College football fans have gone from waiting years for any sort of update on a video game to impatiently waiting for as many details as possible about EA Sports College Football 25. The successor to the wildly popular EA Sports NCAA Football series that ended in 2013, EA Sports College Football 25 is one of the most highly-anticipated sports games in quite some time, and slowly but surely, information has been coming out about the game over the last few months.
On Friday, fans got maybe the most exciting bit of news yet, as an apparent accident on the PlayStation Store revealed the Deluxe Edition cover of the game. It forced EA Sports’ hand, as it was revealed in a tweet that the company was caught off guard, but as a result, both covers of the game will officially drop on May 16.
Welp, we were surprised too… see both covers next Thursday. pic.twitter.com/5ILQGFBJlx
— EASPORTSCollege (@EASPORTSCollege) May 10, 2024
While we’ll have to wait and see how EA Sports handles the regular cover (or covers), the Deluxe Edition features a number of players in uniforms. Six of them, however, have their nameplate on the back, and today, we’re identifying who they are in the aftermath of the cover leaking.
Carson Beck, QB, Georgia
A 4-star quarterback recruit in the class of 2020, Beck patiently waited behind Stetson Bennett to take over under center for the Bulldogs. His opportunity finally came in 2023, and the Florida native was one of the top signal callers in America, throwing for 3,941 yards with 24 touchdowns to six interceptions while completing 302 of his 417 (72.4 percent) of his passes. Beck also ran for four scores on the ground. He’ll be a high pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, but for now, he’ll look to build on a second-team All-SEC campaign in which he led the Bulldogs to an undefeated regular season, a berth in the SEC Championship Game, and a blowout win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl.
Donovan Edwards, RB, Michigan
Edwards has spent his time in Ann Arbor behind Blake Corum on the depth chart. That hasn’t meant all that much, though, as he’s been a productive running back over three years, toting the rock 294 times for 1,662 yards and 15 touchdowns with another three scores coming through the air. The former 4/5-star recruit has put up big numbers in some big games, too — he ran for 216 yards and two scores against Ohio State in 2022, won the MVP of the Big Ten Championship Game against Purdue a week later, and carried the ball six times for 104 yards and a pair of touchdowns in Michigan’s national championship game win over Washington last year. Now, Corum’s off to the NFL, and Edwards should be the centerpiece of the Wolverine offense in the first year of the post-Jim Harbaugh era.
Quinn Ewers, QB, Texas
One of the most highly-regarded recruits in college football history, Ewers famously spent a year as a backup at Ohio State before transferring to Texas, where he originally committed in high school before flipping to the Buckeyes. His first year in Austin was up-and-down, but in 2023, he started to tap into the promise that made evaluators view him as a future NFL signal caller from the time he was in high school. Ewers was one of the driving forces behind the Longhorns winning the Big 12 for the first time since 2009 (he was named the MVP of the conference title game) and making it to the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history, going 272-for-394 (69 percent) with 3,479 yards, 22 touchdowns, six interceptions, and five rushing touchdowns.
Travis Hunter, CB/WR, Colorado
There is not a more talented player in the sport than Hunter, the former 5-star recruit who made waves when he committed to Deion Sanders when he was the head coach at Jackson State before jumping ship when Sanders went to Colorado. He’s an outstanding wide receiver (the best on the Buffaloes’ offense) and an outstanding cornerback (the best on the Buffaloes’ defense), as he was a consensus All-American last year as an all-purpose player. Hunter is, alongside QB Shedeur Sanders, the most important building block for what Coach Prime is trying to do in Boulder this year, and of all the players on this list, he is going to be the one fans have the most fun using, in large part because he never comes off the field.
Quinshon Judkins, RB, Ohio State
There’s one player on this list who has never taken a snap for his current team. That would be Judkins, the former Ole Miss standout who transferred to Ohio State this offseason. Judkins has a strong claim to being the best running back in America, and he should be able to put up big numbers alongside TreVeyon Henderson in the Buckeye backfield under new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. There are incredibly high expectations in Columbus this year about the team’s ability to win a national championship, and Judkins — who’s coming to town with 545 career carries for 2,725 yards and 31 touchdowns — is a major reason why. This should be a 1-year stint before he goes to the NFL, but at least he got a video game cover out of it.
Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama
Kalen DeBoer is taking over for Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa, which will not be an easy task. Fortunately for him, the Crimson Tide have a signal caller in place, as Milroe was one of the best players in the country at his position last year. A second-team All-SEC selection and the sixth-place finisher in Heisman voting, Milroe throws one of the best deep balls in the country, as he averaged 10 yards per attempts while completing 65.8 percent of his passes. He had 23 touchdowns through the air and another 12 on the ground for the SEC champions last season. This season, he’s expected to be one of the best QBs in the country, and because of his ability to beat teams with deep balls and his ability to run it, you can bet he’ll be one of the most popular players to use in EA’s new college football game.