How to Use Custom Zones in College Football 26

Custom zones are a brand-new feature in this year’s game — and they’re a true game changer. For the first time, you can fully control the depth and placement of your zone defenders, helping you anticipate and counter specific routes.

What are custom zones?

Custom zones let you manually adjust where your defenders drop in zone coverage. This means you can fine-tune your defense to take away routes your opponent relies on.

For example, you can set up a custom zone to cover the exact depth of a corner route, leading to game-changing plays like interceptions or forced incompletions.

How to set a custom zone

To create a custom zone:

• Select a defender using the pre-snap adjustments menu.
• Hold the LB button (Xbox) or L1 (PlayStation).
• Drag the zone with the left stick or D-pad to position it where you want.
• Set the depth — for example, place your outside corner in a cloud flat zone at 20 yards to shut down corner routes.

You can apply this to any defender in zone coverage to match up against specific offensive concepts.

Tip: Get creative with combinations

Don’t hesitate to pair custom zones with man coverage or blitz looks. The more you mix things up, the harder it is for your opponent to predict and attack your defense.