The Pyramid 2017 - Cut Players
 

Welcome to Week 1! It's just recruiting for all teams in Week 1.



=============== #6 Washington State Cougars (0-0) ===============
This week, the Cougars are idle.

=============== Texas State Bobcats (0-0) ===============
This week, the Bobcats are idle.

=============== UTEP Miners (0-0) ===============
This week, the Miners are idle.

=============== Memphis Tigers (0-0) ===============
This week, the Tigers are idle.

=============== Wyoming Cowboys (0-0) ===============
This week, the Cowboys are idle.

=============== Florida Atlantic Owls (0-0) ===============
This week, the Owls are idle.

cruitin's done.

Handed out some hundreds...hoping for some committs early.

UTEP Complete.

Complete.

Week 2 - Deadline is 3/29 (Sun) at 11 p.m. EST
 

Games! There are actual games in Week 2!

Time to teach these poofters a lesson in how to really grab a sweaty man and pull them down.

Side note: My defense is going to be total shit this year.. My god, there is just nothing there.

In a sign of things to come, we struggled defensively all game long and barely squeezed out a 42-35 win thanks to a 4th quarter 4th and 15 conversion from my own 22 with about a minute left. We managed to get a 44 yard bomb on a broken play and with about 8 seconds left we punched it in to seal a win. If we had failed to convert or even punted on the 4th and 15, we're probably 0-1.

Recruiting complete.

So we fell behind 31-7.
We surged back to win 45-38 in OT.

Had to let them score with 40 seconds to go. Then score with 6 seconds left to force OT. A TD scramble on 4th down gave me the lead and we managed to hold them scoreless for the Victory.

There were a total of 7 turnovers in this game. Including 2 "random" fumbles by my RB. Actually liked seeing that. A random dive up the middle and the ball popped out. Shocked me.

Really excited about our True Freshman CB Zach Hardy. He was a late recruiting win for me and many saw him as a WR. He had 4 tackles, a ssack and an INT in his first collegiate game working as our Dime Back.

Likewise Freshman WR Hayden King made his first career grab a 21 yard TD to force OT.

BTW looks like our gameplay settings have changed on my end, but no complaints it was fun!

No sliders have been touched in quite some time.

Strange.
I looked at them after my game because it just played "different" and they were all over the place.

Just logged back into dynasty and looked and totally normal. NOt sure whats up with that.

That's really odd. Like I said, it's been a long time since anything changed. (I actually think we should tweak them to make things harder, but I've lost that battle repeatedly in the past.)

I think the best way to make this game harder is to limit recruiting classes in some way or something.

What if we could only recruit 2 stars and under or something equally drastic?

I think we start a 3rd dynasty, haha.. Created cupcake teams, all from Alaska, all replacing independent teams. No ladder/pyramid, no conference changes. Can only recruit 2 stars and under. I think this would increase the challenge permanently while adding some interesting wrinkles in other ways.

In fact, I think I might try doing this in a solo career.. ought to be interesting.

It should be set in Hawaii. Might as well enjoy a nice climate!

I'm in another online league with some old college buddies.

Now we have a weird rule set that many might not find enjoyable. Namely we dont play any games (sim) until bowl season. And all H2H games are simmed.

But our recruiting rules are very simple but make the game a much tougher world than you woud think at first blush.
2 rules:
1) No team can sign more than 15 recruits per season. Over signs are cut in order of signing. If multiple commits at offseason stage put you over the number team owner can pick which player to keep.
2) During the cut phase the rest of the league chooses (via vote) one incoming freshman to eliminate from your team and you must cut them.

So what happens here is 14 x 5 = 70
If any player transfers or leaves early you have a walk on on your roster.
You have to be careful who you take early because it may mean you cant take stud late.
You have to over recruit a position of need. If you need a Qb and you sign a stud the league is cutting him, so you better sign two.
If you dont sign all 15 one year you are going to have walkons.
There is also a strategy that has developed of quickly signing 2&3 stars. and then just trying to sign as many players as posisble to force them to be cut.
I think one team last year had a starting QB (converted RB) ranked 48 OVR.

Like I said we have 10 owners who know each other well, we quite enjoy just screwing with each other. And we play 1 stage every day 7 days a week. Dont make the 9est deadline tough crap the league moves on. Its kinda fun though because a season lasts 2 weeks.

Eh, anything where you don't actually play the games is a non-starter for me.

As for Julio's suggestion, I think a 3-star and below recruiting rule could be fun.

Right I asnt suggesting the sim only for this league. I wouldnt be interested in that. And the only reason we sim only is to keep it at a stage every day.

Im not even suggesting the other recruiting rules be adapted, just giving ideas of something Ive used.

The slider set we currently use would suck out loud with only low star players, mainly because of the speed differential.

I personally like the choice of fewer stars and let folks pick where to apply them. But im down with whatever you throw out Im not leaving until I win me a natty somewhere.

UTEP paid back Texas A&M for the loss last year. It was a good old school ass whippin.

"Revenge." Is there any sweeter word in sports?

Week 3 - Deadline is 4/5 (Sun) at 11 p.m. EST
 

We're on to Week 3. :)

Wow.

We started off down 21-0 to Michigan, in Michigan. We had one first down, things looked bleak at the end of a quarter. Second quarter, we stop the bleeding and get a stop, then we get a score of our own. 21-7 going into half time.

We get the ball to start the second, and we march slowly down the field, picking and poking our way in for another TD to make it 21-14. Our defense was better in the second half than it was in the first, so we managed to get Michigan into a FG situation to make it 24-14 Michigan.

We get the ball back and again slowly march down the field to get another score. We barely convert on several 3rd downs, but we make it and that is all that matters. We score right at the beginning of the 4th quarter to make it 24-21 Michigan. Coming back, they drive right down our throat with some killer back breakers on 3rd down, pushing their way inside our ten, but we manage to barely stiffen enough to hold them to another FG attempt. 27-21 Michigan.

About 4 minutes left, we have our shot to take the lead. We drive down and score with relative ease, but we score with 2 minutes left, which is probably way too much time. It does give us the lead, however, 28-27.

They come back out and surprisingly we get a 4 down stop right off the bat to take the ball over and seemingly ice it with one first down. We get the first down, but we also score to make it 35-27. There are about 40 seconds left. Michigan has one time out.

They drive down the field slowly, but efficiently enough to be at our 40 yard line or so with a few seconds left, everything on the line. We drop into prevent, the ball is a jump ball and it comes down right in front of the end zone.. One of their guys has it. Unbelievable catch. But that's okay though, he clearly comes down before reaching the goal line and time has run out.

Or maybe they scored. The ref says that dude scored somehow.

I don't need to see a replay, I want to challenge. I can't. Not reviewable. Son of a damn bitch, are you kidding me?

Anyway, anticlimactic ending, we stop the 2 point conversion attempt and win 35-33. We had to earn every damn ounce of this one though, and it almost got way out of hand before I could do anything.

Julio....I just played about the same game.
Won 30-27 in OT against unranked SC.

Starting QB out for an extended time with a broken shoulder. He is also my ONLY dual threat QB.

Stats will look good for the game but NOTHING was working except for a few rb flare passes and an occasional busted coverage.


Tough tough game but we won.

It certainly hasn't been an easy season so far, heh. I kinda like earning the wins though, almost as much as I like trying to score 80 a week in the Ladder.

Also, tough loss on the QB. It definitely complicates things to be stuck with a pure pocket QB. They might generally have better arms, but you can't extend plays and the blocking must be solid for them to be as effective as a guy with some athleticism.

The thing is I have a 99 OVR Pocket Pass QB who I bench in favor of an 82 OVR DT.


I love the option. GOing to have to edit my playbook to add pass plays

Yeah, it double hurts when you are used to an entirely different style of play. I know I almost always forget when something like this happens, and inevitably I run a play or attempt a maneuver that is entirely outside a guys skill set every quarter or so. I had a pocket QB take over for an exceptionally athletic scrambler type in a single player game and must have gotten sacked about 10 times in the first game with him because I kept trying to roll out of the pocket.

I will have my recruiting done tomorrow night.

I will have internet at my new place by the weekend. Pretty excited, upgraded to a package that is 6 times faster than my old one. I'm hoping that helps with the lag issues that have plagued a few of my head to head games with others.

I played my game last night, but when it went to upload the results, it kept saying the dynasty servers were down. I'll try again this evening.

Seems like things are getting wonky recently. Get your stuff together, EA.

Still not able to upload results. I've posted on their support forum. Hopefully someone at EA checks it out.

From looking at OS forums, it appears others are having the same issue. Maybe we need to put things on hold until they iron things out?

Cartman,

Did you try clearing the cache to see if that would work?

Clearing the cache worked for me earlier today. 10/10, would bang.

I'll try the cache clearing tonight.

That sounds like a euphemism.

Clearing the cache didn't work for me. After I cleared and restarted, I went in and tried to make some changes to recruiting before playing a whole game. When it tried to upload the changes, got the same message as trying to upload game results.

Here's another thing you could try. Really, I'm grasping at straws at this point. The website rarely works, and the in-game problems that others have had are disheartening too.

I've always had the ports opened, and even have a dedicated IP address for the 360.

Cartman--would you rather we advance and see how things go after that, or do you want to try playing your game again?

Let me try playing it again. I'll give it a go tonight.

Someone on OS said to recruit before your game. If it doesn't give you an error when you're done, it should work when you play your game too. Also, changing your depth chart is a good way to test how things are working at any given time.

yeah, that's how I tested last time. I made a recruit change to see if that would upload before spending all the time playing the game.

Did it work?

Didn't get a chance to play last night, got caught up with something for work. I'll definitely be able to try tonight.

Was able to get the game in. Unfortunately the outcome wasn't as good as the one I tried for three days to upload.

Crap. Sorry to hear the outcome changed. But at least it uploaded.

The Pyramid 2016 - Week 4 - Deadline is 5/2 (Sat) at 11 p.m. EST
 

We're on to Week 4. Hopefully EA has ironed out the kinks...

Utah (0-1) at Memphis (0-0)
Boise State (1-1) at #13 Wyoming (2-0)
Baylor (1-0) at Texas State (0-2)
#25 FAU (1-0) at Florida (2-1)

We put a stomping on Boise for our first easy win of the year, something like 56-31 I think it was. Upload worked fine. Maybe we're out of those dark woods.

Ugh, just got the can't upload message again after finishing my game.

Yeah, I'm getting upload issue when I try to recruit. I will have to make sure the ports are open.

It let me recruit and no issues...shows me as ready to advance.

So it seems that, with the depth chart check, that one will eventually upload if it doesn't at first. But when you play a game, if it doesn't upload at first, it probably isn't going to. Is that what others have experienced?

Just as an FYI, we're going to be transferring commish duties for the Pyramid over to Julio.

got my recruiting to work and ready to advance.

I promise to be a good commish, and I will only cheat when it benefits me.

So nothing will be different?

Ugh, holy hell.

I let Utah go up with 40 seconds left...march down the field and hit a pass over the middle. I do not have any timeouts left but there was 13 secs on the clock. More than enough time to line up, spike it and kick the FG for the win.

Nope, my WR is injured, lays on the field and flops like a dead fish until 10 secs burn off, by that time there wasn't enough time to line up an snap it, we lose.

I threw my controller across the room on that one...I might have to go get me a new one.

That's a sucky way to lose.

Nothing except the haircut and the odor.

So are we ready to advance? Last time I checked, cartman still had a game left... I think. Not having a working website makes it harder for me to keep track of where things are with the various leagues.

I still have a game. I wasn't able to upload over the weekend. I'll give it a try again tonight.

Finally was able to get a game to upload

I'll clear that OD tonight, Kodos. Then I think you'll be able to hand over the reins.

Sounds good.

Okay, I believe I have successfully transferred the commissioner role over to you, JR. And it looks like we are ready to advance. Thanks for taking the controls. :)

You got it. I will advance us tonight or tomorrow morning.

Er... Maybe I won't advance us just yet.. Upon loading the dynasty, I am shown that we are in the coach changes stage all of a sudden, and players on my team are totally out of whack. My starting OL are all rated 40, players are missing, etc.

Should I advance and see what happens?

Week 5 - Deadline is 5/24 (Sun) at 11 p.m. EST
 

Well I reloaded the dynasty and everything looked fine, so I have now advanced us to week 5. We'll try and get it knocked out by 5/24. Let me know if you see anything weird with the file.


Welcome to Week 5!
Remember to visit dynasty.easports.com to publish your own stories.

=============== Florida Atlantic Owls (1-1) ===============
Last week, Florida Atlantic lost 34-14 against Florida (3-1).
This week, the Owls will host South Alabama (1-2).

=============== #2 Washington State Cougars (2-0) ===============
Last week the Cougars were idle.
This week, the Cougars travel to Oxford to face the #21 Ole Miss Rebels (2-2).
In recruiting news, the following Washington State targets have announced their decisions:
- (****) WR Carey Owens has committed to UTEP
- (****) LE Sean Pierce has committed to Washington State

=============== Texas State Bobcats (0-3) ===============
Last week, Texas State lost 47-35 against Baylor (2-1).
This week, the Bobcats travel to Las Vegas to face the UNLV Rebels (2-1).

=============== #17 UTEP Miners (2-0) ===============
Last week the Miners were idle.
This week, the Miners will host #9 UCLA (2-1).
In recruiting news, the following UTEP targets have announced their decisions:
- (****) WR Carey Owens has committed to UTEP

=============== Memphis Tigers (0-1) ===============
Last week, Memphis lost 29-28 against Utah (1-1).
This week, the Tigers travel to Provo to face the BYU Cougars (3-0).
In recruiting news, the following Memphis targets have announced their decisions:
- (**) FB Brian Banks has committed to Memphis

=============== #10 Wyoming Cowboys (3-0) ===============
Last week, Wyoming won 56-31 against Boise State (1-2).
This week, the Cowboys travel to Austin to face the Texas Longhorns (2-1).

Thanks for the edit, Kodos.

Yep. We need to get you moderator rights in this subforum.

Probably gonna be bumping the deadline I think.. I'm guessing memorial day weekend has probably been eating some schedule time. Lets shoot for July 1.

June 1st? ;)

Yeah, I meant June 1.. I'm livin' in the future, man.

Looks like we only have one left. Some exciting games out there this week, real nail biters.

Looks like we are all set to advance on your move Julio

Week 6
 

We're on to week 6, y'all. best of luck to those with games this week.

=============== #2 Washington State Cougars (3-0) ===============
Last week, Washington State won 63-38 against Ole Miss (2-3).
This week, the Cougars travel to Boise to face the Boise State Broncos (2-2).



=============== #7 Wyoming Cowboys (4-0) ===============
Last week, Wyoming won 55-14 against Texas (2-2).
This week, the Cowboys are idle.


=============== #11 UTEP Miners (3-0) ===============
Last week, UTEP won 42-28 against UCLA (2-2).
This week, the Miners will host New Mexico (1-1).
In recruiting news, the following UTEP targets have announced their decisions:
- (****) ROLB Terrance Walker has committed to UTEP
- (*****) WR Kevin Franklin has committed to UTEP
- (****) RG Paul Shelton has committed to UTEP
- (****) MLB Sean Gipson has committed to UTEP
- (****) CB James Brooks has committed to UTEP


=============== Florida Atlantic Owls (2-1) ===============
Last week, Florida Atlantic won 73-48 against South Alabama (1-3).
This week, the Owls will host Duke (2-1).
In recruiting news, the following Florida Atlantic targets have announced their decisions:
- (***) RG Bret Watkins has committed to FIU
- (***) C Chris Guillory has committed to South Alabama



=============== Memphis Tigers (1-1) ===============
Last week, Memphis won 66-49 against BYU (3-1).
This week, the Tigers travel to Tuscaloosa to face the #1 Alabama Crimson Tide (4-0).
In recruiting news, the following Memphis targets have announced their decisions:
- (***) DT Brad Hall has committed to Ole Miss


=============== Texas State Bobcats (1-3) ===============
Last week, Texas State won 39-35 against UNLV (2-2).
This week, the Bobcats travel to Boulder to face the Colorado Buffaloes (2-1).

I think Gramm has hacked recruiting. ;)

Yeah, that turned out to be a nice "visit" week. I think everyone that visited ended up committing!

We creamed Duke. It looks like we're ready to advance.

The advance is done..

=============== Florida Atlantic Owls (3-1) ===============
Last week, Florida Atlantic won 70-21 against Duke (2-2).
This week, the Owls travel to Tampa to face the USF Bulls (4-1).
In recruiting news, the following Florida Atlantic targets have announced their decisions:
- (***) C Brett Miller has committed to Mississippi State
- (***) ROLB Robert Weisbecker has committed to USF
- (****) CB Joe Townsend has committed to Washington State
- (****) HB Riley Sanders has committed to UCF
- (***) LE Tyler Louis has committed to Florida Atlantic

=============== #3 Washington State Cougars (4-0) ===============
Last week, Washington State won 38-28 against Boise State (2-3).
This week, the Cougars are idle.
In recruiting news, the following Washington State targets have announced their decisions:
- (***) LT Antoine Gandy has committed to Oregon State
- (****) CB Joe Townsend has committed to Washington State

=============== Texas State Bobcats (1-4) ===============
Last week, Texas State lost 34-27 against Colorado (3-1).
This week, the Bobcats will host New Mexico (1-2).
In recruiting news, the following Texas State targets have announced their decisions:
- (***) DT Justin Dorsey has committed to Utah State

=============== #7 UTEP Miners (4-0) ===============
Last week, UTEP won 97-14 against New Mexico (1-2).
This week, the Miners travel to Atlanta to face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (2-3).
In recruiting news, the following UTEP targets have announced their decisions:
- (****) WR Chris Sears has committed to Texas Tech

=============== Memphis Tigers (1-2) ===============
Last week, Memphis lost 45-34 against Alabama (5-0).
This week, the Tigers will host Ole Miss (2-4).
In recruiting news, the following Memphis targets have announced their decisions:
- (***) LG Ernest Slaughter has committed to Virginia
- (***) CB Chris Bellamy has committed to Northwestern

=============== #5 Wyoming Cowboys (4-0) ===============
Last week the Cowboys were idle.
This week, the Cowboys will host #6 Texas A&M (3-1).

Pyramid Week 7 - Deadline... Who needs deadlines.
 

I played my game vs Texas A&M and barely escaped with a one point win. We had to score in the final seconds to take it, and they nearly returned the ensuing kickoff for a TD, then completed the hail mary for a score.. Except their guy came down out of bounds. About as close of a call as possible.

We whipped USF, even with our high-rated QB out for most of the game with a concussion.

Ready to advance.

Really cool recruiting battle shaped up for a stud QB/ATH between me and UTSA. Everyone else is locked out and we are both all in so I dont feel bad talking about it. UTSA has a slight lead (170 points) but I can close by 10 per week. UTSA gets the first visit I get the last. So in a couple weeks we will know whether UTSA gets the QB or if we will battle to the end and hope for a (likely) last week flip visit.


Then in other recruiting news/weirdness, the other recruit I was chasing for my QB take in case I lose to UTSA visited another school last week and locked me out. No worries I broke the lock nd zoomed up to 2nd. Only after the lock pick aall his visits are now scheduled (they were not showing befoe the lock pick) so here I sit 2nd and most bonus points for an 80+ guy but I cant get a visit. All I can do is stay close and hope to kill in offseason. uhh yuk.

Looks like everyone is ready to advance.

Will move us forward in the morning. Keeping an excellent pace, fellas.

Welcome to Week 8!
Remember to visit dynasty.easports.com to publish your own stories.

=============== Florida Atlantic Owls (4-1) ===============
Last week, Florida Atlantic won 56-17 against USF (4-2).
This week, the Owls travel to Orlando to face the UCF Knights (1-4).
In recruiting news, the following Florida Atlantic targets have announced their decisions:
- (***) SS Frank Concepcion has committed to Georgia State
- (*****) WR Sam Seals has committed to Ole Miss
- (***) CB Brandon Brown has committed to Georgia State
- (***) DT Ron Harris has committed to Temple

=============== #3 Washington State Cougars (4-0) ===============
Last week the Cougars were idle.
This week, the Cougars will host #8 Oregon (4-1).
In recruiting news, the following Washington State targets have announced their decisions:
- (****) HB Lukas Miller has committed to Washington State
- (****) ROLB Joe Meyer has committed to Alabama

=============== Texas State Bobcats (1-5) ===============
Last week, Texas State lost 36-27 against New Mexico (2-2).
This week, the Bobcats travel to Reno to face the Nevada Wolf Pack (3-3).
In recruiting news, the following Texas State targets have announced their decisions:
- (***) DT Brian Mayes has committed to Connecticut
- (***) LOLB Keron Sanders has committed to UTSA
- (***) CB George Workman has committed to UTSA

=============== #5 UTEP Miners (5-0) ===============
Last week, UTEP won 70-3 against Georgia Tech (2-4).
This week, the Miners are idle.

=============== Memphis Tigers (1-3) ===============
Last week, Memphis lost 45-38 against Ole Miss (3-4).
This week, the Tigers travel to Knoxville to face the Tennessee Volunteers (3-4).
In recruiting news, the following Memphis targets have announced their decisions:
- (***) CB Franklin Lewis has committed to Memphis
- (*****) WR Sam Seals has committed to Ole Miss

=============== #4 Wyoming Cowboys (5-0) ===============
Last week, Wyoming won 35-34 against Texas A&M (3-2).
This week, the Cowboys will host #18 Notre Dame (1-3).

I don't know how we always get these CPU teams that are somehow ranked but have a record of something like 1-3 or whatever.

Anyway, we started out down 28-14 against Notre Dame before rattling off 35 unanswered and finishing strong with a 63-35 win. The run game was good, but the pass game was even better, as my perpetually cold QB found his touch somewhat and had a strong game overall with 300 yards and 4 scores. TE Gatewood had a bit of a breakout game this week and we had something like 12 or 15 kids visiting so hopefully this results in a cascade of commitments.

Hey guys just a quick heads up.

A while (march/april) back I was a hold up a bunch while my Godfather/mentor/uncle was very ill. At one point they had brought hospice in and the family had gathered to pay their last respects etc. Well inexplicably he made a dramatic tun and things were really pointing in the right direction.

He was dismissed from the hospital and we had placed him in an intermediate term rehab facility where he had regained his ability to walk and transfer himself from bed to wheelchair and was making great progress. We had a meeting scheduled for Tuesday with the medical team to discuss end game strategies as it related to him moving back home and out of treatment.

Well last night he passed. Alone. And without any spectacular event. Simply ate dinner and laid down to rest around 7pm and they couldnt wake him for his meds at 9pm. Only 59.

So the next few days for me are...unknown right now.

I know Ill be home tonight and if my mind is right ill try to get both leagues up to date.

Take care of you first, man. If you find the time and desire to play and it helps then go for it, but we're in no hurry. All the best to your family, and sorry to hear this. Keep your head up.

I will get this game played tonight. Just got recruiting done. Its going to be a big week for us. Expecting as many as 5 commits with 8 major targets visiting and we lead for all 8.

Here's hoping for some good fortune to shine on you, even if it comes in the form of bits and bytes.

Are we ready to go?

Last I checked, Macro needed to play.

Yeah, I think we're just waiting on one.

Game coming this morning.