College Football 26 releases on Thursday and I’m in the process of writing the review for SB Nation (spoiler: It’s amazing). When it came time to check out the new features the first thing I had to see was what EA Sports would do with Bill Belichick this time.
For the uninitiated: Belichick has never allowed himself to be in a video game. During the Patriots’ dynasty he was always replaced with a poor fill in, as Belichick wasn’t a member of the NFL Coaches Association (NFLCA), and refused to sign an independent licensing agreement. Now he’s the coach at North Carolina I had to see what he’d look like this year and … he’s actually Steve Harvey.
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In game he’s given the name “Hector Luna,” and I’m absolutely dying to know how they settled on that name. Perhaps someone was just a really big fan of the former MLB journeyman? Not only is Belichick represented by someone who obviously looks nothing like him, but he’s a TERRIBLE coach in CFB 26.
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Obviously Belichick is untested in college football, so it’s not like he should be the best in the game — but he’s a B+ coach who starts at only level 30. For comparison the top coaches in the game like Ryan Day and Dabo Swinney range between level 70 and level 95. “Hector Luna” is so mediocre that he drags the whole program down, which, honestly … might not be far off.
Still, if you told me that Bill Belichick would be on the same level as Miami (OH) coach Chuck Martin I would have laughed about all this … but here we are.
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Granted Martin is a B- coach, so it’s harder to recruit with him — but he and Belichick functionally have the same stats.
Don’t let Jordan Hudson hear about this or she’s going to write a strongly-worded email to EA Sports.