It is that time of year again when EA Sports releases the one and only game I annually purchase. EA has their Teambuilder feature which A, gives you access to the Gopher roster and the individual player rankings. And B, it allows you to manipulate the rosters with actual names as well as altering uniforms and allows you to individualize everything. A year ago I created a Gopher roster that included the TDG logo on the feild and on the helmets, which was kind of cool. This year I entered what I believe EA was trying to get at with the Gopher roster. There are a few anomalies on both sides of the ball but below is what I believe your Gopher roster will be for EA's NCAA 13.
(PS - you can download this roster to your game when you buy it)
| OFFENSE | DEFENSE | |||||||
| Pos | # | Name | Rating | Pos | # | Name | Rating | |
| QB | 3 | Dexter Foreman | 65 | LE | 49 | Matt Garin | 67 | |
| QB | 9 | Phillip Nelson | 54 | LE | 93 | Ben Perry | 74 | |
| QB | 5 | MarQueis Gray | 82 | LE | 55 | Thieren Cockran | 54 | |
| QB | 11 | Max Shortell | 72 | DT | 92 | Youshoub Timms | 63 | |
| RB | 21 | James Gillum | 76 | DT | 46 | Cameron Botticelli | 75 | |
| RB | 25 | Devon Wright | 63 | DT | 99 | Ra'Shede Hageman | 78 | |
| RB | 27 | David Cobb | 67 | DT | 90 | Austin Hahn | 69 | |
| RB | 20 | Donnell Kirkwood | 74 | DT | 89 | Curran Delaney | 72 | |
| RB | 22 | Rodrick Williams Jr | 53 | RE | 98 | Michael Amaefula | 66 | |
| FB | 30 | Mike Henry | 62 | RE | 95 | D.L. Wilhite | 74 | |
| FB | 87 | Sahr Ngekia | 59 | RE | 47 | Duke Anyanwu | 63 | |
| TE | 83 | Drew Goodger | 67 | LOLB | 8 | Spencer Reeves | 73 | |
| TE | 81 | John Rabe | 75 | LOLB | 26 | Mike Rallis | 83 | |
| TE | 91 | Kendall Gregory-McGhee | 63 | LOLB | 34 | Jephte Matilus | 58 | |
| WR | 23 | KJ Maye | 61 | MLB | 48 | Brendan Beal | 62 | |
| WR | 19 | Matt Kloss | 65 | MLB | 43 | Ryan Grant | 76 | |
| WR | 1 | Brandon Green | 72 | MLB | 59 | Joey Balthazore | 66 | |
| WR | 15 | Marcus Jones | 71 | ROLB | 57 | Aaron Hill | 74 | |
| WR | 86 | Malcolm Moulton | 75 | ROLB | 4 | Keanon Cooper | 83 | |
| WR | 85 | Jamel Harbison | 74 | CB | 40 | Nathan Tow-Arnett | 71 | |
| WR | 80 | Devin Crawford-Tufts | 68 | CB | 13 | Derrick Wells | 75 | |
| WR | 82 | Andre McDonald | 73 | CB | 6 | Michael Carter | 63 | |
| LT | 72 | Jonah Pirsig | 67 | CB | 23 | Grayson Levine | 51 | |
| LT | 58 | Ed Olson | 79 | CB | 21 | Brock Vereen | 77 | |
| LT | 74 | Marek Lenkiewicz | 70 | CB | 3 | Martez Shabazz | 58 | |
| LG | 53 | Tommy Olson | 78 | FS | 24 | James Manuel | 71 | |
| LG | 61 | Isaac Hayes | 69 | FS | 11 | Troy Stoudermire | 67 | |
| LG | 66 | Luke McAvoy | 66 | FS | 16 | Steven Montgomery | 52 | |
| C | 62 | Zach Mottla | 79 | SS | 27 | Cedric Thompson | 70 | |
| C | 64 | Caleb Bak | 68 | SS | 28 | Kenny Watkins | 59 | |
| RG | 71 | Kyle McAvoy | 67 | |||||
| RG | 65 | Josh Campion | 57 | K | 7 | Chris Hawthorne | 78 | |
| RG | 52 | Zac Epping | 76 | P | 41 | Dan Orseske | 75 | |
| RT | 70 | Sean Ferguson | 73 | |||||
| RT | 77 | Foster Bush | 64 | |||||
| RT | 73 | Joe Bjorklund | 67 | |||||
ROSTER NOTES:
Overall this is not a very encouraging roster. Gray is the highest ranked offensive player (by far) and our two best defensive players are linebackers Mike Rallis and Keanon Cooper.
OFFENSIVE NOTES:
- Who the F is Matt Kloss? It can't be a transfer from Northern who didn't see any action last year as a JR can it? But there is nobody with the #19 on the roster who is a 6' 200lb senior? On my roster I changed him to Isaac Fruechte.
- I'm a bit disappointed that Malcolm Moulton is the highest rated receiver, ahead of DCT and Brandon Green. Moulton had several opportunities to make some big plays last year that were dropped.
- No Jimmy Gjere on the roster is odd. He very well may be our starting RT and he began the 2012 season as starting RT yet there is nobody on the EA roster who fits his description. On my roster I put Gjere in at RT.
DEFENSIVE NOTES:
- Mike Rallis at OLB isn't correct, but considering he was on the outside last year it is hard to fault EA on this one and not recognizing he has been moved to MLB.
- Troy Stoudermire at FS is weird.
- None of the young linebackers are on this roster. LaMonte Edwards, Quinn Bauducco and Peter Westerhaus are all missing. I added both of Edwards and Westerhaus on my roster.
- James Manuel has been moved to OLB but again, hard to fault EA for not knowing that.
- I'm pretty sure Martez Shabazz is on the roster but none of the other JUCO transfers are. I added Jeremy Baltazar on my roster (as well as Fruechte as mentioned above). Roland Johnson is nowhere to be found at DT and I added him to my roster as well.