**Alert- This is a highly nerdy, highly specific article. Those who aren't NCAA Football video game dorks should go about their business. Nothing to see here**

Because on many levels I could be loosely described as a "geek", I've been spending the last couple of weeks searching for the player ratings for the Mountaineers on NCAA Football 2010 by EA Sports.

See, I'm the type of football fan that suffers through the summer as if it was a dark, wet swamp, infested with mosquitos, so hot and humid that your skin feels like it weighs 500 pounds. And the football season on the other side is a tropic breeze as you sit on the beach with a cold beer in one hand and something buxom in the other. (Until you lose to ECU. Then it's back to the swamp.)

So to bide my time until REAL football arrives, I console myself with the knowledge that even if the actual Mountaineers won't be taking the field for another 4 solid months, the virtual Mountaineers can be kicking all kinds of ass at my command in EA Sports NCAA Football until then. (Unfortunately, to date, the virtual Mountaineers always, always, always do better than the real ones.)

As the game is set to release precisely two weeks from today, I was beginning to think that I would have to actually wait to buy the game to find out whether or not EA Sports would represent the Mountaineers as the college football powerhouse that they are (hang on, I can't see the keyboard through these blue-and-gold-colored glasses).

Alas, all my searching had been in vein until today.

I FINALLY FOUND THE DAMN ROSTERS!!!

As far as the ratings are concerned, it appears as if the Mountaineers will have a sufficient rating to compete, but not even a rating as high as many of their Big East counterparts. And because I know that this can stimulate the sort of conversation that amuses me as I wait for the interminably long off-season to wind down, let me give you a few of the ratings I found.



A collection of those interested in the contents of this article


BIG EAST TEAM RATINGS

(Ratings by overall grade, offense, and defense grades.)

USF B+ B+ B+
Rutgers B B B+
Cincinnati B B+ B+
West Virginia B B+ B-
Pitt B B B
Connecticut C C+ C-
Syracuse D+ C- D+
Louisville C+ B- C

So it would appear that by team ratings alone, EA Sports is expecting the Mountaineers to finish tied with Pitt for 4th place in the Big East. Not looking good so far.


Individual WVU Player Ratings

Obviously, NCAA 10 follows the tradition of all college games and provides only player numbers instead of names for the rosters of a given team. (For example, Jarrett Brown is QB #16 and so forth.)

When it comes to the freshmen, I've lined up the provided height/weight figures with what's listed on WVU's roster, which is never perfect, but should line up pretty well.

Take a look at some of the player ratings for the Mountaineers this year, along with the pertinent specific attributes. (I'm going to limit myself to skill position guys and the projected starters for everything else. Additionally, because my browser is somewhat screwed up, I can only see the overall ratings for the defensive players, so that's what I'll post):

QB
Jarrett Brown: 89 overall, 89 throwing power, 85 accuracy, 85 speed



Thought we were through having badass QB's in Morgantown? Come get some, noobs!!


Coley White: 84 overall, 87 throwing power, 82 accuracy, 87 speed

Gino Smith: 81 overall, 85 throwing power, 84 accuracy, 81 speed


RB
Noel Devine: 94 overall, 96 speed, 96 agility, 95 elusiveness (damn!)

Tavon Austin: 82 overall, 92 speed, 92 agility, 82 elusiveness

Mark Rodgers: 85 overall, 90 speed, 90 agility, 85 break tackle


FB/TE
Tyler Urban: 77 overall, 79 speed, 66 catch, 80 pass block, 79 run block


WR
Alric Arnett: 90 overall, 91 speed, 92 acceleration, 88 catch

Jock Sanders: 90 overall, 92 speed, 92 agility, 86 catch



Suspended or not, Jock's in the game. EA got no love for driving under the influence arrests.


Wes Lyons: 87 overall, 88 speed, 86 catch, 90 jumping (up button when you're throwing, boys and girls)

Bradley Starks: 85 overall, 88 speed, 87 catch, 79 throw power, 76 throw accuracy (had to throw that in just in case we've got some cheesers reading this that want to play him at QB)

Logan Heastie: 84 overall, 93 speed, 93 acceleration, 80 catch


O-line
Don Barclay: 89 overall, 88 pass block, 90 run block

Josh Jenkins: 86 overall, 86 pass block, 89 run block

Chad Snodgrass: 87 overall, 88 pass block, 89 run block

Eric Jobe: 86 overall, 86 pass block, 87 run block

Selvish Capers: 93 overall, 89 pass block, 94 run block


D-line
Scooter Berry- 81 ovr

Chris Neild- 80

Thor Merrow- 85 (Still on the game, even if he's not on the team. Strange, strange rating.)

Julian Miller- 77


Linebackers
Reed Williams- 85

Anthony Leonard- 75

JT Thomas- 73

Pat Lazear- 81 (Very strange that they would make Lazear better than either Leonard or JT Thomas)


Cornerbacks
Brandon Hogan- 84 overall, 90 speed

Kent Richardson- 81 overall, 91 speed

Guesley Dervil- 82 overall, 91 speed

Brantwan Bowser- 77 overall, 92 speed (this is my best guess as to who this guy is. I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out who was the #33 sophomore DB until I finally gave up.)


Safeties

Quinton Andrews- 81 overall, 90 speed



That's right. Q's still on the team in virtual NCAAland. He better not be a problem for this coach, though, because I'll not only cut him, I'll delete the mfer.


Robert Sands- 79 overall, 88 speed

Sidney Glover- 80 overall, 89 speed

Nate Sowers- 67 overall, 86 speed, 86 throw power, 84 throw accuracy (surprising that they still give him credit for his QB prowess.)


Kickers
Scott Kozlowski aka puntazgetsl8d: 84 overall



All praise the comedy gods. This is going to be a fun season for me and the Kozman.


Tyler Bitancurt- 81 (even though they got his number and year wrong, this must be him)



Summary

The typical roster problems arrive from NCAA Football games in being unable to identify certain players by number, year status, or otherwise, but overall this seems like a relatively fair rating for most of the players on the Mountaineers. The most glaring flaw is the rating of the defensive linemen, as there wasn't a single person that watched a WVU football game last year that came away honestly believing that Thor Merrow was better than Chris Neild or Scooter Berry.

Additionally, Reed Williams as an 85 rating apparently disregards his pre-injury abilities in favor of a more wait-and-see perspective.

But WVU fans should be pleased that the wide receiver corp is infinitely better on the game this year than in any year I can remember, and the skill positions are as solid as one could possibly expect given the situation WVU is in this year.

So if you happen to be a nerd who happens to like the Mountaineers and also happens to play college football video games, things could be worse...