The best Auburn players who weren't in a CFB video game

Or, to put it another way: Here's a full team of Tigers stars from the last decade (2014-2023), when EA Sports *wasn't* in the game.

Before we get to today’s fun football piece, we’re still looking for some more mailbag questions. Send them in to the1andonlyjf@gmail.com, along with your pick for your all-time favorite arcade game. (Mine is Pop-A-Shot.)

We’ll have that mailbag, along with a premium episode of the podcast — with special guest Matt Cohen of AL.com, talking Auburn men’s golf’s big national title win and a lot more — out for subscribers Friday morning.

This is going to be a year of change in college football, from massive conference realignment to the expanded playoff format to the sport-shifting implications of the recent House vs. NCAA settlement that should lead to schools directly paying players.

But, perhaps more importantly than all of that, we’re getting a college football video game again.

EA Sports’ College Football 25 drops in mid-July, ending a decade-long drought for fans who have wanted to play the superior version of the sport on their consoles. It’s been so long that an entire generation of consoles, the one that included the PlayStation 4, didn’t even get a college football game.

NCAA Football 14, which was released ahead of the 2013 season, was the last installment of the series due to legal issues involving player likenesses. For example, Auburn fans could run the ball with “HB #21” — who looked like and played like Tre Mason — but the player himself wouldn’t get anything for being in that game.

Before NIL morphed into the indirect pay-for-play behemoth we know today, paying college athletes for use of their likenesses was a huge part of the plan. That paved the way for EA Sports to bring back a college football video game, this time with the players fully represented in the game for the first time.

Earlier this month, EA unveiled the cover art for 25 and released a lot of information on the game’s features. On Wednesday, a number of media members and content creators were allowed to write and talk about their hands-on impressions of the game.

Friends of the newsletter Robby Kalland at Uproxx and Matt Brown at Extra Points were among those who got to play 25 and share what they’ve learned about it. The lifting of the impression embargo only cranked up the hype for the game even higher.

When College Football 25 releases next month, Auburn fans will able to run the ball with Jarquez Hunter, launch passes with Payton Thorne to the likes of Rivaldo Fairweather and Cam Coleman, and run all over the field on defense with Eugene Asante. (As long as they opted into the likeness agreement, that is. Some college football players didn’t, but the vast majority did.)

In years past, fans were able to play with the (legally iffy) versions of stars such as Cam Newton, Nick Fairley, Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown — and even pre-console legends like Bo Jackson and Pat Sullivan on “all-time teams.” Mason, Nick Marshall and the rest of 2013 Auburn team that ran all the way to the national championship game under Gus Malzahn were the last ones to get that honor.

But there’s an entire decade of Auburn football that never got the video game treatment. While people made custom rosters and full-blown mods for NCAA Football 14 for the last 10 years, fans weren’t able to play with the best players of that era like they had been for a very long time.

In anticipation for College Football 25, some people have talked online about the best players who missed out on being in a college football video game — like Lamar Jackson or the entire 2019 LSU roster.

Who are the best Auburn players who missed out? How about an entire team of them?

Here’s a full offense and defense, along with two important specialists, of players who weren’t represented in an EA Sports college football video game and will miss out on this new era.

Players were picked based on their accomplishments at Auburn, with an extra nod to the specific skills that would stand out the most on the virtual gridiron. The overall ratings are based on the scale that EA Sports used back in 14, with All-Americans and All-SEC picks getting the most love. A special shoutout goes to friend of the newsletter Justin Lee, who helped with the NCAA Football 14 screenshots that you’ll see throughout this piece.

And, of course, there are some of you out there who aren’t into video games and don’t have much interest in what a lot of us are buzzing about online. That’s perfectly understandable! Just look at this as an all-decade (2014-2023) team of sorts for Auburn football — the kind of stuff that gets all of us through the long offseason.

QB: Jarrett Stidham (88)

Best Attribute: Throw Accuracy

If we were picking based on a player’s entire career, Bo Nix feels like the ultimate college football video game quarterback with his scrambling ability and knack for chaos. But Stidham was arguably the better signal-caller during his time on the Plains, with his 2017 SEC West title campaign (66.5% completion percentage, 8.5 yards per attempt, 3-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio) serving as the gold standard for quarterback performances for the Tigers in this era. Stidham’s accuracy and efficiency, along with his 5-star pedigree, would have made him a popular passer in two different versions of the game.

RB: Tank Bigsby (91)

Best Attribute: Break Tackle