College Football 26 gives players the opportunity to lead their offensive and defensive teams to glory by making the right play calls, and then executing them on the field. However, sometimes, things don't go to plan. That perfect passing play you had in your head immediately gets shut down by the defense, or a better passing option presents itself. This is where the playmaker ability in College Football 26 comes into play, so here's how and when you should use it when driving towards the end zone.

skip defense play offense only in college football 26
College Football 26: How to Skip Defense (Offense Only)

Running your team's offense is arguably the most fun part of College Football 26, so here's how to skip the defense and only play offensive drives.

How to Use Playmaker Ability in College Football 26

A Slight Change from Last Year

how to playmaker in college football 26

To playmaker in College Football 26, you need to press and hold LT/ L2 when in control of your QB on a passing play, and move the right analog stick in the direction that you want your nearest receiver to run in.

This has changed slightly from College Football 25, where you just had to flick the right analog stick without holding LT/L2. The change has been made because quarterbacks can now juke behind the line of scrimmage, which is also assigned to moving the right analog stick in the direction you want to juke in.

Doing so will cause the receiver to stop running the route they were assigned in the play you selected and move in the direction you've chosen. The main challenge with using playmaker in College Football 26 is that it will always impact the route of your nearest receiver. If you have a few receivers who are a similar distance from you, you'll know which receiver is changing their route as a result of the playmaker by the black circle that appears around them on the ground.

For example, in the screenshot above, it's the receiver assigned to my 'B' button that has responded to the playmaker signal. Having a fast wide receiver with a high change of direction stat can help playmaker be more effective.

Using playmaker when your receivers are running straight routes up the field can make it easier spot the receiver who's been impacted by the signal.

In an ideal world, you won't need to playmaker, but if the pocket collapses and your QB is scrambling, you might need to deviate from the initial play and drag a signal to a receiver to move into a less congested area of the field to make a safer pass. If you're needing to buy more time, you can always try juking as the QB, or pump faking to try and trick incoming defenders. If all else fails, you can QB slide and give up on the play.

college football 26 open practice

You can practice the playmaker ability in the practice mode. From the main menu, go to Game Modes and then select Open Practice. Choose 'Offense Only' and you can just focus on running different offensive plays and getting to grips with using playmaker.

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Top Critic Avg: 84 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
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Released
July 10, 2025
ESRB
Everyone / In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items), Users Interact
Developer(s)
EA
Publisher(s)
EA
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College Football 26 In Game Screenshot 1
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
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Genre(s)
Sports