s improved as this game is from the clunky last version, Head Coach 09 remains a game in search of a reason for being. While it lets you get your hands dirty with the ins-and-outs of being a coach, it also frustrates the player with its numerous missed opportunities, taking away control at crucial moments, and failing to inspire excitement.

Ditching the fake office setup of the last game, Head Coach’s revolving clipboard tool is a great one-stop shop for everything you need to know. The primary face of the clipboard is the action queue, where the game feeds you important events you can either act on or ignore. No longer will you have to sim forward just to have something to do (although you can sim, too). It’s a very passive way to be active, if that makes sense. It didn’t take long to get comfortable with the flow of the game, but as soon as you do, the game puts a wall between you and control of your football team. For instance, the computer controls which free agent bids come across your desk (including those for your own freakin’ players!), and the computer’s bizarre draft suggestions control your approval rating.

During games this feeling of relative powerlessness continues. Although you can design plays on the fly, which is cool, I was bugged by the fact that you can’t audible or even watch replays from different angles in order to study the game film. The former problem means you’re stuck running the same play when your team automatically goes into the hurry-up offense. The game asks you to show emotion during key moments, but you don’t know how it affects your team. The CPU coordinators do a decent job of calling plays if you let them, but the overall execution is questionable. Players can be unaware of the ball, running backs juke out of open holes while they are in them, and QBs take unnecessary sacks or get way too addicted to the dump-off pass.

Perhaps most frustrating of all is the overall lack of excitement during games. There are no halftime speeches or adjustments or even NCAA-like in-game quizzes to sharpen your players or motivational choices during timeouts. The latter has been in NCAA for years. I also wish there were more connections with the work your team puts in during the week, such as seeing the positives/negatives during a game of scripted play sequences (which some NFL teams do) or having more feedback in what parts of your pre-game gameplan are/aren’t working and how to work with your coordinators at fixing any problems. This year’s game has added Defining Moments – where a key gametime decision can reduce your approval rating, but that’s more about what the fans and media think you should do than what’s a smart football decision. Great. Rube nation has more power than I do?!

This game is like your favorite team going from a 5-11 season one year to a 6-10 record the next. Regardless of whatever improvements have occurred, you aren’t going anywhere with that kind of record.