We really did it. The Western Illinois Leathernecks are national champions of the 2014-2015 season of ‘College Hoops 2K8.’ It only took us eight years to bring a championship to Macomb while simulating every game + doing the recruiting. Go back and re-live our entire journey from the start of the season
WIU motivated me to fire up the PS3 and seek out Ricky Charisma’s fourth cousin twice removed, Johnny Charisma. Johnny is a football coach. I wanted to see if he was up to the task of matching Ricky by leading the lowest rated team in EA Sports NCAA football 2013 to a Natty.
Turns out that the lowest rated teams came down to a choice between Florida Atlantic and UMass. Johnny chose FAU because, well, who WOULDN’T choose Boca Raton over Amherst?
Apparently Howard Schnellenberger left the cupboard pretty bare for the 2012 season, because Johnny inherited a mess of a team, ranked 60 overall and last in the Sun Belt (yes, last in the freaking Sun Belt).
The season went about as expected, with the Owls finishing 2-10, with their only wins coming against Middle Tennessee and “FCS-West” (EA’s NCAA franchise always treated the FCS teams as generic “FCS-[direction].” It included blowout losses in two “money games” against Georgia and Alabama, and also an embarrassing FG loss to “FCS-East.” It definitely hurt the Owls to lose their starting QB to injury for three winnable games against North Texas, Western Kentucky, and Louisiana-Monroe in the middle of the season.
The bad news is that this clunker of a season dropped Johnny Charisma’s coach confidence rating to fall from 56% to 36% and placed him squarely on the hot seat in year 2 of a 3-year contract.
The good news is that he landed the 70th best recruiting class in America, and tops in the Sun Belt. The class includes two 4-star recruits. Terence Concepcion a 6’3” 260lb TE from Hialeah, FL chose to stay close to home and attend FAU over UConn. WR Chauncey Covington is a 6’0” 190lb possession receiver from Redford, Michigan who chose the Owls over North Carolina and hometown Michigan State.
Concepcion at 77 and 3-star athlete-turned-strong safety Brendan Hamilton at 75 are already the highest overall rated players on the Owls roster. Add in a large crop of OL and DL and the talent on the roster was upgraded tremendously, and hopefully the Owls will be more competitive in year 2.
I can't wait for when we have a starting 5 of Amous Hatten Powell Bowens Holden, all redshirt seniors. On the bench we'll have Copeland Draughan and whoever else we recruit. That team should get at least a 7 seed in the tournament!
I tried to join the stream but it wouldn't ever load for me, but that won't stop me from being one the Leatherneck's faithful. With Ricky Charisma at the helm, WIU is going to be college basketball's next great dynasty.
Kind of disappointed that the post-stream write-up had spoilers right in the title. Was hoping for a spoiler-free retelling like all previous posts for those that couldn't watch live.
Hey Ricky, I've been a little behind and trying to catch up but I can't find any video of your first Twitch stream with your Final Four and National Champ games. The links don't seem to work any longer, so you still have those available or am I s.o.l. for being so late??
Can someone make me a Leathernecks national championship banner? TY TY TY
WIU motivated me to fire up the PS3 and seek out Ricky Charisma’s fourth cousin twice removed, Johnny Charisma. Johnny is a football coach. I wanted to see if he was up to the task of matching Ricky by leading the lowest rated team in EA Sports NCAA football 2013 to a Natty.
Turns out that the lowest rated teams came down to a choice between Florida Atlantic and UMass. Johnny chose FAU because, well, who WOULDN’T choose Boca Raton over Amherst?
Apparently Howard Schnellenberger left the cupboard pretty bare for the 2012 season, because Johnny inherited a mess of a team, ranked 60 overall and last in the Sun Belt (yes, last in the freaking Sun Belt).
The season went about as expected, with the Owls finishing 2-10, with their only wins coming against Middle Tennessee and “FCS-West” (EA’s NCAA franchise always treated the FCS teams as generic “FCS-[direction].” It included blowout losses in two “money games” against Georgia and Alabama, and also an embarrassing FG loss to “FCS-East.” It definitely hurt the Owls to lose their starting QB to injury for three winnable games against North Texas, Western Kentucky, and Louisiana-Monroe in the middle of the season.
The bad news is that this clunker of a season dropped Johnny Charisma’s coach confidence rating to fall from 56% to 36% and placed him squarely on the hot seat in year 2 of a 3-year contract.
The good news is that he landed the 70th best recruiting class in America, and tops in the Sun Belt. The class includes two 4-star recruits. Terence Concepcion a 6’3” 260lb TE from Hialeah, FL chose to stay close to home and attend FAU over UConn. WR Chauncey Covington is a 6’0” 190lb possession receiver from Redford, Michigan who chose the Owls over North Carolina and hometown Michigan State.
Concepcion at 77 and 3-star athlete-turned-strong safety Brendan Hamilton at 75 are already the highest overall rated players on the Owls roster. Add in a large crop of OL and DL and the talent on the roster was upgraded tremendously, and hopefully the Owls will be more competitive in year 2.
Let’s see if Johnny can match Ricky!
I can't wait for when we have a starting 5 of Amous Hatten Powell Bowens Holden, all redshirt seniors. On the bench we'll have Copeland Draughan and whoever else we recruit. That team should get at least a 7 seed in the tournament!
I tried to join the stream but it wouldn't ever load for me, but that won't stop me from being one the Leatherneck's faithful. With Ricky Charisma at the helm, WIU is going to be college basketball's next great dynasty.
I would absolutely KILL for a "Got Nelk?" or "The Nelk Man" tshirt! :D I'll still get the Deke Van one tho! DEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Somewhere I like to think that Luther Vandross sung "One Shining Moment" specifically about this team..
Here's my early projected starting five
C Ballinger
PF Powell
SF Willis
SG Hatten
PG Amous
Bowens
Holden
Draughn
Copeland rotation
RS Stockman
RS Hoyer
RS Terrell
Who am I missing?
Kind of disappointed that the post-stream write-up had spoilers right in the title. Was hoping for a spoiler-free retelling like all previous posts for those that couldn't watch live.
Hey Ricky, I've been a little behind and trying to catch up but I can't find any video of your first Twitch stream with your Final Four and National Champ games. The links don't seem to work any longer, so you still have those available or am I s.o.l. for being so late??