What Would Kentucky Football Legends be Rated in an NCAA Football Video Game?

Just hours before Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game between Michigan and Washington, rumors began to swirl on X/Twitter about a potential trailer for EA Sports’ first College Football video game in 11 years premiering during the big game.

Me waiting on the NCAA football trailer to drop

pic.twitter.com/eOglTB5fUo

— Overtime (@overtime) January 9, 2024

A trailer however was not released, leaving many College Football fans extremely upset.

EA Sports released 17 titles under the NCAA Football banner, beginning with NCAA Football 98 and finishing up with NCAA Football 14 before it was announced in July 2013 that the NCAA would not be renewing its licensing contract with EA Sports, thus ending the franchise.

The NCAA Football video games have gone down in history among some of the most beloved video games of all time, with fans desperately clamoring for a return. It was announced in February 2021 that the title would be making a comeback, but not until Summer 2024.

With hype around the returning franchise at an all-time high, let’s take a look at what some Kentucky Football legends’ ratings would have been if they were in an NCAA Football video game (filler players were used on rosters as a player likeness’ was not lent to the games).

Criteria:

Players will be rated based on what game they would have been in, compared to the best players in the country from that season.

Installments of the NCAA Football games were released in mid-July, featuring rosters from the season prior.

Ratings:

RB Benny Snell Jr. (NCAA Football 19): 94 OVR

In the 2018 season, Snell Jr. was the sixth leading rusher in all of College Football surrounded by elite college running backs such as Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor and Clemson’s Travis Etienne. Snell’s most valued ratings would be his strength and carrying. He would have been a bowling ball to play with, stiff-arming multiple defenders en route to a score. Running backs were usually generously rated (along with quarterbacks) in the games, so Snell Jr. would be right up there among the highest rated at his position.

QB Jared Lorenzen (NCAA Football 04): 88 OVR

Jared Lorenzen would be the ultimate video game character. Who else at his size would move the way he did? You’d think it was a created character.

“The Hefty Lefty” would have non-Kentucky fans clamoring to play with the Wildcats, as trucking defenders with a left-handed quarterback sounds like an insane amount of fun. The quarterback crop from Lorenzen’s final college season was strong, but he’d still find himself somewhere in the top 25 quarterbacks.

QB Tim Couch (NCAA Football 99): 98 OVR

Quarterbacks were the highest-rated players in the NCAA Football video games, so Couch would have been one of the top five players in the entire game.

Couch’s throw power and accuracy (72.3 PCT% in 1998) would make him one of the deadliest QBs in the game’s history. Imagine how much fun it would have been recreating Couch-to-Yeast in video game form. That was the beauty of these games.

WR Randall Cobb (NCAA Football 11): 90 OVR

Mr. Do It All Cobb would have been one of the most electric players in the entire game.

Put him at quarterback or wide receiver and Cobb would get the job done. We all know that scrambling with quarterbacks is among one of the most fun activities in these games. Scrambling with Cobb or putting him out wide to catch passes would have been an absolute cheat code.

He was 30th in receiving yards in 2010, but his all-around abilities would definitely place him in the top 20 at the receiver position, which would have included other big names such as Julio Jones and A.J. Green.

LB Josh Allen (NCAA Football 19): 94 OVR

Man, that NCAA Football 19 Kentucky squad would have been LOADED.

Allen, who was drafted with the 7th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, would have been one of the top defensive players in the entire game, among the likes of Ohio State’s Nick Bosa, Alabama’s Quinnen Williams, and LSU’s Devin White.

Allen’s high acceleration and awareness ratings would have been nightmares for opposing CPU quarterbacks. The LB is currently rated as a 91 OVR in the current Madden installment and was even better than that in college. 94 seems about right for the Nagurski and Bednarik Award Winner.

RB Moe Williams (NCAA Football 96): 95 OVR

Williams, who was eighth in rushing yards and fifth in rushing touchdowns in 1995, would have been one of the best running backs in the entire game, just behind Heisman winner Eddie George.

Williams’ 1600 rush yards in a season still remains the record at Kentucky, along with his single-game rushing record (299). If there was an All-Kentucky Legends team in an NCAA Football video game, Williams would have a great argument for being the starting running back.

DL Oliver Barnett (NCAA Football 90): 92 OVR

Barnett, who had made a name for himself as one of the best defensive linemen in all of college football across his four seasons at UK, would definitely be one of the most fearsome defensive players in the entire game.

Prior to Josh Allen breaking the record in 2018, Barnett previously held the school record for sacks (26) and currently holds records with 43 TFL and 12 forced fumbles. Barnett and Allen lining up on the same defensive line would be a dream for Kentucky fans that could only be replicated in a video game.

K Austin Macginnis (NCAA Football 18): 86 OVR

Not only was he one of the greatest Kentucky kickers of all time, Macginnis would have been one of the highest-rated kickers in the video game. If anything, you know he’d have high ratings in the clutch category and the kick power category.

“Money Mac” was consistently among one of the leading field-goal converters in the country, giving him a for sure top-10 rating among his position.

P Max Duffy (NCAA Football 19): 97 OVR

The Ray Guy Award Winner, signifying the greatest player at his position.

Nobody is greater than the Aussie. Just look at the elusiveness!

QB Freddie Maggard (NCAA Football 92): 99 OVR

‘Nuff said.