How Accurately Portrayed is Ole Miss in EA Sports NCAA 2013

I've always had a few criticisms of EA Sports' NCAA franchise with regards to them living up to their (once) "if it's in the game, it's in the game" slogan. I am confident that pouring over hundreds of NCAA teams and programs in order to create a football video game which mimics its real life counterpart - something which itself has proven quite difficult to predict - must be laborious and challenging, but every year you get a few headscratchers, from a macro level all the way down to the attributes of individual players ("Michael Herrick is black?").

One thing I always look for is accuracy of coaching systems - the "X's and O's" so to speak. With Hugh Freeze, himself still a relative unknown, now coaching the Ole Miss Rebels, is this new regime and it's fast paced, statistics inflating offense and it's multiple set defense, accurately portrayed in this year's game?

We looked at the game's SEC team rankings a few weeks ago, and I'd say that having Ole Miss around the overall level of Kentucky and Vanderbilt with regards to talent isn't wholly inaccurate. The Rebs are listed as being weaker on offense than on defense, but I'm not so sure that such is even noteworthy - we're not particularly good at either. Still, there's cause to believe that what we've got going on in Oxford right now isn't accurately portrayed in this new game.

SBN's Jason Kirk simulated the "worst" season imaginable recently, and noted this regarding the rushing offense at Ole Miss in the game:

Surprised to learn Ole Miss' Jeff Scott finished second in the nation in rushing, with his 1,724 yards coming in just ahead of Montee Ball and Marcus Lattimore? I was too. Just frustrating to see. If EA Sports had simply watched two minutes worth of Hugh Freeze's offense, they'd know his teams are going to throw the ball around a lot. There's just no excuse for leaving Houston Nutt's game plan in even though Houston Nutt is gone, which is what I did by creating a new playbook that was nothing but I-formation runs off tackle to the right.

But, hey, none of this really matters. I'm buying the game this week, and I'll still love playing it, and I'll still win the Heisman Trophy with Robert Nkemdiche playing halfback in 2016 or so. Watch out, world.

Those of you who have played and enjoyed NCAA 2013 so far, could you elaborate on what Ole Miss looks and feels like in in the game? Share with us your observations in the comments below.

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This post was sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 13. Check out the video for the game below.

EA SPORTS NCAA Football 13 TV: "Son" (via EASPORTS)