he finds himself on a pedestal with high expectations for this year. The early Heisman favorite has elite athletic traits and will quickly become a trendsetter to model after as a two-way player for those of us that love 20-year dynasty campaigns.
Despite Ewers being the projected top-ranked QB in this year’s copy of CF25, I anticipate many fans to tinker with the depth chart on this Texas squad. With the much heralded Archie Manning on the wings, (for some absolutely stupid reason Archie is the most high profile Opt-OUT in this year's game. Don’t worry fans will rectify his brainless decision by utilizing Create-A-Player) I expect many fans to rotate starters. Nevertheless, Ewers was a top recruit like Manning for good reason. Ewers has a rocket arm and has won some impressive games early in his career. Interesting to see how Texas stacks up in their first year in the SEC.
I’m making this projection more out of hype and circumstance than anything else. I could easily see Coach Prime making a call to EA and boosting Sanders/Hunter to the top of all player rankings. Shoot, I could see one of those three tweeting at EA for a ratings change and it happening. Sanders and the Buffaloes offense will be a great video game team to play with as Sanders will undoubtedly have one of the strongest throw power ratings and throwing to a pair of 85+ WR’s won’t hurt either.
A jack of all trades defensive player, Perkins will be a fan favorite for those that love to play defense. Perkins has lined up at middle backer, pass rusher and slot throughout his LSU career so far. For video game Perkins that probably means you can play him at any position other than defensive tackle. Expect a multitude of turnovers from Perkins and make sure you have player lock on while using the LSU defense.
Beck is a QB that I'm extremely high on (future 2025 #1 pick) and will be an anchor for what should be the best all around team in the game. Despite losing Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey, Georgia is chock-full of 5 star recruits that haven’t seen the light of day yet. That'll change this year and with Beck’s elite pocket presence, awareness and anticipation expect for Beck and this retooled Bulldogs team to be one of those “unfair” teams on CF25.
The best freshman in college football last year, the former Alabama defensive back was a protege of Nick Saban’s and was talked about as arguably the best defensive back Saban has coached. Go do a quick google search of former Alabama DB’s and you'll see why this true sophomore finds himself near the top of this list. After transferring to Ohio State this past offseason, Downs will anchor a Buckeyes squad that is loaded with a strong class of talented transfers plus their usual fifteen or so 4 and 5 star freshman. Ohio State vs Michigan in this year’s copy will be a battle of juggernauts.
After the season Bo Nix had last year in Oregon’s high powered offense, Oregon was a prime destination for transfer QB’s and the Ducks landed arguably the best QB in the portal this year. Dillon Gabriel has starred at both UCF and Oklahoma with some games where he looks like the best QB in the country and others where he looks like a middle schooler thrown out against prime Alabama. Good news for Gabriel, this was a similar problem of Nix’s and with Oregon’s simple but effective offensive system I have Gabriel as a sneaky Heisman candidate this year.
Despite not being the choice to represent Michigan on the cover, Johnson is narrowly behind Travis Hunter as the second best CB in college football but as Hunter is a generational player this is something Johnson should be proud of. On last year's national championship winning team, Johnson locked down his half of the field game in and game out with 7 interceptions on the season. Anyone who can hold the likes of Alabama and Washington to 2 catches for 11 yards has a 99 overall ranking in their future.
The next up at WRU, Egbuka has had the opportunity to learn from the likes of NFL stars Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave and Marvin Harrison Jr. in recent years. Now with Ohio St bringing in competition to improve on last year’s QB performance, I’d expect a big year from the Buckeyes star. His calling card is his elite size and speed which will frustrate all opposing secondaries except for Michigan and the aforementioned Will Johnson. A future first round pick, Egbuka will go as his QB goes… whoever that ends up being.
