Anatomy of a Recruiting Class

[Hellisan]

Week 11:

I need to clear up that I still don't think I understnad negative recruiting. If I go against a team and I downplay their BEST things, it says +10 per click on teh little meter (or a similar decent + number). If I downplay the things their school is weaker at, it shows negative points. But I can't tell if those numbers are for my team, or theirs. Like, am I getting THEM negative points by hitting those bad things? or getting them positive points for downplaying their good offerings? Or getting ME positive points by downplaying their good offerings? I'm confused. I'm really not sure yet. Might have been nice to include a real manual with the game (teehee)

I removed four recruits that I hadn't been able to talk to yet, and who had been heavily recruited by other teams. In other words I had no shot at them.

Not sure if I mentioned this anywhere else (I'm getting old) but the awareness of players is vastly different. The highest player in the class had a B awareness rating. Most are in the C to D- range.

I added a couple of recruits that weren't being looked at by other teams, including a 5-star punter.

We beat up on Auburn 34-0. Is it here that I mention that this looks a lot like a real Mark Richt season? Disappointing on several fronts, but gets you 10 wins (prolly).

We signed four players after the sim: a short little DT who is rated five stars... The best FS in the country, a 6'5" 210 Taylor-Mays style kid. At this point, we have the #1 class in the nation. (4) five stars, (5) four stars, (2) three stars. Oklahoma, Florida, and USC are right behind us.

I just noted that our only two pipeline states are Georgia and Florida. Wonder if it takes more than a couple players from a state to be a pipeline, or if all our players are from those states IRL. I haven't looked.



Week 12:

SS Jeremy Cook, and two other non-interested players, all suddenly became interested. My second favorite FS in the country (just by looking very briefly) is visiting this week and we're his only offer. Our secondary additions are looking My-T-Fine.

All the players who visited week 11 gave us A+ visits, as you'd expect blowing out Auburn.

I've decided that this is a good time to talk to a few lesser, in-state recruits that like us. Just as filler guys. So I searched for players in pipline states that had us in their Top 10, and added a few of them. I will say that it seems like there are fewer players that just go completley unrecruited, but I'm not positive about that. When I searched for players with 8-10 teams still on their list, there were a similar number. But I think there's more recruits overall?

We pounded Kentucky, and had three recruits in to see that one. None signed, however.

[Hellisan]

Week 13:

Wrong about that 10-win thing. Georgia Tech swamped us, 38-7, in Atlanta. They ran their season record to 7-5, and now we'd have to win the bowl game to get 9 wins. Not a real eventful week, we talked to all the remaining players on our list, and none of them signed.


Week 14: Bye week, several players visiting. None signed.


Jimmy Newby, QB #15 with UF, won the Heisman with 3240 yards passing, 806 yards rusihng, and 47 total TDs

We got an invite to the Cotton bowl

Not really about recruiting: But weeks advance much faster now. The sims (at least on the Xbox 360 version) are extremely quick, and then the gathering news portion flies by. I think you could sim a season in a couple minutes teh way this thing looks.

We won the Cotton Bowl, ending up with 9 wins. On to the offseason.

[Hellisan]

Offseason:

I turned down the popup offer to maximize my integrity level and therefore offer crazy promises without earning it.

As most know by now, the offseason now has additional players that weren't available to recruit during the regular season. We selected four of these players, including the #1 tackle (who is interested in us), the #1 CB (who is not) and an OLB and QB who were both interested in UGA.

Now... My concern is that as easy as recruiting seems so far (that's REAL easy, for those paying attention) it'll be even easier for these extra players, since the cpu didn't use their promises in '09. So let's see if that's the case here.

We talked to the #1 tackle who just appeared... Found a couple Highs and a very high, and offered him a scholarship. We also promised him he wouldn't be redshirted



Week 1 results

Five more signings. That gives us 16, still the #1 class.

The #1 tackle moved us to #1 on his list and none of the other teams in his Top 10 offered him a scholarship (?)

The #1 CB, who wasn't interested, moved us to #2, right behind Texas.

Looks like we will get a speedy QB with a good arm on the cheap.




Week 2 results

One signing. Doesn't appear CPU teams are using promises.



Week 3 results

Three signings. Ditto on promises



Week 4 results

Three more signings, including the #1 tackle I mentioned, and the #1 corner, both of which were offseason recruits.



Week 5 results

A little more on negative recruiting. I'm pretty sure now, that what you want to do is target their very high, high, and Most pitches that are INFERIOR to your team's. And then you will see the meter make tiny -movements, and that is against them. If you get a +10 on the meter while doing negative recruiting, you are helping the other team.

Well, down to week 5, and i have 23 recruits already. The 24th is a guaranteed sign, (a QB) but this 2-star Guard has to choose between three teams. I negative recruited his #1 so let's see if that helps me. .

The QB signed, but the guard didn't. So we landed a total of 24 recruits. #1 class in the country with (8) five-star players and (10) four-stars.

To be totally honest, this is way too easy. All the more reason to be in an online dynasty, IMO. Offline is a thing of the past.


I'm not going to list the player ratings until tomorrow. But suffice to say.... the talk of players coming in rated lower, is incorrect. they do have lower AWR ratings, so maybe the other ratings have less to do with the OVR rating than in the past and that AWR rating will be all important. We'll see. I'll be back to continue this on Monday.

[Whitesox]

Offseason too easy, eh? Well thats a shame.

[LPU]

When you say "+18" or "+8".... is that on a scale of 100? For example, the player's interest lies at 35/100... then you get a +18 so it becomes 53/100?

[sink4ever]

Hey man, thanks for taking the time to do this. I really appreciate it.

I guess I'm not too worried about my offline dynasty, I use a 1* program in the northeast and all but three or four of my attributes are in the D and D+ range. I also doubt I'll use promises.

All this recruiting stuff is really whetting my appetite for this game, thanks again for posting this.

[davep]

I don't know if it's too easy...at least for me. I'm using Colorado and I'm in week 8 of dynasty. I've only had one 4-star commit to me and am having a bear of a time trying to get others to sign (I have a few 4-stars on the line though)....which is a good thing!

[jello1717]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hellisan

As most know by now, the offseason now has additional players that weren't available to recruit during the regular season. We selected four of these players, including the #1 tackle (who is interested in us), the #1 CB (who is not) and an OLB and QB who were both interested in UGA.

That's interesting that they're holding back players that are so good. I have a quick question about these guys that you probably haven't noticed the answer to. Was there a #1 T and CB during the season? IE, did it look like this:
IN SEASON:
#1-5 Ts
OFF SEASON:
New #1 T so old #1-5 were moved down to #2-6

or like this:
IN SEASON:
#2-6 Ts with no #1 tackle.

I'm guessing that it's like the first example. If so, that'll make things intersting. In the OFFL, we have restrictions on recruiting such that we can normally only sign 2 5*s. It'll make us decide if we want to use our 5* quota on that #1 QB and #1 MLB now and risk the chance that there's a better QB and MLB out there or if we want to wait.