EA Sports College Football 26 Reveals Star Cover Athletes

Last month, EA revealed the release date for College Football 26, but held back most of the details fans want to know before the launch date. Today, they’ve finally started to peel back the curtain, giving fans their first look at this year’s cover. As predicted by us earlier this year, it features multiple cover athletes, but somewhat surprisingly, they’re both from the same position group.

College Football 26 revealed two covers. The standard edition features Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams and Ohio State wideout Jeremiah Smith. Both receivers are coming into their second seasons in college football and exploded onto the scene as freshmen.

Williams racked up 48 catches for 865 yards and 10 total TDs to finish as a freshman All-American. Smith was even better with 76 catches for 1,315 yards and 15 TDs en route to winning a national championship. Of course, he had three more games to put up those eye-popping numbers, but it’s clear that these two are ones to watch this year.

The duo also headline the deluxe edition cover, but are joined by several players from the past and present. Fans will notice current players like Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, Penn State running back Nick Singleton, and Notre Dame running back Jerremiyah Love. Former players, including USC running back Reggie Bush, Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson, and Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, also appear.

RELATED: 8 Must-Have Features for EA Sports College Football 26

However, the most exciting addition to the deluxe edition is the coaches who feature. Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman, and Georgia’s Kirby Smart are all on the deluxe edition cover. What makes this important is that it comes along with confirmation that real-world coaches are included in College Football 26.

Last year, EA decided to focus on getting player likenesses into the game, leaving fans with generic coaches. Many assumed College Football 26 would add coach likenesses, so it’s good to see those predictions turn out to be true. From the press release, it’s not immediately clear if all 136 coaches will be included, but we can at least expect to see the top teams have their real-world coach.

Fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out more about EA Sports College Football 26. The developers revealed that we’ll be learning more about this year’s game on May 29th. Most likely, that’ll be an early trailer, and Electronic Arts will slowly reveal more details throughout the summer as we move closer to the release date.

Speaking of EA Sports College Football 26‘s launch, the game is set to release on July 10th for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. If you preorder the deluxe edition, you can hop in three days early on July 7th. You’ll get the same benefit if you pick up the MVP Bundle, which includes both College Football 26 and Madden NFL 26. From the reveal trailer, we know that the two games will have some crossover features this year, so it might be worth grabbing both for this go-around, especially if you want to see your Road to Glory character in Madden 26.