College football coaches face significant challenges in managing players due to the diverse backgrounds, personalities, and expectations each athlete brings to the team.
Balancing academic requirements, the physical and mental demands of the sport, and now the pernicious influence of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) deals adds layers of complexity to maintaining team cohesion and discipline.
But nothing compares to … dealing with egos over video game ratings?
Southern Miss Golden Eagles head coach Charles Huff described one of the biggest problems he faces in the locker room when it comes to players.
CBS Sports reporter Brandon Marcello revealed his comments in a post on X.
“Coach Charles Huff tells coaches at AFCA the biggest issue he ran into last season in the locker room wasn’t NIL or social media,” Marcello reported. “No, it was players complaining about their ratings on College Football 25.”
“Some even came to his office to complain about their ‘low’ rating.”
Coach Charles Huff tells coaches at AFCA the biggest issue he ran into last season in the locker room wasn’t NIL or social media. No, it was players complaining about their ratings on College Football 25. Some even came to his office to complain about their “low” rating.
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) January 13, 2025
Coach Charles Huff Dealing With The Headache Of Video Games
Imagine you’re coach Charles Huff, who last year led the Marshall Thundering Herd to their first Sun Belt crown ever and their first conference championship for any league in ten years.
You’re prepping your team for that championship season or game. You’ve devised an epic game plan. Given a rip-roaring motivational speech to the team.
And up walks one of your star players, upset that their ‘Awareness’ rating is a 70, not a 75. Bro, your awareness should be a zero if you’re complaining to your head coach about a video game.
Is it any wonder legendary coach Nick Saban walked away? Not only did he have to deal with the frustration of entitled players making millions through NIL, an insane transfer portal process, egos of players who never have to take an actual college course in their life, and now … video games.
RELATED: Nick Saban Cites Player Behavior, NIL Landscape As Partial Reasons For His Retirement
Coaches Complain Too
It’s not just head coach Charles Huff getting complaints about video game ratings from his college football players. Sometimes it’s the other way around.
Colorado head coach and NFL legend Deion Sanders openly complained about his son Shedeur and two-way player Travis Hunter’s rating in EA Sports College Football 25.
“I’m not a video game guy. I love video games but I’m a real game guy. I don’t know. Like, you guys talk about ratings and rankings, I don’t know about that stuff,” Sanders told reporters last month.
He then pretended to know about that stuff.
“I’m just trying to figure out how can Shedeur be tied with another person. How did that happen? And how can Travis not have the highest score on the game when he’s arguably the best receiver and the best defensive back in college football?” Sanders fumed.
“So, how can you not be the number one rated guy, period? I don’t understand that either.”
Maybe if Deion focused more on actual football, he could have gone out a winner this season like Charles Huff, instead of getting throttled by BYU.