Podunk University is located in a town that usually only sports a population of 5,000-7,500 people in one of the nation’s least populated states. Who would’ve guessed that such a remote area would house an NCAA Division I school?

And yet, there is it, with a shining stadium that seats 65,000, and a football team that is gearing up to play with the big kids. With an open slot on the schedule, Air Force was selected for the opening game and it was a blow-out. (It could be a long year for the Air Force Academy.) With hopes riding high, the local team took to the road, heading to Florida for a matchup with a pre-season No. 22-ranked team. Another blow-out! Err, but not for the local kids; they were on the other side of that whipping. That is the difference between blue-chippers in a high-profile program, and a program just getting started.

You have no reputation, and so recruiting is going to be a hard sell, but one you can invest in throughout the season.

EA Sports has released NCAA Football 06 for the PlayStation 2, and simple put – if you are a console gamer with a love for sports and football, own this game. It may have some minor glitches (like players who inexplicably stop moving or slow way down the moment you take control of them, even though you will swear the appropriate control buttons are engaged), but the excitement is sky-high and the game is a tantalizing bit of eye candy.

The game has attitude. Pick off a pass and perform antics for the camera. Breakaway for a long scoring run and taunt the trailing opponents as you cover the last 10 yards. The infamous first-down antics are in full force here. Sure, in real football the refs would be hammering away at the demonstrations with penalty yardage, but not here. This is excitement! This is fun! This is entertainment!

Stadium Pulse is back, Create-A-School and Create-A-Player is back. The deep dynasty mode is back, but a new element is added to that dynasty mix. You can target blue-chip players, by state, and keep up the recruitment during the course of the season. As you play and accomplish certain feats, you rack up points, which can be invested in players you are recruiting. They will offer you feedback on games. Come up with a particularly brilliant defensive scheme for a game? Those defensive players you are going after may well notice and your standing with them may go up. Conversely, get blown out of the water, and they may drop you from contention for their services, opting for a school that is more of a contender, and less of a whipping post.

Also new to the 06 mix is Race for the Heisman. This is a four-year career mode in which you take a kid out of high school, attend summer camp to achieve a ranking (which will go up as you progress through your seasons), get recruited by a university and start that path toward football glory. How you do in the summer camp will depend on which schools recruit you. There are a series of drills for the different positions available (pocket QB, scrambling QB, running back, wide receiver, defensive lineman, linebacker and defensive back). Once you complete them, you are given a list of schools wanting you to play for them, or you can walk on at another school. From that point on, you are in the game, striving to be the best you can be to garner the attention of the Heisman folks. If you are really good, you may end up on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Of course, the key is – because you are the playcaller – to not let your young Heisman wannabe carry the team. You can’t always call your own number, and there is always the risk of injury. If that happens, you can skip ahead in the season. The focus in this aspect of the game is the player, not the team so much. But, of course, when you are playing a game, winning is always at the edge of your consciousness.

The game does have a few less exciting elements. The musical score is mostly by bands you may not have heard from before, performing a series of songs that do little to fire up the tempo of the game, or enthusiasm for the game. The commentator trio of Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Brad Nessler are good, but there are repetitions. Within a five minute span, the same banter about Corso’s nickname of “Sunshine Scooter” was replayed. And the game has some long load and save times.

Graphically, NCAA Football 06 is a treat. Perform a particularly nasty hit, or breakaway, and the game will pause, the camera will zoom in and rotate to give you the best look at moment. Truly good stuff.

The controls can be a little sticky at times. You may find that you push a button and get no response from the game, and need to push it again. This only happens during playcalling or at other times not in the confines of the actual game. This is just a minor inconvenience in an otherwise responsive game.

With customizable play books, and the creation process, coupled with the excitement of the game, this is about as addicting a sports game as they come. Upsets will be the norm and you may well find yourself pushing for that SI cover and recognition as a gridiron great.

Get it, play it against a strong AI or online against other gamers. Anyway you play NCAA Football 06, one thought remains, this is a thoroughly terrific game. 

Gameplay: 9.1
Exciting is one word to describe this game; long load times is another. The controls are easy to understand, but at times there is so much happening that players simply stop moving, and there were also times where certain buttons on the controller (during play selection) had to be hit twice for the game to recognize the input command.

Graphics: 9.4
The breakaway elements, and the way the cameras zoom in to reveal the big hits really pumps up the excitement. Counter that with some perspective elements – big heads on the nearest players during the coin toss – and a couple of clipping lapses,

Sound: 8.8
The music is merely average, and the banter of the commentators can be repetitive.

Difficulty: Medium
Ok, you can dump down the opponent AI (you know, reduce completion percentages and the like) in the single-player game and virtually eliminate any challenge, but if you want to play the game the way it was intended, you won’t do that. The game does also feature an array of difficulty settings.  

Concept: 9.3
Race for the Heisman is a fresh element that brings a career gaming element into the mix. Combined with easy-to-understand controls, and old favorites like the create-a-school and create-a-player elements, this is a complete package.

Multiplayer:  9.0
It’s fun to go up against other players, and this title comes with full online support. It is highly recommended that players going online to play disable the firewalls, which is an unfortunate aspect of the way a game can time out.  

Overall: 9.3
There are a few minor stumbling points, but NCAA Football 06 brings back the greatest elements from past titles and adds exciting new career gameplay with the Race for the Heisman element. Sure, the refs would be tossing the flags for excessive celebrations a lot, if this were the real world, but it is not, and that means the glitz and excitement of college football meets with demonstrative elements to pull off exciting gameplay. Gridiron greatness – your name is NCAA Football 06.