Alright, so you’re jumping into NCAA 25, specifically Road to Glory, and you’re probably wondering about that whole redshirt thing. Yeah, I spent a good bit of my weekend figuring that one out for my created player. It ain’t exactly plastered on the welcome screen, you know?
My Journey to the Sidelines (The Good Kind)
So, picture this: I’m all hyped, made my quarterback, ready to lead the team to glory, right? Then I start looking at my guy’s stats… oof. A bit rough around the edges. I remembered back in the day, redshirting was a solid option to get an extra year of practice, let your player grow a bit before getting thrown to the wolves. But finding it in NCAA 25? That was a little adventure.
First, I just started my career, went through all the initial setup, picking my school, all that jazz. I was expecting, like, a big pop-up: “HEY! WANNA REDSHIRT?” But nope. Nothing obvious like that. Played through the first couple of training camp drills, talked to the coach in those little dialogue scenes. He was mostly giving me rah-rah speeches.
I was starting to think maybe they’d buried it deep or, worse, taken it out. I actually went digging through the main Road to Glory hub, looking at team rosters, player progression screens, everywhere. For a while there, I was just playing, thinking, “Well, guess my guy’s just gonna have to learn on the fly.”
Here’s How I Finally Did It
Then, it kinda just… appeared. Here’s the nitty-gritty of what I stumbled upon:
- After you get through the initial character creation and maybe the first week or so of the preseason stuff, before you play your first official game, that seemed to be the key window.
- For me, it wasn’t a straightforward menu button at first. I kept advancing week by week in the preseason. I think it was after a particular practice session, or maybe when the depth chart got shuffled a bit, I got a specific interaction or menu prompt.
- There was a point where I was looking at my player’s status or upcoming schedule, and I saw an option, something like “Player Status” or “Season Options.” Clicked into that, and bam, there it was: “Discuss Redshirt Status with Coach” or something similar.
- I clicked on that, and it led to a conversation with my coach. He basically laid out the pros and cons, you know, “You’ll practice with the team, improve your skills, but you won’t play in any games this season.”
- I had to confirm it. Made sure I really wanted to. Once I hit “Yes,” that was it. My guy was officially on the redshirt list for the season.
So, it wasn’t a button on day one, more like an option that unlocked after a little bit of in-game time passed in the preseason. You gotta be a bit patient, I guess, and keep an eye out for those specific coach interactions or deeper menu options around your player’s status as the season approaches.
Life as a Redshirt
Once I actually committed to redshirting, the game changed. No more game day prep for my guy. Instead, it was all about practice. You still do the practice drills, and the focus is purely on upgrading your attributes. You’ll see those numbers tick up week by week, which is pretty satisfying.
You’re basically simulating through the season, watching your team play from the sidelines (in spirit, anyway). It’s a bit of a waiting game, for sure. You don’t get the thrill of playing, but you do get that crucial development. My quarterback definitely felt more ready, attribute-wise, when that next season rolled around.
So yeah, that was my experience trying to redshirt in NCAA 25’s Road to Glory. It wasn’t super obvious right out of the gate, took a bit of poking around and just playing through the initial bits of the career. Hope this helps someone else out there trying to give their player that extra year of seasoning. Definitely feels like it’s worth it if your guy starts off a little green.
