On July 19, 2024, EA Sports will finally release College Football 25, the long-awaited college football video game. While it’s not surprising that USC’s high-powered offense secured a spot in the top 25 rankings, its placement at No. 25 raises some eyebrows.
EA SPORTS explained its metrics.
“The development team meticulously examined hundreds of thousands of data points to arrive at our team’s power rankings. With the help of our friends at Pro Football Focus (PFF), the team analyzed all 134 rosters, thousands of players, years of game film and mountains of statistics, ultimately arriving at our Team Power Rankings.”
Lincoln Riley never had an offense ranked lower than third in total offense while at USC and averaged 41 points in both seasons. That pattern has continued since his head coaching days at Oklahoma, where his teams averaged 43.29 points per game. In nine years as head coach, Riley’s teams have never finished worse than eighth in total offense and have only scored fewer than 40 points once (2021 – 39 points per game).
USC loses its Heisman-winning quarterback, Caleb Williams, who was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. However, Miller Moss is coming off his Holiday Bowl debut, which showed his ability to run Riley’s highly successful offense. Moss threw for 372 yards and six touchdowns in the 42-28 victory. Part of Moss’ success was throwing to an elite freshman class of blue-chip receivers: Zachariah Branch, Jacobi Lane, Duce Robinson and Makai Lemon, who will light up the Big Ten in the fall.
This is also the third year of an offensive line overhaul that could produce the most talented and cohesive unit yet at USC under Riley, anchored by Elijah Page and Jonah Monheim. Behind that line will be Woody Marks, the all-time leader in receptions at Mississippi State and fifth all-time in the SEC. Marks will compete with a young group of top-notch Texas running backs that includes Quinten Joyner, A’Marion Peterson and Bryan Jackson.
The teams ahead of the Trojans are also replacing quarterbacks; more than a few of them are replacing offensive coordinators. Unless there is a major break from Lincoln Riley’s crushing attack trend, the EA Sports team really missed the mark with this powerful ranking.
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