EA Sports explains why Kirby Smart, Lane Kiffin, real coaches won't be in College Football 25

On Thursday it was announced that the highly anticipated upcoming EA Sports game College Football 25 will feature all 134 FBS schools and that players will have the ability to opt-in their name, image, and likeness to appear in the video game. With athletes receiving $600 and a copy of the game in exchange.

But ESPN’s Michael Rothstein reported Thursday that college football head coaches will not be featured in College Football 25, as gamers will not see Kirby Smart, Lane Kiffin, and other prominent figures in the college football landscape gracing the sidelines in virtual form this year.

Rothstein spoke with EA Sports’ senior vice president and group general manager of EA Tiburon Daryl Holt about the ins and outs of the new College Football 25 game. Revealing that the focus has been on the players, the schools, and the traditions in the latest version of the game.

EA Sports vice president of business development Sean O’Brien added that EA is considering ways to “offer coaches the opportunity to opt in beyond Year 1.” But in 2024, the emphasis seems to be on gamers immersing themselves in serving as the head coach of a team when they grab the controller.

“Coaches are a really good example as the figureheads of their schools,” O’Brien said. “Because we believe there’s a real impact to gameplay or to product differentiation that you could be a coach, have a different type of schedule, have a different type of recruiting philosophy, have a different type of gameplay and play style.”

“So there’s an interesting way of doing that in a similar way to the athletes. No real way of doing that very easily.”

Coaches may not be featured in College Football 25, but EA is doing its best to resemble their coaching styles through different playbooks. With Holt adding “you almost could say there’s 134 different ways to play.”

The game will strive to build out plays and formations that resemble what programs run in real life on Saturdays to mimic the play styles of today’s teams, with Holt saying the plan is to “show that wide-open aspect of explosive gameplay in college football.”

Head coaches may not be present in College Football 25, but could be in the future. But for now it sounds like gamers will have the ability to embody the play-style of today’s play callers or add their own nuance through head-to-head play and the return of the beloved Dynasty gameplay. As College Football 25 is set to return this summer with a full rollout revealed in May.