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College Football 26 Introduces Physics-Based Tackling

College Football 26 Introduces Physics-Based Tackling

The gameplay deep dives from EA keep on giving. Following in the footsteps of the Madden NFL 26 gameplay deep dive a few days ago, EA has now released the College Football 26 gameplay deep dive. The game is due to release on July 14 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. “Finish the Drive” is the mantra behind College Football 26 as every decision, every adjustment and every effort is about closing strong. The big aspect that many will notice about the gameplay for College Football 26 is the amount of customization and adjustable options. Wear & Tear can now be scaled to anyone’s preference and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Key Highlights and a Different Way of Portraying the Details

We were invited to the EA Media Day back in late May to experience College Football 26 first hand. The Campus Huddle, which breaks down every single X and O for the gameplay and the changes can be seen here and is 42 pages. Luckily, there’s a presentation where we took notes, and we’ll present this to you in an organized form where you won’t feel like you’re reading a short novel. There’s quite a bit just on the key highlights. This doesn’t even include the amount of information for the different aspects of the game, but is just the gameplay additions and improvements to College Football 25.

“Finish the Drive” is the mantra behind College Football 26 as every decision, every adjustment and every effort is about closing strong.

The Design Director for the game, Scott O’Gallagher, has taken feedback from across the board to instill what needs to be fixed and what can be added to the game. The gameplay motto for this year is the four-minute offense. The idea behind this was due to the points put on the board last year and the desire to come right back and drive down the field. The dev team are sitting on no laurels for College Football 26 and simply aren’t sitting on the series’ successful return.

Ryan Day

Wear and Tear Improvements and Adjustments

  • Customize the experience with sliders.

    • Change damage from hit sticks, sacks, catch tackles, block impacts.
    • Adjust recovery between plays, halftime recovery, in-game healing reserve pool.
  • New physics-based damage mechanic.
  • Weather, tackles, blocking all affect.
  • If player’s health dips below 60% in a game, you will see it pre-play. The reaction changes to where the injuries build up.
  • Toughness rating will now affect recovery on top of how much damage a player takes.
  • New indicators to show most impacted body parts and instantly access player’s ratings degradation.
  • New dynamic subs for manual substitution during gameplay. Simply hit a button pre-play and swap out players for the next play. Can be out of position.
  • Fully customizable Auto-Sub settings for keeping fresh, grinding out or default.
  • Tailored filters to streamline substitutions.

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Every Team is Someone’s Favorite Team

College Football 26 will be the biggest playbook expansion in EA history, including 2,800 new plays and 45 new formations. There will be 300 real head coaches, so a true evolution was required for a true impact. Most offenses will feature 25+ formations and 400+ plays as 136 teams will take the field this year.

College Football 26 will be the biggest playbook expansion in EA history.

This means 136 playbooks have been handcrafted to reflect real-life playcalling from real-life coaches on both sides of the ball. New motion types, double motion plays, expanded QB Run and RPO Variety will provide players an almost endless sum of different playbooks to try out. Hundreds of hours have gone into playbook individuality and crafting for College Football 26.

Aspects Introduced From and Shared with Madden

  • Physics-Based Tackling
  • Wear and Tear
  • Dynamic Substitutions
  • Custom Zone Stems
  • Field Vision
  • Block Steering
  • Stunts and Twists on Defensive Line
  • Un-Target Defenders
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Defensive Gameplay Changes

Visceral Impact was needing improvement over the first game back in the series. The team looked at the potential and success that Madden NFL 25 accomplished with its Physics-Based Tackling. It then went out and improved it with different tackle types. In our time with the game at the media event, the tackling felt much more satisfying and didn’t create a feeling of forced results. The variety on defense helped the gameplay. You will now see wrap catch tackles for defensive back’s who aren’t heavy hitters, in-range lunge tackles and unprepped hit sticks. The latter can actually change the momentum of a game and significantly influence Wear and Tear.

Stunts and Twists will be a game changer for those who play the defensive line. This, plus the ability to push lineman in a direction with block steering, will shake up the play on defense. Players can also expect new nine box tendencies for authenticity. The devs brought in a former Denver Broncos DB coach to help instill this into the game. This backend intelligence system tracks your pass attack. The Defensive AI will now know where you’re throwing and what you’re throwing. Defensive backs will now need to have their head completely turned before making a play. The Awareness rating will play a more pivotal role. The dev team has also toned down interceptions in the game.

You will now see wrap catch tackles for defensive back’s who aren’t heavy hitters, in-range lunge tackles and unprepped hit sticks.

Block Steering will be determined on leverage. Much like Madden NFL 26, strength, weight, ratings and momentum can swing the tides in the trenches. AI lineman will maintain their assigned gaps on play call and alignment. Blocking logic has been reengineered from the ground up for both run and pass protection on the offensive side of the ball. Much improved blocking schemes will include:

  • Power
  • Counter
  • Trap
  • Wham
  • Duo
  • All Veer variants
  • Midline concepts
Reach

Route Committing in the Secondary

So, we know interceptions are toned down and that anyone in coverage has to be looking for the ball to make a play on it. One of the biggest new additions is the ability to Route Commit on defense. This means that either one player or the entire defensive can aggressively jump routes based on the read of the offense. Much like the run commit in the pre-play menu, now you can have your defense aggressively break towards one side of the field.

Defenders will react slower and take false steps if this is guessed wrong, though. This also means that man coverage needed to be tighter. Elite corners will mirror receivers more closely and will break much quicker if rated higher. One thing in the gameplay that really sticks out is the amount of battling between wide receivers and corners. This can be felt and the animations seem much more exaggerated. Positioning will feel more powerful and the sense of reward for pre-snap reads will greatly improve.

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If real players weren’t enough, then real coaches should be.

Other Notable Small Additions

  • Switch Stick visual change
  • The pre play movement from Madden 25 comes to college football along with new enhancements.
  • Pursuit has been tuned. You will still see players with low pursuit ratings unable to properly judge speed and take
  • CPU QB’s getting out of fake earlier in Play Action
  • In the passing game, we have extended our bullseye accuracy system from last year. In CFB26, you will see a much wider range of slightly inaccurate and inaccurate passes.
  • Expect to see a lot more bat-down attempts from pass rushers. Linemen who gain leverage but can’t reach the quarterback will actively try to knock the ball down, enhancing realism and defensive gameplay.
  • Double Move Improvements – Just as savvy offenses use double moves to exploit aggressive, all-out blitz schemes in critical game moments, College Football 26 now enables quarterbacks to execute these routes more effectively. This improvement mirrors real-world scenarios where offensive coordinators strategically capitalize on overly aggressive or inexperienced defenders.
Signing Day

Pulse Meter Remains, Homefield Gets Cranked

There are times when playing Madden that there was a desire to have the Stadium Pulse. This year, nighttime and rivalry modifiers will add an extra edge to schools that have the official seal of approval of toughest places to play. Away QBs will struggle with clock management, kicking becoming more difficul, and more false starts and broken comms will appear across the board. Hot route disruptions will now scale on how far the receiver is from the QB.

Away teams now have the chance to silence the crowd. If you pull off a gain of 20+ yards, you’ll temporarily put the stadium back in their seats and pause the effects. Kickers will get transparent accuracy meters, the ball will fade out as your kicker lines up and the power meter will fill white. All of this to truly change the way a game is played in the most hostile of environments and situations.

The Heisman Tier and New Archetypes

The team has rebalanced existing abilities and introduced new ones. The “Out of Body” experience when an elite player takes over a game will be represented in College Football 26. When the chef starts to cook, the physical abilities receive giant boosts. Platinum-tier abilities will automatically upgrade to the new Heisman tier. This allows for enhanced effects and powerful new functionality. A green flash around the player’s icon signals a tier-up. Players can also tier down and this will be indicated by a red downward arrow.

Ten new Archetypes will be coming to the game that will reflect unique and electrifying skill sets. No two will share the same ability loadouts. Two new abilities to expect in the game is Battering Ram on the offense and Hammer on the defense. Battering ram is exclusive to the Contract-Seeking archetype as players can increase Wear and Tear on defenders the more they tier up. Hammer directly ties into the Physics-Based Tackling that can increase the chance of forcing fumbles once the Heisman tier is reached.

Everything is shaping up to make for a thrilling experience when EA Sports College Football 26 is released on July 10.

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