For the second consecutive year, Alabama football players will be in an EA Sports College Football video game. For the first time ever, they’ll be joined by some of the Crimson Tide coaching staff.
EA Sports College Football 26 will include head coaches and offensive coordinators, with over 300 coaches appearing in the game. Among them, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer, defensive coordinator Kane Wommack and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb will all be on the virtual sidelines.
Alabama confirmed that the coaches will be included in a Friday social media post. The trailer for the game had shown off the potential for virtual coaches, with a digital version of Ohio State’s Ryan Day appearing.
According to a report from the Athletic, some coaches will not be in the game. Among them, North Carolina’s Bill Belichick, who also did not appear in EA’s Madden series of titles during his time with the NFL’s New England Patriots.
The Athletic also reported that coaches will be available across game modes, and not locked to one school, hypothetically meaning that DeBoer could wind up as offensive coordinator at Delaware if a simulation goes wrong for the Tide.
Alabama will be highly visible in the new edition of the popular game. Crimson Tide sophomore wide receiver Ryan Williams will appear on the cover, alongside Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith, who starred at wideout as a freshman as well last season.
EA Sports will release the game July 10. Pre-orders are currently available, before the game drops for Xbox Series X and S and the Playstation 5.
In addition to coaches, the second version of the CFB franchise, which returned last year after the decade-plus absence of an EA college football game, will feature more tweaks. High school football returns to the popular Road to Glory mode, more stadiums will have their own specific music, formation substitutions are back and the incessant drumline soundtrack to menus has been replaced by marching band covers of popular songs.
CFP 25 was the highest-selling sports video game of all time, in terms of real dollars.
