Road to Glory inCollege Football 26lets you live out the ultimate athlete fantasy, playing for a historic college program, winning personal awards, and hopefully leading your program to the national championship. However, even the brightest football stars had to come from humble beginnings.

You likely won’t see much action during your first season and will have to work your way up the depth chart by performing well in practice and impressing your coach. Over time, this hard work and effort will pay off, not only making you a better player but also earning more playing time and eventually a starting role.

Coach Trust

Coach trust is exactly what it sounds like: how much faith your coaches have in youtoexecute their game plan.It can beincreased primarily by making good plays in games, or if you aren’t a starter on the depth chart, byperforming well in practice.

Practice minigames will award bronze, silver, and gold medals based on how well you do. You’ll be given 50 coach trust for a bronze, 150 for silver, and 300 if you earn gold.

As coach trust increases, you’llclaw your way into a starting rolewhile unlockingadditional gameplay perkslike the ability to call your own audibles or set hot routes. Conversely,poor choices on and off the field can damage trust, resulting in playing time being revoked.

Position Battles

When you acquire as much coach trust as another player in your personnel group, you cantrigger a position battle. This will pit you against them ina series of three practice minigames. Score higher than them intwo of the three exercises, and you’ll move up the depth chart! Fail, and you’llneed to earn more trustbefore challenging them again.

you’re able to also move up the depth chart naturally when other players transfer, graduate, or declare for the draft, but that’s entirely based on simulation and RNG.

Coach Happiness

Coach happiness is anew system in College Football 26. While trust is earned over time and governs your spot on the roster, happiness isa bit more mercurial, shifting up and downbased onyour off-the-field actions.

Happiness affectsthe rate at which you earn trust. If the coaching staff is happy with you, you’ll actuallyaccrue trust at an increased rate, helping youadvance your player faster. Unfortunately, if you’ve angered them, you canhemorrhage trust each week, resulting incontinuous lossesuntil you get back in the coaches' good graces.

The main way you affect coach happiness is in theRPG-style decisions you makein between weeks of the season. Making responsible choices canlift their spirits, while being rude or brushing them offwill frustrate them.

Additionally,failing tests or exhibiting poor leadershipthrough your Weekly Agenda menu canresult in happiness eroding. Investing in those categories, however, cangrant you passive happiness bonuses, so you’ll want tofocus your energy on those two metersif you find yourself on your coaching staff’s bad side.

Happiness can also naturally be increased by performing well in games and practices.