The Sports Decathlon

I just wanted to post a real quick status update on my current world o' gaming.

I have gone on an absolute sports craze! I am weird like that...one month it's RPGs, the next Strategy games, then Sports games. Whatever, it's just how I am- deal with it...please? =-)

I've recently bought/received (for my birthday) the following titles:

College Hoops 2K9 (Xbox 360)- this is in transit from eBay
FIFA Soccer 09 (PS3)
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee (PSP)
NBA 2K9 (Xbox 360)
NCAA Football 10 (Xbox 360)
NHL 06 (PS2)
NHL 2002 (GBA)
NHL 2K9 (PS3)
NHL Hitz Pro (PS2)
Tecmo Bowl (Game Boy)

Aside from these, I have started playing some other sports titles again recently:

NHL 07 (PSP)

MLB 08: The Show (PS3)

Punch-Out!! (Wii)- borrowed this game, almost beat it

So, as you can see, I have been going absolutely sports crazy. But, this is my favorite genre, so I am quite pleased with it all!

The real reason for this post is to talk about what is coming up for BJaMs World. I have started my second season of Road to Glory in NCAA Football 10, so I will post some info from that soon. I have also started up (thanks to the roster update) my Michigan Wolverines dynasty! This is going great so far, and it has been a ton of fun to play through with very close games. I will post (detailed) information on that in the coming days.

Also, I have almost 100,000 Nintendo Points (NOT a typo) stored on my Wii at this very moment thanks to the Pepsi Rock Band promotion (ask me for details), so I will be going Virtual Console and WiiWare crazy in the next few weeks.

If I start getting delayed in posting new things, please be patient- I am making a very big move in a couple weeks, and things are starting to get crazy. Just know that I will be posting whenever I get a chance.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, well-wishes, whatever- email me at bjamsworld@gmail.com or reply to this post!

Thanks for reading.

Progress Report #4- The Road to Glory- NCAA Football 10

| 2009 Season Final Stats (Freshman Year) |

#19 West Virginia University (10-3, 4-3)

• Finished 3rd in Big East (was #2 in NCAA for 2 weeks) (6-1 at home vs. 3-2 on road)
• Beat Toledo (10-4) in Motor City Bowl 24-16
• Big East Champions| #22 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (10-3, 6-1)
• BCS National Champions| #1 LSU Tigers (13-1, 8-1)
• Dud of the Year| Utah State Aggies (0-12, 0-8)

Passing Stats|
QB Rating – 161.4
Completions – 190
Attempts – 286
Total Passing Yards – 2946
Passing TDs – 17
Interceptions – 16
Average Yards Per Game – 245.5
Completion Percentage – 66.4%
Average Attempts – 23.8
Longest Pass – 76 Yards
QB Sacks – 21

Rushing Stats|
Rushing Attempts – 204
Total Rushing Yards – 1224
Average Yards Per Rush – 6.0
Average Yards Per Game – 102.0
Rushing TDs – 25
Longest Run – 79 Yards
Yards After First Hit – 201
Rushed of More Than 20 Yards – 16
Broken Tackles – 15
Rushing Fumbles – 6

Awards & Accolades|

• 2009 Maxwell Award Winner
• 2009 O’Brien Award Winner
• Finished 4th in Heisman Votes (only Freshman)
• Named 1st Team All-American (also Freshman All-American)

Attributes:
Overall – 94
Speed – 89
Awareness – 66
Throw Power – 91
Throw Accuracy – 88
Agility – 86
Break Tackle – 76
Elusiveness – 84
Trucking – 56
Carrying – 84
Stamina – 99
Injury – 91

Grade Point Average – 3.7

----------------------------------------------------------

Well, as you can see I was able to hold on and win the Motor City Bowl against Toledo. Unfortunately, I didn't blow them out like I was hoping. But that was mainly because I decided it would be a good idea to throw a ridiculous four interceptions in one bowl game. However, I still won PotG, and Big East PotW, so all's well that ends well, I guess. We somehow climbed back in to the Top 25 for the final season polls. We are listed as #20 in the Media Poll, and #19 in the Coaches' Poll, so I decided to just list the higher number. Overall, a disappointing season, but I am certain that next year will be better.

I will not post another update until tomorrow, so as not to clutter things up.

Again, if there is any specific thing you want to know about my Road to Glory progress, just let me know. I will be happy to disclose any info I can find!

Thanks for reading.

Progress Report #3- The Road to Glory- NCAA Football 10

| The Absolute Fall From Grace |

Well, what a roller coaster season this has been. Actually, more a slide than a roller coaster I guess. After starting the morning yesterday with three wins, ending up at #2 in the BCS, Media, and Coaches' Polls with 43 1st place votes between the Polls, I decided to play again after dinner. What a mistake! I made it up to 2nd on the list for Heisman Trophy Candidates, and also the Maxwell and O'Brien Trophies (I was on the top of those lists), but I proved human, as well as the WVU defense.

The last three games of the season were conference match-ups against (currently) 10-2 Cincinnati, (currently) 7-5 Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl, and (currently) 10-2 Rutgers. First up was Cinci, who I probably overlooked even with their very good record coming in (I was worried about playing Big East leader [at the time] Rutgers in my final game of the season). And the defense shut down, allowing 33 points, including the game clinching final TD drive by the Bearcats to take the 3 point lead with only 9 seconds left in the game. It's important to note that my receiver dropped the sure-to-be game winning TD grab wide open in the end zone, as it slipped from his hands. Final score was 33-36.

But, I thought to myself, as we were sitting at a very reasonable #9 with only 1 loss, no big deal- it was on the road, and it was probably a fluke. We play Pitt next at home, and there is no way we could lose to them...right? Wrong. The defense shut down again in this game, letting up a very late TD drive, giving me the ball with less than 3 minutes left to play. I was driving down the field, and made it into the red zone, but I decided to run an option play. This turned out to be a costly mistake, and probably the difference between BCS and where we are playing now- I got hit. I got hit hard. And I got injured for the rest of the game. The back-up QB then proceeded to throw an interception, when we should have just been running the ball to take the easy tie and hope I got better to play in OT. Alas, we lost 21-24 (but I unlocked the Instant Classic achievement).

It was then time to panic- we lost at home? How could we beat Rutgers on the road?! Would I even be able to play, let alone start? BUT, we only lost both games by a total of 6 combined points, so that isn't terrible, right? And #16 is an improvement from where we began the season. Still, all these questions were running through my head, and I decided that I should leave the game till this morning to play, thinking a fresh mind would be the key to victory. Wrong again. Rutgers scored first, and the defense just checked out again, allowing them to unleash the points in the second half. I can't blame them for everything though, because I threw 3 interceptions and one was ran back by a linemen for a quick 6. We got steamrolled 21-49.

Then we got steamrolled right out of the Top 25 in all 3 polls. Then I dropped down to 4th among Heisman Voters, where I finished. Then we got placed in the Motor City Bowl against...the MAC Conference Champion Toledo Rockets...yeah. Not a good day.

On the other hand, I finished Player of the Game every single week I played, and won Conferene POTW 5 times, including in our loss to Pittsburgh in Week 13. I ended up winning the O'Brian Trophy, and the Maxwell Trophy. And, I made 1st Team All-American (as well as Freshman All-American).

So, we definitely slid off the map with the last three games, but we still finish the regular season with a 9-3 record, and are on our way to a Bowl game. We finished 3rd in the Big East with a 4-3 record. The whole season isn't a complete wash, I guess. I will post my final season stats after I play the bowl game later tonight.

| NCAA Notes of Interest |

• Though it may sound like a National Title game, Florida is playing Ohio State in the...Capital One Bowl? That's right, after disappointing season for these schools, #10 Florida is playing #12 Ohio State in the Capital One Bowl.
• USC is ranked #2 in the country, however, they will not get a chance to play in the National Title game. Instead, they play Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, and #3 LSU (also 12-1 like USC) plays #1 Oklahoma (13-0) in the National Championship game.

If you have anything else you want to know specifically about my Road to Glory progress, please leave a comment below!

Thanks for reading.

Progress Report #2- The Road to Glory- NCAA Football 10

First things first, I want to say thank you to Froguinx from The Gamebag who has helped me set up Twitter Feed to auto update Twitter with my new blog posts. So, thanks again, Frog!

I was able to play some more NCAA Football 10 today, and it proved to be a very good day for the Mountaineers! We beat two rival schools in back-to-back big games. The first game was for the "Some-Guy-Whose-Name-I-Can't-Remember" Trophy against the Syracuse Orangmen which we won 27-9 in New York. Then, we were able to hand Marshall their first conference loss in the Friends of Coal Bowl by a score of 42-10 at home.

But, there is bigger news afoot! With these two victories West Virginia University is now ranked #3 in the NCAA in both Coaches and Media Polls, and I received my first NCAA Player of the Week honors for Week 7, where I accounted for 6 total touchdowns, 195 rushing yards, and 236 passing yards! And with NCAA POTW honors comes my first time on the list for Heisman Trophy Candidates. I am on the list right now at number 4, alongside 3 other QBs, and a WR (but somehow, one of the QBs is not Tim Tebow of Florida).

So, this ended up being a pretty huge two weeks for me! We play 3-3-0 Connecticut next Saturday where I am hoping to pad my stats for Heisman Trophy consideration.

Current Stats|

QB Rating - 176.6

Total Passing YDS - 1233

Passing TDs - 10

Interceptions - 4

Ave YDS per Game - 246.6

Completion % - 66.7

Rushing Attempts - 92

Yards Rushing - 571

Ave YDS per Game - 114.2

Rushing TDs - 10

Overall - 92

Speed - 89

Awareness - 63

Throw Power - 91

Throw Accuracy - 87

Elusiveness - 84

Spin Moves - 63

Juke Moves - 63

Grade Point Average - 4.0

Thanks for reading.

Progress Report- The Road to Glory- NCAA Football 10

I've decided that I want to keep a written record of my quest to become National Champion and Heisman Trophy Winner in NCAA Football 10 (Xbox 360), so I will post updates here as I see fit.

I decided to play as a quarterback again this year, thanks to my successes in NCAA Football 09. Again, I went with an option quarterback even though this doesn't really bode well for when I go pro (if I decide to go pro, of course). But, that is what I have the most fun with, so an Option QB is what I decided on. I blazed through the first two rounds of the high school state championships, and then was delivered a dose of reality in the semi final round. But, we were able to hold on and win both the semi finals and the finals to become Michigan High School State Champions! I became a highly sought after five star recruit, and every college in the nation was willing to offer me a scholarship (literally).

I decided that since I will be attending West Virginia University in the fall (in real life), that there was no better place in the world to be than in Morgantown, WV as the second string QB, so that's where I signed. After just the first week of practices, and the first game against a FCS team, I won the starting QB position, with an overall rating of 91 and a speed rating of 89 (only second on the team to the starting HB).

As a starter I have now beat the East Carolina Pirates, the Auburn Tigers, and the Colorado Buffaloes. West Virginia University is now 4-0-0, and ranked #9 in both the Coaches Poll and the Media Poll. We've actually received one first place vote in both polls also!

I was named Player of the Game for all three starts, and last week (against Colorado) I received my first Big East Conference Player of the Week honors.

I will keep posting updates as I play along this season, and the following seasons. My goal this year is a National Championship bid, then, once I am a sophomore and onward, my goal will remain the National Championship, but I also want to add a Heisman Trophy to the mix.

If you have any questions about my progress, or anything at all, just post a comment or email me!

Thanks for reading.