TCY Development Question..

[lilbiggio]

Been playing the game for quite some time, haven't really had a problem as big as this one, but after many years of building my Pittsburgh program up into a 90/90 (academic/prestige) recruiting team I have ended up with 2 very high quality running backs on my team and I have no idea who to start, and I'm scared to go with one or the other because I may screw up my whole team for many years to come.. anyway here's the situation:

2010 - I bring in a Top 15 Running back named Amos Thomas to be my back of the future as my all time Big East career rushing leader is graduating. I redshirt him like normal and bring him in 2011.

2011 - Thomas doesn't see the field much but is a third down back and doesn't develop much as a redshirted Freshman.

2012 - The running back ahead of Thomas graduates and Thomas has full reigns of the ship, he's a Sophomore at this point so he's getting some huge development points for an entire season's worth of work, however here's where the problem comes.

During the 2012 season, I hadn't planned on recruiting a RB this year as I wanted to bring one in possibly when Thomas was a Junior (2013), anway as it turned out I was checking my academic scores, saw they were low, and figured I pick up a recruit that had a 4.0 in that subject.. the highest one ended up being a RB with at the time "mediocre" stats.. since I had the view on Academic stats, I didn't see his true scout rating..

.. it turns out this kid was a 100 Scout rating, but I didn't know this.

Anyway throughout the weeks since there wasn't too much "press" on the kid, I really didn't check on him too much, I offered a scholly around Week 12, with none of the big time schools offering up any threat. I look at his rating now and I'm very shocked to see the rating at this point. I'm also shocked to see after seeing him in person he wasn't significantly worse. Thirdly I'm in utter disbelief that the kid ends up being on the All-Country List as the Nation's top running back recruit. However none of the other big time schools even made an attempt at him..

.. and to think I got him for dirt cheap.

Anyway fast forwarding to now, I have a question, the true freshman has 100's across the board all over.. Amos Thomas on the other hand has had the development offseason of his life and is now prepared to have an "excellent" season as it is his junior year. Is it better to go with Thomas and take a chance on maybe developing the recruit on the bench, or do I get this recruit on the field ASAP to get him maxed out before my top tier QB graduates. I would hate to have the RB be a Junior as well (as Thomas is now) and just be getting to his potential, as it'd seem like a waste.

Thanks for your help, as I truly do not know what to do and I certainly don't want to go the wrong route and waste this possible chance at having one heck of a runner. Obviously Thomas will not get to play too much longer but should he sit this season?

[Cringer]

This is a tuff question and is really just a personal choice you need to make. If your junior RB is a solid, sure thing then i would stick with him. Maybe make the freshman the back up and start him in the "easy" games, or if your junior RB doesn't perform as well as you had hoped. One thing about this game, you don't know for sure if a guy will develop all the way, or even get close, until he actually does....so i usually go with the guy who is gonna help me more if i can contend for a title.......

[RPI-Fan]

Redshirt the freshman. Your junior RB might leave early; if he doesn't the young guy will still get 3 full years of starting time.

[Craptacular]

Definitely redshirt him. What I have done in similar situations is set the older RB's starter's playing time value to 1, and put the young kid as the primary backup at RB and first or second backup at WR, and as a returner if his ratings there are decent. The young kid usually gets a decent amount of field time.

edit: Of course, I mean to put him in as a backup after his redshirt year.

[INDalltheway]

I say take a look at who your backup would be if Amos got hurt and the Freshman RB was being redshirted. Would he be a signifigacntly worse player than Amos. And I also I would ask if this is the year your team can "make some noise." It is always nice to have an awesome player like that coming off of your bench. Almost always I would redshirt the player. It is nice to give a kid a year to learn the system.

[lilbiggio]

Alright thanks for your advice I'm going to go ahead and redshirt the freshman for this season and hope for the best. I'll update down the road on how it worked out.

- Peace