From Bottom On Up:NCAA Football 2005 Dynasty

[Izulde]

All right, so it's not a text-based sim, exactly, but I think the game is deep enough that it holds promise for a Dynasty. Unlike my other dynasty reports that I've done on other boards, this will not be an RP story thread so much as it is a basic record of how well I do each season, each game, my recruiting accomplishments, my players' accomplishments, and so on. I hope that by doing this, I not only get a sense of how my program is developing, but that by writing things down and laying everything out, that I'll have greater success than I might otherwise have.

Using NCAA Football 2005 for the PS2, I resign as a coach immediately after the game begins and simulate a year, intent on taking one of the lowest ranked teams in the nation after the season is over.

It comes down to a choice between Arkansas State and San Jose State. While I love the city of San Jose, I decided to go with Arkansas State because in my mind the Sun Belt is a lower prestige conference than the WAC and so truly has that bottom of the barrel feel.

As we head into the offseason, it's noted that Arkansas State is a 1-star prestige program (obviously) and that we lose a ton of players to graduation, including some very vital starters, the most important of which is a 91 overall rated Middle Linebacker. The Indians finished the season before 1-10 (0-7). The goals in my new contract are to have a winning season and earn a bowl bid. My budget is set to 40% recruiting, 35% training, and 25% discipline.

Before I get a chance to really look over my roster for recruiting, I receive a notice that there's a junior DT from the University of Alabama who wants to transfer to our school. He hasn't been happy with the amount of playing time he's received there and wants to go to a place where he'll have more snaps. As it turns out, he's rated 78 overall, and as such, I gleefully accept the transfer offer. He instantly becomes, before recruiting, my top defensive tackle by an insanely huge margin (Next highest DT is 65). Look for DT #91 to become a vital cog in our defensive machine his last two years here.

Going into recruiting, we have no less than 15 mandatory holes to fill. As a side note, we run a 4-3 defense, with the Balanced Pass playbook. We need to get 2 QBs, 1 FB, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 1 C, 1 G, 1 T, 1 DE, 1 OLB, 3 MLBs, and 1 CB.

So in terms of numbers, and with our likely miniscule budget, MLB is at first glance going to be the highest priority going into recruiting. A further examination of position by position for returning players will follow in the next post, however, to get a true handle on what's going on.

[MizzouRah]

This should be interesting!


Todd

[Izulde]

MizzouRah: Thanks for the comment! :) Yeah, I'm hoping this will prove interesting, both for myself and for the people reading it :)

Returning Players for the Arkansas State Indians
A side note: 2004 stats will not be included because they aren't my players. After this season though, the stats from the year before will be posted, if any apply.

QB #10 (Senior) 6'2" 203 lbs (Scrambler)
OA:62 Speed:76 Awareness:62 Throwing Power:74 Throwing Accuracy:68
He's a running quarterback, which I like, but everything else about him is iffy at best. Considering we need 2 QBs, look for him to be replaced by an incoming freshman.

HB #23 (Senior) 6'3" 222 lbs (Offensive Captain) (Speed)
OA:76 Speed:92 Awareness:76 Acceleration:93 Carries:74 Break Tackles:72
Despite part-time duty last season, he will be the crucial key to the offense this year, barring any major coups in recruiting, that is.

HB #22 (Junior) 6'0" 199 lbs (Speed)
OA:65 Speed:84 Awareness:62 Acceleration:85 Carries:65 Break Tackles:70
An inferior to the starter in every way, don't look for him to get any playing time unless the #23 gets hurt.

HB #25 (Senior Redshirt) 6'2" 225 lbs (Power)
OA:52 Speed:70 Awareness:48 Acceleration:80 Carries:62 Break Tackles:68
While I like the idea of having a power back, his strength of 56 is still inferior to #23's, which is 59. He likely won't get any carries.

FB #47 (Senior Redshirt) 6'0" 238 lbs (Blocking)
OA:68 Strength:62 Awareness:59 Carries:59 Break Tackles:62 Runblock:65
A middle of the road fullback. Not sure if I'll have him run in short-yardage situations like I prefer to use my FBs for, but at the very least, he should be able to block and start his last season unless a hotshot recruit comes along.

WR #86 (Sophomore Redshirt) 5'9" 165 lbs (Balanced)
OA:68 Speed:89 Awareness:62 Catches:76 Jump:62
Fast receiver who may not get as many balls as he should due to his mediocre jumping. Still, he's only a sophomore and he should get the nod for the possession slot, again caveat to any frosh phenoms.

WR #84 (Senior Redshirt) 6'3" 189 lbs (Balanced)
OA:65 Speed:80 Awareness:56 Catches:72 Jump:84
His jumping ability makes him a valuable deep threat, but his position as the deep receiver starter is not guaranteed, as you'll see below.

WR #85 (Sophomore Redshirt) 6'2" 180 lbs (Balanced)
OA:62 Speed:78 Awareness:59 Catches:70 Jump:80
His greater awareness and the fact that he caught passes last season as opposed to the senior above means that he could surpass #84 on the depth chart.. Though keep in mind, all of this is preliminary talk prior to any recruiting and also doesn't include the spring training results.

TE #81 (Junior Redshirt) 6'4" 238 lbs (Balanced)
OA:65 Strength:62 Awareness:59 Catches:62 Runblock:59
Very mediocre. He neither runblocks well nor catches all that spectacularly. Since I frequently use the TE as a safety valve receiver underneath, I may hunt for a starting replacement for him in recruiting, rather than bench filler.

RT #76 (Sophomore Redshirt) 6'4" 288 lbs (Balanced)
OA:62 Strength:80 Awareness:62 Passblock:72 Runblock:74
I actually consider him to be quite a serviceable starting RT. He just needs to amp up his awareness, I think, and he's young yet.

LT #77 (Senior) 6'5" 301 lbs (Balanced)
OA:56 Strength:76 Awareness:56 Passblock:70 Runblock:70
Eeesh! This is not the kind of guy you want to have starting as your LT by any means! Consider this a position of great priority, particularly given that this guy's a senior, so he's out after next year, regardless.

RG #79 (Senior) 6'3" 296 lbs (Balanced)
OA:59 Strength:76 Awareness:70 Passblock:70 Runblock:68
He's got some of the best awareness on the team, which should make up for his rather mediocre blocking abilities.

LG #72 (Senior Redshirt) 6'3" 284 lbs (Balanced)
OA:56 Strength:70 Awareness:56 Passblock:74 Runblock:74
Oh, if only this guy had the RG's awareness, how much better he would be! Still, the fact that we have two seniors for guards means I'll likely have to go hunting during recruiting.

C #69 (Junior Redshirt) 6'2" 294 lbs (Balanced)
OA:68 Strength:80 Awareness:68 Passblock:80 Runblock:78
Given that this team is supposed to suck, I'm perfectly satisfied with this guy being the starting C for the next couple years.

LE #90 (Senior) 6'1" 252 lbs (Passrusher)
OA:78 Speed:80 Strength:68 Awareness:68 Acceleration:78 Tackles:74
A key player on the defense; I expect him to be able to really shut down people.

LE #33 (Senior) 6'1" 248 lbs (Passrusher)
OA:72 Speed:72 Strength:65 Awareness:65 Acceleration:74 Tackles:70
I'm sorely tempted to move him over to RE and play him out of position, and you'll see why below. A poor man's #90, but still definitely worth playing.

RE #94 (Junior) 6'4" 236 lbs (Balanced)
OA:56 Speed:52 Strength:70 Awareness:65 Acceleration:62 Tackles:65
While the strongest of our three DL, that's about it for any ability he has. Will most likely lose his spot either to an incoming freshman, or, far more likely, #33.

DT #91 (Junior Transfer) 6'2" 302 lbs (Run Stopper)
OA:78 Speed:56 Strength:89 Awareness:65 Acceleration:65 Tackles:85
This guy is an elephant in the middle. I'm really glad he decided to transfer here from Alabama, because while he isn't going to get many sacks, if any, he'll plug the inside and eat tailbacks alive.

DT #98 (Senior) 6'4" 276 lbs (Balanced)
OA:65 Speed:59 Strength:72 Awareness:70 Acceleration:59 Tackles:70
The next three DTs are all pretty close together, and since I won't be recruiting any DTs because of limited budget and more urgent needs elsewhere, it's going to be the spring training that decides who starts along with Elephantman in the middle. #98 has the inside track, though.

DT #92 (Sophomore Redshirt) 6'0" 283 lbs (Balanced)
OA:62 Speed:59 Strength:76 Awareness:59 Acceleration:62 Tackles:68
As of right now, he's probably going to end up being the last of the three unless he breaks through in the spring. See below for details.

DT #43 (Junior) 6'1" 262 lbs (Pass Rusher)
OA:62 Speed:62 Strength:70 Awareness:65 Acceleration:65 Tackles:65
His greater awareness, speed, and acceleration all translate into him likely getting the nod for the #3 DT position. Also has 65 jumping ability, which could translate into interceptions if he's pressuring the QB if he plays.

DT #96 (Sophomore Redshirt) 6'4" 258 lbs (Pass Rusher)
OA:56 Speed:65 Strength:65 Awareness:52 Acceleration:65 Tackles:65
Last and least.

ROLB #14 (Sophomore Redshirt) 6'1" 218 lbs (Coverage)
OA:74 Speed:82 Awareness:65 Acceleration:86 Catches:59 Tackles:76
This is just a nice player all around. With his acceleration and speed, I expect to be able to blitz with him quite a bit. The fact that he's only a sophomore makes this even better.

ROLB #44 (Senior) 5'11" 215 lbs (Coverage)
OA:62 Speed:76 Awareness:62 Acceleration:80 Catches:52 Tackles:65
A serviceable backup.

LOLB #38 (Sophomore Redshirt) 6'0" 180 lbs (Coverage)
OA:62 Speed:80 Awareness:59 Acceleration:82 Catches:52 Tackles:62
A poorer version of #14. While I may blitz with him occassionally, most often I'll leave him back in coverage. He could conceivably be pushed by a freshman as well.

MLB As we have no MLB, this instantly becomes the #1 priority in recruiting.

CB #36 (Sophomore Redshirt) 5'10" 172 lbs (Coverage)
OA:80 Speed:95 Awareness:68 Agility:88 Acceleration:96 Catches:62
CB is the strongest position on the squad I think, as the starting pair are two of our top players. I love this guy. I love the fact that he's only a sophomore even more. I just wish he had better ability of catching the ball to get more INTs. Still, I expect this guy to not only start at CB, but likely be a returner for us as well.

CB #38 (Junior Redshirt) 6'1" 190 lbs (Balanced)
OA:76 Speed:88 Awareness:70 Agility:87 Acceleration:90 Catches:62
With how weak this team is and how sucky the other teams in the conference are likely to be, having a pair of CBs this good as the starters means that we'll at least be in somewhat decent shape as far as defending against the pass goes (or so I hope).

CB #34 (Senior) 5'9" 192 lbs (Hard Hitter)
OA:56 Speed:76 Awareness:56 Agility:74 Acceleration:78 Catches:59
Last and least of all the CBs. Will likely be supplanted by a freshman, and a walk-on freshman at that.

FS #24 (Sophomore Redshirt) 6'0" 192 lbs (Balanced)
OA:70 Speed:84 Awareness:59 Agility:80 Catches:62 Tackles:65
A nice enough starter. With him and the backup that we've got, it makes FS a position we don't have to unduly concern ourselves with.

FS #43 (Junior) 5'8" 184 lbs (Balanced)
OA:62 Speed:76 Awareness:56 Agility:74 Catches:62 Tackles:62
He'll do okay as a backup. And yes, I'm running out of steam for writing these evaluations, as I've been at them for a good 2 or 3 hours now. ;)

SS #21 (Senior Redshirt) 6'2" 208 lbs (Balanced)
OA:80 Speed:87 Awareness:82 Agility:84 Catches:52 Tackles:68
Who cares that he's not the greatest interceptor or tackler on the planet? His football smarts and footwork more than make up for it. This guy and the other starters I have in my defensive backfield will help me to sleep easier at night concerning my pass defense.

SS #28 (Freshman Redshirt) 6'4" 205 lbs (Balanced)
OA:68 Speed:85 Awareness:44 Agility:85 Catches:59 Tackles:70
He has all the physical tools to be able to replace and even better than hallowed #21. The problem? We don't know if he has the intelligence necessary to put the whole package together. The bright side is that he'll have another full season to develop and learn before he'll be likely to be called on.

SS #30 (Senior) 5'11" 190 lbs (Balanced)
OA:65 Speed:76 Awareness:68 Agility:74 Catches:59 Tackles:62
2nd Team All Sun-Belt last season. If you said that doesn't mean a damn thing to me, you'd be right. Still, the fact that he won the award, combined with his superior knowledge of the game, means that he might push the freshman out of the top backup slot. Again, spring will determine it, as I don't plan to recruit a SS.

K #88 (Senior Redshirt) 5'9" 195 lbs (Sporadic)
OA:52 Awareness:68 Kicking Power:80 Kicking Accuracy:76
I don't know why he isn't rated higher. Oh well, since I generally don't kick unless it's truly a makeable distance, it becomes a moot point.

P #1 (Junior) 6'1 211 lbs (Balanced)
OA:84 Awareness:78 Kicking Power:89 Kicking Accuracy:86
Easily the best punter in the Sun Belt in my opinion. No recruiting will be done for a couple years at this position.

So after looking over the roster needs, I come to the following conclusions:
1) Because of the low budget, I'm only going to stick to the positions that need warm bodies to fill, except in the case of a 3-star or higher prospect showing genuine interest in us.
2) The orders of importance are:

1. MLB (3 needed)-We have NONE
2. QB (2 needed)-The lone holdover we have sucks hobbit snot
3. LT (1 needed)-We desparately need someone decent to protect our new QB
4. LG (1 needed)-See LT.
5. TE (1 needed)-I'm not impressed with the guy we have at all.
6. LOLB (1 needed)-Somebody needs to push the current starter.
7. CB (1 needed)-A good third CB would be really nice to have
8. RE (1 needed)-While I'm probably going to start the second senior LE, someone to build on would be nice.
9. WR (2 needed)-Largely due to numbers, I'd say, though some might make this higher priority.
10. FB (1 needed)-We'll have to replace the senior at some point. Would be more important, save for that there are other areas of greater concern.
11. C (1 needed)-We need a backup to the junior. Nothing more, nothing less.

And there you have it! The next post will take a look at Week 1 for recruiting.

Question:
Do I have my ratings of priority for each position properly assigned, you think?

Also, this pre-recruiting format will be used for this first season only. After this, the position by position breakdown will only occur in the spring. I just wanted to get a general baseline for this first recruiting period.

[Izulde]

With my shopping list thusly in hand, I enter Week 1 of the Recruiting Season, filled with hope that at least some of the items we have set down can be filled via recruitment without having to resort to the horror of Walk-Ons.

The first thing that we do is look at the interested players and receive an incredible shock to our systems. No less than *THREE* 4-STAR QBs have interest in us! Including one whose an Elite 11 QB that has us as the number one school! This isn't supposed to happen to a 1-star school! After further review of the QBs, however, it looks as though a one Antwaun Nash of Canyon, TX looks like our dream QB, so we go and spend 20 of our 27 points on him and pitch the location:

Antwaun Nash #24 QB 5'11" 193 lbs Canyon, TX (4 Stars) (Pocket Passer)
40 Time:4.86 Bench Press:250 Squat:385
Field Awareness:A+ Arm Strength:A+ Pass Accuracy:A-
Arkansas State Interest:#2 school behind Texas A&M
This may be suicide, but I want this guy so bad it hurts

Going through the other players, we elect to grab a guy who we think will be an instant starter as well, if we land him:

TE Darren Todd 6'4" 241 lbs Osceola, Ark. (Balanced)
Ranking:#76 TE
40 Time:4.78 Bench Press:335 Squat:390
Field Awareness:B+ Vertical Jump:29.7" Hands:A+
Arkansas State Interest Level:#1 school
Recruiting Points Spent:7 Focus:Location
His hands and field awareness have me drooling

Here goes nothing....

[Izulde]

OH MY GOD!!! OH MY GOD!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!

Week 1 Recruit Commitments:

QB Antwaun Nash: Arkansas State!

This guy will bloody OWN the Sun Belt for the next 4 years! The recruiting coup has been achieved! Hallejuah! Hallejuah! Hallejuah!

Darren Todd hasn't committed yet, but that's all right. I chip another 3 points at him based on the working Location to try and haul him in.

Scanning the interested players, I see yet another 4-star recruit who has Texas A&M as his #1 school. Let's see if we can make this 2 for 2:

WR David Handy #24 WR 6'1" 185 lbs 4-stars Balanced
40 Time:4.37 Bench:240 Squat:315
Field Awareness:A- Vertical Jump:41.9" Hands:A+
Recruiting Points:20 Focus:Location
Arkansas State Interest:#3 school behind Texas A&M and Texas Tech
All right, so I haven't addressed our urgent needs on the defensive side of the ball at all yet. But the chance to really upgrade our passing scheme to go with an already good HB and truly develop a potent offense is too good to pass up.

[Izulde]

The advent of Week #3 brings no commitments, but on the bright side, neither Todd nor Handy have committed elsewhere. The same 3 and 20 location focus allocation is kept going, particularly since we're now #2 on Handy's list. Amend that, Handy doesn't care about location. We instead decide to pitch Playing Time.

And so the roll of the dice continues. I have a feeling next week we'll start addressing our problems on the O-line and at MLB.

[Izulde]

Week #4 and still no commitments.... but we lost Handy to Texas A&M. Damn it! Oh well, this marks the beginning of what I think will turn into some nice recruiting wars between us and Texas A&M through the years (If I stay here).

Todd still has us as #1, and we upgrade his point total to 5 this week to try and bring him in.

The MLB situation is dismal no matter where we look, but in the end we decide to pump all the remainder of our points in the following player:

MLB Alex Ivey 1-star #146 MLB 6'0" 238 lbs Balanced
40 Time:4.92 Bench Press:380 Squat:560
Field Awareness:A- Vertical Jump:33.0" Hands:D+
Arkansas Interest Level:Average (Texas, North Texas and Kansas State Top 3)
Points:18 Focus:Location

It's probably too many points to put in to him, but we're desperate to make sure we get a MLB.

[Izulde]

Good news at the start of Week #5! We've brought in both Todd and Ivey into the Arkansas State family!

This leaves open enough points that we can probably try and bring in a couple more other players. Granted, we're going to have ourselves a ton of walk-ons no matter how you slice it, but with the recruiting coup we had, I don't care :)

T Gavin Little #60 T 2-star 6'7" 298 lbs Claremore, OK Balanced
40 Time:5.33 Bench Press:450 Squat:665
Field Awareness:A+ Vertical:27.7"
Points:12 Focus:Location
Arkansas State Interest Level:#2 school (Texas #1)
Though I was tempted to go after one of the two 4-star WRs that still have interest in us, I don't want to risk getting burned again. Besides, we need numbers, and badly. I think he'll be able to fill in at the LT slot nicely

G Pete Caldwell #158 G 2-star 6'3" 285 lbs Conway ARK Balanced
40 Time:5.24 Bench Press:480 Squat:605
Field Awareness:C+ Vertical:26.2"
Points:9 Focus:Location
Arkansas State Interest Level: #2 school (Nebraska #1)
I almost went after a DE instead, but my offensive line is going to need a lot of help protecting my new prize QB and valuable underside receiving target TE, so I went for a guard instead. After all, on the laundry list, G and T were primary concern positions

[Izulde]

The final signing day shows that Caldwell has joined us, but Little didn't sign with anyone. Hopefully he'll come back to us a walk-on. Interestingly enough, the Elite 11 QB, F. Clarke, wound up not signing with anyone either. Evidently he really, really, really wanted to play for Arkansas State, becuase he's still got us listed as our #1 school, even though we never contacted him. His accuracy was just too low for my tastes.

So here's the signing class in synopsis again:

QB Antwaun Nash 5'11" 193 lbs Canyon, TX 4* #24 QB
TE Darren Todd 6'4" 241 lbs Osceola, AR 2* #76 TE
OG Pete Caldwell 6'3" 285 lbs Conway, AR 2* #158 OG
MLB Alex Ivey 6'0" 238 lbs Yukon, OK 1* #146 MLB

Interestingly enough, the #1 recruiting class belonged to... of all teams... #23 North Texas, who were the Sun Belt Champions last year.... Guess who also plays in the Sun Belt? Oops, I guess that would be us. The Mean Green really cleaned up in-state, with their top recruits all coming from Texas.

Their bottom line: 1 5*, 11 4*s, 7 3*s, 4 2*s. Not bad at all for a 2* prestige school... Not bloody bad at all.

The Top 10 Recruiting Classes:
1. North Texas (2* Prestige; #23; Defending Sun Belt Champs)
2. Auburn (6* Prestige; #5)
3. Texas A&M (5* Prestige; #13, but we stole their QB so hah! Interestingly enough, 2 of their top 3 players are C)
4. Oklahoma (6* Prestige; #1; Defending National Champs)
5. Miami (6* Prestige;#9, All Top 3 players are QBs, amusingly enough, with one of them named Gino)
6. California (5* Prestige;#14)
7. USC (5* Prestige;#17; Defending Pac-10 Champs)
8. Iowa (6* Prestige;#2; Defending Big 10 Champs)
9. Tennessee (6* Prestige;#7)
10. Texas (5* Prestige; Unranked)

Looking the list over, it seems pretty clear that the Southern schools, especially the Texas colleges, dominate the list. The farthest north we get in this list is Iowa. It's going to be interesting to keep track of the trends and see if this continues.

115. Arkansas State (1* Prestige;Unranked)
This I don't think is quite fair. Sure we have only 4 players we recruited, but I think our 4* QB should count for a lot more. I was honestly expecting that we'd break out of the Top 100 with that coup, but no such luck.

Coming up next, the expected starters, scheduling, walk-ons, and redshirts, not necessarily in that order.