DeAndre Morgan’s room highlights his passion for football. Two high school jerseys decorate his apartment. A pair of cleats are close by. And then his favorite part — two belts.

One belt is his “NCAA belt,” while the other is his “Madden belt.”

The belts let visitors know he is the champ — the best player at NCAA Football 08 and Madden NFL 08 on PlayStation 2 among his teammates.

“Everybody is like, ‘Why do you have these belts up?’ I’m like, ‘Look man, you better read the titles,'” Morgan said.

They are wrestling belts, but he plastered titles over the belts, which lets people know the meaning.

Morgan, a redshirt freshman cornerback, said he’s a “gamer.” He originally was a Madden player, but when NCAA Football 08 switched its controls to the same as Madden, he knew he could be good.

He has three teams he likes to play with — Georgia Tech, Auburn and Florida State. Rarely does he play with N.C. State, and when he does, he doesn’t play as himself, No. 21. While he said he is better at defense, where he plays with the free safety, he does have a “money play” on offense.

I-Form. Three wideouts. Two backs. The slot receiver runs a post route while the two “outside guys run a go-route.” The two running backs flare out.

Where he goes with the ball depends on what defense his opponent is playing.

“If they’re in cover 3, I’m going over top, because I usually have a 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-6 receiver. And then, if he’s in man, with two over top, I’m going through the middle,” Morgan said. “It’s hard to stop because I then have a quarterback that can run. When the running backs flare out, the linebackers go too, so the middle of the field is wide open — either for the post or I’m going to run it with the quarterback.”

And he runs the same play until the opponent finds a way to stop him.

Even though Morgan has taken the title, other people on the team still play frequently for fun.

Junior running back Andre Brown is an avid player, despite being one of the worst Madden players on the team.

“I’m the one that everybody comes to the room and beats up on,” Brown said. “So I’m not that good at it, but it’s fun.”

And according to senior wide receiver John Dunlap, Brown is not just being humble.

“Yeah, Andre stinks,” Dunlap said.

One of the first things Brown does when he gets the NCAA Football 08 is to go to the rosters.

Asked whether he, or the players on the team, looked at ratings, Brown hesitated, and then smiled.

“Of course you’re going to do that,” he said with a laugh.

“Everybody’s going to look at the speed and say,’You only gave me an 88 [out of 100] speed? I’m more of a 95.'”

Was Brown right about his 88 speed?

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m just saying,” Brown said. “I don’t know it right off the bat. I don’t get into it like that. I know they got me a little but slower than what I am — I know I’m faster than where they say I’m at.”

Brown happens to be a 91 speed in the game.

Redshirt junior quarterback Daniel Evans said he is one of the few players on the team that doesn’t play frequently.

Evans said if he has free time, he’d rather “do other things than that.” Even though he doesn’t play, he does watch.

And he’s learned one thing from his teammates when they play.

“I watch other guys get after it a little bit. It’s fun. Everybody has their own little thing they like to do,” Evans said. “Everybody thinks they can be an offensive coordinator.”

But Dunlap wouldn’t be too much of a coordinator. He said he finds one player on the team and goes his way all game — No. 1.

“Whenever I play with N.C. State, I give myself the ball every play,” Dunlap said with a laugh. “So everybody always knows where I’m going.”

Instead of putting himself in the backfield or on defense, Dunlap sticks to the receiver position.

“I just like wideout — that’s all I play,” Dunlap said.

As for who other players on the team say is the best “gamer,” they usually mention Morgan as one of the top three players. But Dunlap said the best three are himself, redshirt freshman wide receiver Darrell Davis and senior tight end Anthony Hill.

He may have forgotten about Morgan.

“He plays some of the not-so-good guys,” Morgan said. “He doesn’t want to come my way.”

And Hill?

“Oh, I smashed Anthony Hill,” Morgan said with a laugh.

Originally Hill had control of the “NCAA belt.” Then Morgan earned it, but he lost it to Davis. Davis had it for the longest, until Morgan got it back — and now he holds the record.

To earn the title, it takes more than one game.

“Say if I play you five or six times and I beat you all five or six times,” Morgan said. “And then you beat me one time — that doesn’t make you the champ. We’re going to do the best out of three. And whoever wins that series is the champ.”

Morgan said he stays away from the computer because “it’s too easy.” He said he plays as many guys as he can, anywhere, anytime — basically “anybody who calls” him or wants to play.

“I’ll even fix you dinner,” he said with a smile.

Jeffreys takes on the champDeAndre Morgan, who wears No. 21 and is a redshirt freshman cornerback for the football team, is known as the champ at NCAA Football 08. And Deputy Sports Editor Nick Jeffreys got a chance to play the champ and try to take his belt.

To start the game, Morgan chose Auburn for multiple reasons –a fast quarterback, tall receivers and a good defense. I had a choice –I could go with West Virginia and take a team with a speedy quarterback or go with N.C. State and hope I could pull off an upset.

I chose the Wolfpack because it’s a win-win situation. If I win the game, great. If I lose, I’ll just blame it on the secondary, with Morgan right beside me.

So, to make it interesting, I moved Morgan to the starting cornerback position. After a quick look at his 89 speed, Morgan was ready to respond.

“They don’t know what they are talking about,” Morgan said.

He pointed to an article from his high school days –showing a 4.26 40-yard dash time.

Early in the game, on my second possession, I’d already lost Stone (who I started at QB) and Beck.

“Before long, you’re going to have me playing at quarterback,” he said.

At the end of the first quarter, I was down 21-3. When the second quarter started, he continued to go deep on me, and I couldn’t get my cornerbacks to make any plays. I look at the corner who keeps getting beat, and it happens to be No. 21. So I pull No. 21 out of the game as Morgan looks on.

By half, it was even worse –35-10.

Not too much changed as the third quarter played on. So rather than a 21-point forfeit rule, we implemented a 42-point forfeit rule. But when the score had reached 49-10 halfway through the third, we both agreed that was probably enough.

If he isn’t the champ, I don’t know who is.

-Nick Jeffreys

Quotable moments from Morgan during the game:“You can quit whenever you want because this is going to get ugly.””When I play online, they mute me because I’ll be talking so much.””You don’t understand, I do this for a living.”