One of the sport’s biggest summer storylines features a Michigan Wolverine. As officially announced last week, Donovan Edwards will grace the cover of EA Sports’ College Football 25, which will drop July 19.
Edwards, who learned just a couple months ago that he’d join Quinn Ewers and Travis Hunter as the featured trio in the video game franchise’s return, joined 247Sports last week to discuss the selection.
“I’m very grateful that EA picked me, because they could have chose anybody, either on my team or anybody in the country, because there’s so many types of guys out there. Very grateful as well to be on the cover with Travis and Quinn — two outstanding guys, guys who are going to be first-round Draft picks,” the U-M running back said.
“It feels great, honestly. I went through a lot last year mentally. Wasn’t all the way there physically. But more of the mental side, and I stayed patient. I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to say, ‘I’m being done wrong.’ I just took what was going on, took my situation head-on. So just to be able to get a reward and to be granted with a blessing as being on the cover of EA just really shows how great God’s blessings are, and just staying patient and staying humble.”
Edwards becomes the fourth Michigan football player featured on the cover of the NCAA football video game, joining program greats Charles Woodson, Desmond Howard and Denard Robinson.
Though Edwards hasn’t had the same season-long success as Woodson or Howard or Robinson, his highlights rival anyone’s. He scored twice in the 2024 CFP National Championship Game, twice in a top-five showdown against the Buckeyes in 2022 and even threw a touchdown pass to help Michigan win a drought-breaking Big Ten title in 2021.
Now, his spotlight on the cover of College Football 25 highlights Edwards among the sport’s biggest stars entering 2024.
“To be able to be around those guys was great, because they are respected in what they do,” Edwards said of Hunter and Ewers. “I watched the HBO with Jackson State, with Coach Prime, and Travis was on there, and he had his ankle sprained fighting through it. That gave me a lot of respect for him. And same thing with Quinn. He’s been going through a lot, and he’s overcoming everything that he’s been going through. To be able to talk to them one-on-one, it gave me a lot of respect for them.
“We were doing an interview with multiple other networks, and it was us three answering all the questions. I said that this is something that nobody could take away from us. This is something that we’re bonded together in forever. It’s going to be a point in time where somebody goes to Michigan, Colorado, Texas, and they’re going to look up to us and be like, ‘What did they do? How did they get granted and were blessed to be on the cover of EA?’ Nobody could take this away from us, regardless if they love it or they hate it. Who cares what people think? We’re very blessed.”
Despite the recognition and his insider access, Edwards says he’s still not sure what his player rating will be in the video game. The U-M running back had heard rumors that his speed would be a 76 — out of a possible 99 — before learning that was a joke.
“I felt so disrespected. I was like, ‘You might as well take me out of the game!'” Edwards quipped.
“I’m just going to wait and see and find out where everybody else — or I might just make a phone call right now.”
Regardless of the his ranking or of how much EA paid him for using his image (Edwards declined to detail the financial terms), the Michigan senior says appearing on the cover bestows responsibility toward his team.
“This is a great opportunity for us to be leaders on our own team. We have all this publicity. Now all eyes are on us,” Edwards said. “But there’s two ways that you can go with it. You could be humble or you could be arrogant. But my obligation is I want to build my teammates up.
“I want to make my teammates greater than they could possibly be. And I’m blessed I’m on the cover, but at the same time, it gives me a great opportunity to have a say in what’s going on. I’m in the spotlight to where they’re looking at me. It’s like, ‘He can either be arrogant or he could rise up and he could bring us along with him.’ And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to bring my teammates along with me to make our team better and make each individual, as best as I can, make them better. That’s kind of how I look at it.”
247Sports National College Football Reporter Brandon Marcello is joined by Michigan Wolverines Running Back Donovan Edwards to discuss what it is like to be featured on the cover of EA Sports College Football 25 along with Texas QB Quinn Ewers and Colorado CB/WR Travis Hunter:
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