Whether you play NCAA Football 06 or something similar, this guide will help you become a better quarterback, regardless of which offense you run.

It is designed to cover all aspects of general quaterback play.

There are two parts: one for managing the passing game and the running game. Each part has sections that are in specific order of my thought process from play calling to the end of a play. Even though I don’t cover specific plays, I hope this will give you some guidance on how to have better success on offense, regardless of what offense you use.

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Managing the Passing Game

Play Selection

Your first decision is picking a pass play. Understanding how and why pass plays work in certain areas on the field makes the rest of your decisions easier.

The first thing I think about when selecting a pass play is where am I at on the field and which plays work best in that spot.

More specifically, I am talking about hash marks as it helps to understand that all pass plays work best either on the left hash, right hash, somewhere in the middle, or perhaps anywhere.

This videos explains it well.

So if I am on the left hash mark, my mind automatically thinks about all the left hash plays I have in my playbook.

How I determine this is by knowing where my Zone beating routes are located in the play. Let’s start with short Zone beaters.

Notice how the the play above is on the left hash. Now look at the five red routes, the Flat, Drag, Hitch, Swing, and the Out.

These are just some of the more common short boundary side Zone beaters.

Notice how they are all going to the left side of the field?

Whenever I see routes like this with higher routes above them, I know that play at least works on the left hash.

But why do these shorter routes as shown work on the left hash?

It is because of the way Cornerbacks (CBs) and other defenders close to line of scrimmage and near the sidelines work in NCAA Football 06.

These defenders are programmed to defend the higher route like the Curl, Flag, and Go first.

This leaves your shorter Zone beaters (the red routes) open.

I like having a boundary (sideline) side Zone beater as a safety valve since I know they will be open most of the time.

You may not get many yards with these routes, but at least you know what to expect from them.

More importantly, I like pass plays with Man and Zone beaters so I can attack the defense regardless of what they throw at me.

Below are more examples of short boundary side Zone beaters.

The left column shows left hash plays. Notice Flat route in Curl Flats, the Out route in HB Corner, and the Hitch route in HB Angle.

They all have a higher route above them to help distract the nearest defender, usually a Cornerback.

The right column shows right hash plays. Can you spot the boundary side Zone beaters?

I see two Swing routes by the halfback and a Flat route by a wide receiver.

The middle column shows plays that work on both hashes, There are hi-lo route combos on both sides.

You can also decide which hash a play works on by deep routes and combos too.

The ball is now on the right hash and again, focus on the red routes. The Post on the left by X works well against Zone.

It’s one of the few Zone beaters that doesn’t need help from other routes to get open.

The Post on the right works great against Zone but does need help from the Go route beside it which also happens to be good against Zone if you run a play action play, especially against Cover 2 (more on that later).

Above are examples of deeper routes and combos. The left column are left hash plays, the right column are right hash plays.

Some plays like Ace Slot Deep Outs may not have s short boundary side Zone beater so looking at deeper routes like the Slot Post helps when figuring out where it will work best from.

What about the middle of the field? 90% of your plays will be on either hash but if you are closer to the middle, nothing changes.

If you are between the middle and the right hash, call right hash plays and vice versa.

You can also flip plays as they will work on the other hash too but for now, I wanted you to focus on the plays as they are in the game by default.

This info should help you look at any pass play in the game and tell where it works best on the field.

Identifying Man and Zone Coverage

So you’ve picked your pass play and you know where it probably works best on the field.

The very next step after picking a play and breaking the huddle is figuring out if the defense is in Man or Zone.

We will talk about this now since the game gives you a hint as soon as you break the huddle. Let’s tart with Man:

Notice the CB on the right? If he runs to his spot, the defense is in Man coverage.

If the CB turns to you and slides to his spot, then they are in Zone Coverage.

You may see a combo like the right outside CB running to his spot (Man) and the inside CB beside him slides (looks like Zone).

The outside CB always tells you what defense they are in but if the inside CB slides, then he is blitzing. It’s the same in reverse.

If the outside CB slides then they are in Zone but if the CB beside him runs, then he is blitzing.

I find that the right CB is the easiest to read since there isn’t one defensive play in the game where he blitzes.

You can probably read the left CB just as well, but the right CB has always been easier for me to read.

It is even easier to tell if the defense is in Man or Zone if you have all of your wide receivers on one side of the field.

If the right CB doesn’t move over to cover a WR and stays on his side of the field, then they are in Zone coverage.

This info will make things so much easier for you in your decision making as it practically cuts your need to remember things by half.

Defensive Coverages

It is best to talk about defensive coverages now so pre-snap player movement will make more sense to you.

There are a ton of defensive plays in the game but in the grand scheme of things, there are only six coverages to remember, three for Man and three for Zone.

Let’s look at Man first:

Cover 0, 1, and 2 are the only Man coverages in the game. Notice the yellow circles in the examples above.

No matter what all 11 defenders are doing, regardless of the formation they used, all that matters is what happens on the backline to determine was coverage they are in.

The same goes for Zone above. You have Cover 2, 3, and 4. A bunch of other defenders will be playing Zone too, but look at the backline.

Notice how they are the same.

There are too many routes and scenarios to mention when attacking these coverages so I’ll simply this as best as I can:

• Man Cover 0 is best attacked with Go’s, Posts, and other deeper routes. Anything deep works here.
• Man Cover 1 is best attacked with Corner and Flag-routes that go deep and are pointing to the sidelines.
• Man Cover 2 is best attacked with a Slot Post.
• All short to medium Man-beating routes work against any Man coverage
• Zone Cover 2 is best attacked with Slot Posts, field-side Posts, and sideline Go’s from play action.
• Zone Cover 3 is best attacked with Slot Posts and field-side Posts.
• Cover 4 usually leaves the short field open
• All short boundary side Zone-beating routes like mentioned above work against any Zone coverage.

Of course there are exceptions like to never throw into double coverage, defensive end spy plays do well against boundary side against Zone beaters, and blitzes can come from anywhere but in general, these points cover a lot of what you will see.

We will talk about routes later on in this post.

Defensive Player Movement

Knowing if the defense is in Man or Zone coverage and understanding which specific coverages are in each, you have instantly cut your guesses in half since there are only three for each type.

Pre-snap defensive player movement can make things even easier which is your next step.

Noticing where all 11 defenders end up before snapping the ball is important, but I would focus on the secondary and linebackers first as they are the ones defending your players against Man and defending areas against Zone when passing the ball.

There are too many scenarios to cover, but there a few commons movements that automatically tell you a few things.

Our first example is one from Man:

The strong safety is circled. Notice how he is running to cover someone on the outside. This will happen when they are in Man coverage.

What does this movement tell you? To me it says the defense is in at least Cover 1 and possibly Cover 0.

Remember, there are only three coverages in Man, and we just deduced that Cover 2 is not one of them.

You may get lucky and see this:

It is nice to see both safeties come down to defend as this tells you they are in Cover 0.

You will sometimes see linebackers move over to cover a slot receiver which can help if you have a good matchup.

There will be times where the defense will not move at all, even the defensive line shifting in some way. But every now and then, the defense will give you hints to help you deduce exactly which coverage they are in.

When it comes to Zone, the defense will not move much at all. The safeties seem to always stay in the there spot.

Sometimes a linebacker will move over to “cover” someone in the slot, but we know that they are either defending an area or will be blitzing.

You should also pay attention to what the defensive line is doing. Are they shifting out, in, left, right, or not at all? When it comes to pass plays, it helps to just be mindful of where they are, especially if you plan on rolling out and such.

I think watching the secondary and linebackers is more important due most of them actually covering something or someone. Just be mindful of all 11 defenders, especially impact players.

Matchups

One nice feature in the game is using the matchup stick to see where you can possibly exploit a weakness in the defense.

Moving the right joystick in different directions brings up various matchups like below:

Look at the circled matchups. Against Man, you can see an advantage for both of our slot receivers so you might want to think about throwing to them more if needed in this situation.

I tend to focus on matchups when against Man more than anything else, but feel free to use this feature to make your decision making even easier.

Hot Routes

Hot routes are extra weapons at your quarterback’s disposal.

The ability to change a route can exploit matchups, can make an average route into a good one, and can give you an extra Man or Zone beater.

Below are all of your options:

Press Triangle/Y to bring up your hot route options, then select the player you want to change a route, and then press the D-pad buttons along with L2/LT & R2/RT to use a hot route.

• Up – Go
• Left or Right – Out/In
• Down – Curl
• L2/LT & R2/RT – Slants for wide receivers, Block for tight ends, halfbacks, and fullbacks
• Moving a halfback or fullback (which have the same route options) to the line of scrimmage and then using hot routes gives them all wide receiver hot-route options which is nice.

Some of my favorite hot routes are Go’s if I need a better Cover 0 beater, Outs for an easier Man beater in general, and Slants over the middle if there may be a hole above your center against Zone.

Once you understand how all the routes operate by themselves and together (more on that later), you can come up with some nifty ways to use hot routes to your advantage.

One last thing. If you have Home Field Advantage turned on and are playing on the road, be mindful that some of your players may not be able to hear the hot route adjustment, depending on their composure.

Older and more experienced players won’t have this problem.

Motion

Motion allows you to move your skill players around before the snap, and you can only move one player per play.

Pressing Up or Down on the D-pad cycles through the eligible players and pressing Left or Right on the D-pad moves that player.

When it comes to passing plays, I don’t use motion that much. Most of the plays in this game are designed well enough where motion isn’t needed.

Perhaps my favorite scenario is moving an In route to the other side which makes it a Out route.

The turns into a slightly safer Man beater and can be a good boundary side Zone beater if you don’t have one.

Once you nail down everything written in this post, I’m sure you can come up with other idea or two on how to use motion in your passing game.

Motion is more useful in the running game which we will cover later.

Read the Safeties & the Pocket

Now you are ready to snap the ball. We have covered several things that give you plenty of pre-snap info that leads to only having to focus on a few things after the snap.

The goal with all of this info is to narrow down to who you are going to throw to.

If your pre-snap info leads you to believing you only have one player to throw to then the live action after the snap is much more manageable.

The first step after snapping the ball is reading the safeties to see what coverage they are in. B

y now you know that the defense is in Man or Zone and maybe with enough defensive player movement, you may have narrowed it down to one or two coverages.

Here I read the safeties and noticed only one high safety. I already knew they were in Man from our pre-snap knowledge above.

Now the only thing on my mind is to throw to the one or two players that are my Cover 1 and shorter Man beaters.

We have to do one more thing before throwing the ball:

Your next step is to read the pocket so you can avoid getting sacked.

I already know who I am going to throw and he will run his route regardless if I look at him or not so I am better off watching the pocket so I know where the pressure is coming from.

Then I just wait until the player I am throwing to finishes his last move/cut before throwing to him.

Pocket Presence

Before we talk about throwing the football, now is a prefect time to talk about pocket presence.

Having optimal pocket presence gives you a better chance of the quarterback making a good and clean throw.

The two things you should remember more than anything else is to not backpedal too far from the pocket and to keep your feet set before throwing.

Here is another play where my pocket presence will lead to a good throw.

I still have trouble at times where I may backpedal too far as this makes it harder for your offensive line to continue to block.

Since NCAA Football 06 forces you to control your QB movement when passing, here are a few more pointers:

• Throwing from under center allows you to drop back a little more
• Throwing from the shotgun makes is easy for you to backpedal too far, but try not to move back much at all unless you have to.
• The game will throw the ball for you if you let the game control the drop-back. Do not let the game do this, control the QB the entire time to avoid a throw you didn’t want to see!

Routes & Throwing the Football

Now is the time to actually throw the football. What we want to focus on are the types of throws you can make and which routes work best with them.

When it comes to throw types, I am specifically talking about how hard you press the button to throw the football.

There are basically three types of button presses:

1. Tap the button – throwing the ball high in the air
2. Press the button – a solid throw with mid height
3. Hold the button – throwing the ball as hard as you can

Let’s cover which routes and situations work with which types of throws starting with tapping the button:

Routes that work when tapping the button are the easiest to remember.

The Go and Post route against Man Cover 0 is the only time I will tap the button which lobs the ball high in the air.

You want to give your players a jump ball situation against their defender. Also notice how the routes are in blue which are Man routes.

Here are some examples of when you need to press the button:

Pressing the button gives you a solid throw with some air under it.

The ball will get to the player quicker than tapping the button.

Above you will notice how we have several more routes that use this button press.

Also notice how there are two different colored routes: blue for Man, red for Zone.

Any of the deeper routes above need a press of the button because you will often need to throw over a defender’s head.

• Corners, Posts, and Flag routes have one thing in common, they all end on an angle which is a nice visual to think about.
• Corners and Flags against Man Work great against Cover 0 and 1.
• A Post from the field side and a Post from the slot are great against Zone in general.
• The In and Slant routes are good against Zone when there is a hole above your Center.
• The Flare and Swing routes from a HB or FB are the most common routes from the backfield that work best when pressing the button.
• Pay attention to where the ball is above which is on the left hash. Both Post routes and the two HB routes are illustrated to show how they work best from that location. Some of these we’ve already discussed.

There may be another route or two I am forgetting that needs a press of the button, but the routes shown cover around 80% of them.

Now let’s look at routes that require holding the button which as you can imagine are for most of the routes we haven’t mentioned yet.

Holding the button means you literally hold the button, even after a player catches the ball.

Holding the button has the QB throwing as hard a possible.

Notice above how all of the routes on the left and in the middle stop.

Any stopping route typically works best if you hold the button.

In and Out routes work the same regardless of their depth. And don’t forget to pay attention to where routes are located above and what color they are.

There are plenty of other routes in the game, too many to cover them all, but hopefully all of these images can help you figure out how to use some of the more popular options.

Attacking Coverages and Play Action Tips

Below are videos on how to use certain routes to attack Man and Zone coverages along with some play action tips.

Pass Play Example

Below is an example of all of the steps mentioned above and how that process works in order. Jump to the 24:47 mark if the video doesn’t do it for you.

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Managing the Running Game

Many of the things we have discussed with the passing game apply to the running game. Some aren’t even needed.

• Play selection and hash location doesn’t really matter with run plays.
• Identifying Man and Zone coverage is just as important.
• Knowing specific coverages isn’t as important when running.
• Matchups aren’t really necessary when running either.

However, there are some things that I need to point out that can make or break your running game.

The best thing is there just isn’t as much to think about to run successfully. A

nd from a quarterback standpoint, his job is to get things lined up correctly before the ball is snapped.

Player Movement

The biggest thing we want to focus on here is how defensive lines and linebackers will shift when running.

We also want to pay attention to where their best defensive players are located, especially impact players.

Notice the impact player above. The fact that the defensive line didn’t shift in any way tells me it is probably in my best interest to run to the left.

Notice above how the defensive line shifted to the left. It is really hard to run into that shift so it’s probably in my best interest to run to the right, even if their impact player is on the right.

There are a bunch of shift combos in the game, but here are some general rules I follow when running the ball:

• I always run away from left & right defensive line shifts.
• I try to run away from impact players.
• Many run plays in the game allow you to flip the direction of the run which is a hot route which you will need to use a lot.
  • Press Triangle/Y to bring up the hot-route option, then press left or right on the D-pad to run left or right.
• You don’t have to use it, but motion can be quite useful.
  • Motion a player away from the side you will run to against Man as he will bring his defender with him allowing more field to work with, one less defender to worry about.
  • Motion a player towards the run side against Zone to have an extra blocker.
• Don’t abuse the speed button. In fact, try not to use it unless there are no defenders in front of you. Your runner has better movement and agility too when not using the speed button.

There really isn’t much else about the running game that involves the QB at this point.

Yes, QB’s are important in option plays, but that is play and concept specific.

Using Numbers and Leverage

Here is a video that covers how to use number and leverage to your advantage which is so important when running the ball.

Run Play Example

Below is a good example of the various things we’ve discussed, from recognizing Man or Zone all the way to using motion to our advantage. Jump to the 13:57 mark if the video doesn’t do it for you.

In-Game Tutorials

Below are tutorial videos made by EA Sports that are in the game that covers basic offensive and option controls, both vital in the running game.

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Conclusion

Hopefully I covered all of the basics of how I approach playing quarterback in NCAA Football 06.

I did not cover actual plays but with the knowledge above, you should be able to look at most plays and tell how best to use them.

In time I may add to this post if needed.

The biggest thing to remember is the order in which I wrote everything, especially in the passing game.

It is the exact order as you see things when playing the game. From calling a play to throwing the football, you can train yourself to think in this order.

And as with anything, Practice Mode is your best friend.

And don’t forget to use the game manual and Prima Guide for extra tips and info along with anything else this site and my channel has to offer.