When he wasn’t on the football field as a child, Reese Poffenbarger would spend hours on the virtual gridiron.
The former Middletown High star would try to lead teams to Super Bowls in the Madden NFL series, but Poffenbarger inevitably found comfort in the NCAA Football series and its Road to Glory mode.
There, he could create the character he aspired to be: a championship-winning quarterback at the University of Oklahoma, his father’s alma mater. Poffenbarger would model his avatar after himself, going from small-town high school hero to a gunslinging Heisman winner on the national stage.
That was more than a decade ago. Now, Poffenbarger and others who pick up the latest edition, EA Sports College Football 25, can play with his character by default.
He’s one of more than 11,000 players in the new game, which released July 19 and is the first to feature real-world players.
“I would think about actually being able to play with myself in the game,” Poffenbarger said. “Now, it’s real. It’s pretty cool.”
It’s the first release in the popular video game series since NCAA Football 14 in July 2013. Development had been on hold due to litigation involving a lack of compensation for using player likenesses.
But since the NCAA allowed players to profit off their name, image and likeness starting in 2021, there had been a push to bring the series back. And when EA Sports announced last year that the game would return with official player likenesses, almost every college football player was on board.
“It was just a definite yes,” former Oakdale High player Evan Austin said.
Austin and Poffenbarger are two of six former Frederick County football stars in the new game. The others are former Oakdale players Dominic Nichols and Collin Schlee, former Walkersville tight end Jeremiah Franklin and former Middletown cornerback Jalen Huskey.
All of them received a $600 compensation from EA Sports and a free copy of the game, which The Athletic reported became the largest NIL deal of its kind.
Yet not every player who opted into the game was assured a spot, as rosters were limited to 85 players per team. That meant those like Austin were initially concerned they wouldn’t make it, as freshmen are lower-rated and more likely to be dropped.
But just a few weeks after he opted in back in February, Austin received confirmation that he was in the game. And when he got access in mid-July, he quickly fired up his first-ever NCAA Football game.
Austin quickly moved himself to the top of the Charlotte 49ers’ receiver depth chart and found his 90-rated speed — among the highest on the team — to be lethal in blowing past opposing cornerbacks.
“Evan is the only person I’m throwing to,” Austin said.
Though only listed at 64 overall, he hopes that number will soon skyrocket.
Or, at the very least, the 6-foot-1, 170-pound Austin wants his 33-rated trucking ability to get a boost.
“That’s insane. I have no strength at all. I guess I gotta start hitting people,” he said.
Other local players had similarly minor quibbles with their ratings, though each stressed it didn’t dampen their experience with the game.
“It’s hard to put all these people in and get their exact builds right,” Schlee said. “Some people might have been a little lower than they may have expected, but it’s a video game. It’s not going to be the best video game ever, but it definitely is an unreal opportunity to be a part of something [this cool].”
For his sake, Schlee said he felt he should have been rated higher than a 78 overall as he enters his sixth college season and first at Virginia Tech.
But the quarterback was pleasantly surprised that he was given two special physical abilities that boost some of his attributes. Those are Option King — which enhances his efficiency on option plays — and Off Platform, which enables him to throw more accurately off-balance.
The former has been particularly game-breaking the more he’s played.
“It’s fun to see the different things they put in for you,” Schlee said. “I might keep it every time, maybe too many times.”
Huskey, who finished his high school career at Quince Orchard in Montgomery County, also has special physical abilities and, at 84 overall, is the area’s highest-rated player as he enters his first season at Maryland.
Franklin, meanwhile, is rated 78 overall as he enters his junior season at Boston College, and Nichols is rated 69 overall as he is set to begin his freshman campaign at Michigan. Neither could be reached for comment after repeated attempts.
Poffenbarger is a 74 overall and is set to be the backup quarterback at Miami (Florida) this season. While it’s not Oklahoma, the Hurricanes are a similarly high-profile program, the type where he can leave his legacy like he did on his console more than a decade ago.
At the very least, he can leave his mark on the virtual gridiron once more.
“It’s more just a cool thing to be able to bring that out one day, 10 years down the line, and play it with your buddies, your friends, your kids,” Poffenbarger said.
The Frederick News-Post, Md.
