Our friends at EA Sports have another blockbuster on their hands with the release of NCAA Football '13, the latest entry into their video game series.
With their new feature, the Heisman Challenge, we've already taken a look at what the Sun Devil season would go with Tim Tebow at the helm, but now we go straight for the gritty realism of a true 2012 simulation with NCAA Football '13, and one thing is clear for ASU fans.
It isn't pretty.
The Todd Graham era gets off to a promising start, with big wins over NAU and Illinois by a combined 68-10 margin.
However, the road trip to Missouri results in a close 27-13 loss, and that begins a three-game skid for ASU and they head into the bye week 2-3. A big win over Colorado on the road gets the team back to .500, but losses to Oregon and UCLA put the Sun Devils in a big hole.
Another huge road win, this time a 51-24 victory over Oregon State, gives some hope, but then another three-game skid ends the season at a disappointing 4-8, including a heart-wrenching 27-24 loss to Arizona.
But how did the individual players perform?
The game sees an average debut year for quarterback Mike Bercovici, as he completes just over 44% of his passes for 1,972 yards, but he does have a very good 17-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Deantre Lewis has a nice bounceback year with 514 yards and four touchdowns, as he teams with Cameron Marshall (860 yards, six touchdowns) to form a nice 1-2 punch. At wide receiver, Jamal Miles leads the club with 42 catches for 572 yards and six touchdowns.
Defensively, Davon Coleman has a breakout year, leading the team with 66 tackles and 7.5 sacks. The ASU secondary is also outstanding, as Keelan Johnson, Osahaon Irabor, Deveron Carr and Kevin Ayers all post four interceptions each.
Sun Devil fans can only hope the real result does much better than the zeros and ones of the virtual realm.
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)