Imagine knowing ahead of time how the football season will unfold for the preseason No. 15 Tennessee Vols.
We don’t have a crystal ball at Knox News, but we do have EA Sports College Football 25, and we’ve been running simulations on the popular video game to see how the Vols will fare in 2024.
The computer game allows us to play as many times as we care to against each opponent, and gives us the number of wins and losses in the simulated series as well as average score in each game. It also allows us to set the correct location, approximate game time and even weather.
So all season, we’re going to run our set of simulations before each real game to give you some virtual insights into what to expect. We’ll share the results, notable highlights and major outliers in the simulated sets.
There’s one limitation, and we ran into it in week one: EA Sports College Football 25 features all 134 FBS teams, but the Chattanooga Mocs are in the lower division FCS. (This says more about SEC scheduling than EA Sports.)
So we improvised. Some of the video game’s players created their own version of the Mocs, and we used one to simulate the matchup. Big caveat: The fan-made Mocs were ranked No. 13 (!) and didn’t feature the actual Chattanooga players. (Fortunately, we’ll run into this only in Week 1 because Tennessee’s real-life competition picks up as the season progresses and the rest of the season’s opponents are built in to EA Sports College Football 25.)
As a test run, Knox News ran 10 simulations with the fan-made Mocs to get an idea how the Aug. 31 season opener will go, along with a bonus Tennessee vs. Tennessee game and a “real UT” matchup pitting Tennessee against brand-new SEC member Texas.
Next week, we’ll run a full 100 games for Tennessee’s Sept. 7 game at NC State.
How the Vols did against the Mocs in EA Sports College Football 25
Unsurprisingly, the Vols dominated the Mocs by winning all 10 simulated games.
The Vols scored an average of 29.4 points per game, well over the Mocs’ average of 11.9 points per game. Most of the games weren’t even close.
Tennessee averaged 183.2 rushing yards, 161.1 passing yards and 430.9 total yards in the 10 simulated games. Chattanooga averaged 126.4 rushing yards, 119.4 passing yards and 369.3 total yards.
One outlier was Game 4: The Mocs racked up 451 total yards to the Vols’ 395 total. Nonetheless, UT won, 27-14.
Highlights from the simulations:
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Highest scoring game: Tennessee won Game 2, 44-11
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Lowest scoring game: Tennessee won Game 5, 17-5
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Closest game: Tennessee won Game 9, 27-19
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Biggest scoring outburst: In Game 2, Tennessee scored four touchdowns in the fourth quarter
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Biggest surprise: The fan-made Chattanooga team kept trying 2-point conversions (and failed often)
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Most impressive play: Squirrel White returned a punt 79 yards for a touchdown in Game 7.
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Most Valuable Players: Quarterback Nico Iamaleava, linebacker Keenan Pili, running back Dylan Sampson and wide receiver Dont’e Thornton were all awarded MVP at least once. Iamaleava won the most MVPs overall.
Two bonus simulations (including our battle of the UTs)
Knox News ran two more simulated games for fun, first pitting Tennessee against itself and then against Texas.
In the first game, Tennessee beat Tennessee, 31-24. The winning UT outran the losing UT 287 yards to 135 yards, but loser UT passed for 278 yards compared to the winner UT’s 180 passing yards. In the end, winner UT had 562 total yards while loser UT had 498 total yards. The game named running back Cameron Seldon MVP for the winning team.
In our “battle of the real UTs,” the No. 3 Texas Longhorns beat No. 15 Tennessee, 27-14, at virtual Neyland Stadium.
It was nearly a blowout until the Vols finally scored in the second half.
The Vols rushed for a measly 90 yards compared to the Longhorns’ 262. However, the Vols did pass for 290 yards, far more than the Longhorns’ 149. This helped balance total yards: Texas with 504 and Tennessee with 496.
Fortunately, we’ve got at least two years of simulations between the two UTs before they play in real life for the first time (the SEC schedule is set only through 2025).
In the meantime, join us next week for our next round of simulations as the virtual Vols face off against the virtual Wolfpack!
Got a suggestion for the simulation? Is there a statistic you’d like to see? Email me at keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com.
Keenan Thomas is a higher education reporter. Email keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter @specialk2real.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: EA Sports College Football 25: How Tennessee vs. Chattanooga plays out
