Strategy is something often talked about in the football gaming world, but not always practical. Variety and customization wasn't always present, and most changes on a strategic level were fairly basic. As the game had been using the same engine for several years, most of us had a tried and true offense and defense, and used very little imagination. NCAA 2008 looks to change all this.

The most obvious strategic change is at the most fundamental level of play, blocking. The improved offensive line play on the next-generation of gaming, including double teams and much more effective second level blocks means the importance of position of the defensive line and line backing corps has increased.

The practice overloading, or shifting both the DL and LB to the strong side, is nearly over. The 1-tech (or man playing on the center) is now double teamed, and with the backside lineman finally getting to the second level (that is the linebackers and safety's) the cutbacks against this defensive alignment are more effective. Likewise, with the DE now being doubled on many outside runs, any sort of sweep or counter run is now more effective as the days of the DE putting the offensive tackle on his butt are done.

This doesn't mean the defense is helpless against the run. A virtual smorgasbord of individual defensive hot-routes and group adjustments gives a young Bill Belichick wanna-be some creative freedom. You can tell your ends to contain every play if you are facing an option team or someone who really likes the outside runs, or you can have them all pinch down if you smell the dive play. Or for more fun, individual blitz's may be hot-routed, with somebody else assigned to take their coverage responsibility, again, via hot-route.

The pass defense hasn't been shorted either. More control over your safety's, sending them left or right on shades or playing up or back lets you take away one side of the field, one route, or one receiver if you so choose. The new ability to put any player into man coverage on any receiver allows for a lot more double teams on the go-to receiver. You can take those MLB out of the middle zone on the cover two and have them take the TE if you smell something, or combo cover the WR with a OLB, nickel back or safety...or all of them at once.

This isn't going to make the game too defensive, as the offense also got some new toys. In addition to the biggest change for the series, the jump from 30 FPS (Frames Per Second) to 60 FPS, adding a lot more player control, the offensive got some new adjustment options Just for starter, two additional hot-routes (bringing the total from 6 up to 8). More hot-routes means a lot better 2-minute offense, and a lot more adjustments if you see the defense in an exploitable set.

This added control and clearer movement come in handy for those wishing to run the mid-range passing attack or those wanting to run the West-Coast Offense, a pure rhythm based passing attack. The smoother controls allow the "window" a QB throws into in these rhythm based attacks to appear more clearly, opening up a large percentage of the playbook that many virtual QBs (including myself) couldn't really throw before.

Along with hot-routes, the introduction of auto-motion, or having plays designed around a man in motion (you'll notice these as green routes in the playbook) allow play-callers to use positioning much better in routes and blocking angles, as well as adding in several new formations that utilize these (such as the Wild Cat).

Perhaps the biggest change from a strategic standpoint is the Dynamic Fatigue model. Rotating backs becomes crucial for a running team, go-routes are now always possible and QB scrambles aren't as effective as the players get tired. From a strategic standpoint, picking a defender, or group of defenders to tire out is now feasible when it wasn't before.

Perhaps NCAA 2008 didn't get a big new feature, or a gimmick concept put in. What it did get was a lot more strategic options (Hot-Routes, Auto-Motion) and a few game play fixes (better player control, double team blocking) which, all combined, allow for a lot more offensive styles (West-Coast, Fun-N-Gun or grind it out). Its almost certain that a lot of exploit abusers won't be happy with these new toys, but console coach's should be elated with joy.