Sell Me On Coaching Carousel

[hurricanefootball4]

I'm one of those people that will play a dynasty for 25+ years, starting as a head coach for a 1 star school or so until I get my dream job at Miami and then will play a bunch of years with them, sometimes get bored and start over with a rebuild somewhere else.

It sucks when I look at the stats over all that time and Nick Saban is still coaching Alabama, has lost like 16 games in his entire career and has 13 National Championships.

Without coaching carousel teams don't go through downswings after picking the wrong coach.

I'm a Miami fan, so I've seen the ups and downs of a program and how a coach can change all that. Starting with Larry Coker and moving to Randy Shannon those decisions clearly were not good ones. So now they bring in an up and comer, Al Golden to turn the program around. He turned Temple into a winning team with guys going to the pro's.

How cool would it be to live through that career in NCAA Football? Start as an assistant at a middle tier school, get a crap head coaching job at Temple, turn that program around and get hired to turn around a prestigious football school like Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame that was struggling?

Every program goes through upswings and downswings. Before Nick Saban showed up, Alabama went 6-7 (all 6 wins were later vacated) in 2006. This would never happen in NCAA Football 11, and that is part of the fun of college football.

[stcloudgopher]

I just don't see the fascination with coaching carousel. Granted I have never played a sports game that had the mode (haven't played them far enough to notice the effects at least), but I just don't see what it really adds to the game. You kind of answered it yourself. If you have not played far enough into a dynasty/career... Mostly it adds realism. 19 years into my Dynasty and I still have to face JoePa? That simply should not be the case. Done correctly, an up-and-coming coach might pull Akron from the depths of the Dead Sea once in a while. As it stands, the same "coach" is at the same school unless you take their job. And the new "coach" that takes over your old program gets all of the perks that you left because, well, you can't take it with you.

Now for offline players who plug away 20-30 season I can see the appeal, but what does it add to online dynasties? Is this really what people want as the main new feature this year over gameplay, presentation, overall dynasty depth, etc.? Online play is a different beast, I'll give you that. This would be mostly for offline dynasty players of which there is a good amount. As for the main new feature? Well, yes. Kind of. I would love to see a CC as the main NEW FEATURE. As for gameplay, that is something that should be (have been) taken care of. Gameplay is not a feature, it is the game itself. Would I want a CC INSTEAD of better gameplay? No. I don't think anyone would. But since gameplay is rarely implemented correctly, and subsequently broken with patches and such, maybe a CC would divert my attention.

Not trying to attack those who want it, just legitimately asking for someone to enlighten me on why coaching carousel is such a big deal. It's a big deal because it's something that should already be there. Much like the love-em-or-hate-em dreads, there are certain things that should be included at this point in time. It would be nice to see EA devote an entire cycle to fixing gameplay and legacy issues, but that's not how this works. The only thing we can do is not buy a product we don't like from a developer we don't believe in. EA has shown in the past that they can make a great NCAA game. They just haven't done it on the current gen.

[GGGswim]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cusefan

^^ That is a great point, instead of having a Penn St. playbook , have a Joe Paterno Playbook. When JoPa retires, the coach who replaces him will bring a new playbook and PSU will have a different look.

THIS is part of what I envision when people are asking for carrousel. I'm in year 2033 and there's no way JoePa would still be coaching...anywhere. I wouldn't think it would be difficult to add code to retire current coaches IRL that are within x-number of years of some arbitrary age (70?). You're not playing as that coach anyway, so a surprise announcement in the off-season that Joe, or the K-State coach (again) retired would be kinda cool to have integrated into the game.

As a newbie to the game, I've always wondered what happens to the coaches at the schools that are "interested" in me at the end of the season. Do they get fired?
And if certain measures/grades are decreased for poor seasons by teams I lead, why can't LSU's coach -- who has, shockingly, driven them into the doormat of the SEC over the past 10 seasons, including an 0-for campaign -- get fired. This, too, should be part of the carrousel. THAT would be like real life: LSU coach fired, N. Texas coach (perennial T-10 in my offline dynasty) gets hired away, Troy coach (perennial T-20) moves to N. Tx, etc., etc., etc. And with them, go their off/def playbooks/styles. [As 2012 game debut nears, I'll be watching for post-season interest from LSU and will probably accept, leaving my fav, Auburn, just for a few seasons to see if I can build them back up.]

Wow, like the thread starter I wasn't really sold on what a carrousel would be like, but if like this, I'd consider that a nice, if not major, improvement.

[poopoop]

Quote: Originally Posted by RynoAid

I've got 35+ Online Dynasties on my site that would disagree with this statement... I would say it offers a much DEEPER experience than an offline dynasty. There's more rivalries, teams actually have character and you don't play the boring CPU games every single week. Most of the time the BCS Bowl games have meaningful USER v USER games. sorry, i just think OD has EVERYTHING offline has and more when you add in the human coaching element. If you add in coaching carousel, it will just enhance BOTH experiences.

I'm guessing you can attest to the fact that the win % against CPU teams in your ODs is extremely higher than the win % against human controlled teams. OD is way better than offline just because it's more challenging competing against actual people than the stale CPU.

[DerkontheOS]

Quote: Originally Posted by poopoop

I'm guessing you can attest to the fact that the win % against CPU teams in your ODs is extremely higher than the win % against human controlled teams. OD is way better than offline just because it's more challenging competing against actual people than the stale CPU.

It's all in the sliders.

But I will agree the CPU is stale.

As for coaching carousel, nearly everyone will play dynasty longer. I know if they had coaching carousel last year I would have played the game year round.

[DerkontheOS]

Quote: Originally Posted by prowler

In my dynasty, GTech has 11 QBs, I'm sure one of them is a scrambler.

I was thinking the same thing.

[poopoop]

To the ppl saying they just want the coaches to switch schools and take their playbooks I don't think it adds that much. The difference between coaches in these games are minimal.

Look at the similarities between Kevin Sumlin and Gene Chizik on this game:

Both have C+ coach experience and B Coach prestige (these ratings only "matter" during recruiting.)

Both run similar playbooks (a couple ace formations then the rest all shotgun.)

Gene Chizik has 50/50 run/pass on offense, 47/53 run pass on D.
Sumlin has 55/45 and 67/33.

Chizik has 60 aggressiveness on offense, 60 on D.
Sumlin has 70 on offense, 60 on D.

So the only huge difference between these two coaches is Sumlin is more aggressive on offense and plays more to stop the run on D. They're virtually identical and if they were to switch places I doubt anyone would notice.

[Roggie]

Quote: Originally Posted by poopoop

To the ppl saying they just want the coaches to switch schools and take their playbooks I don't think it adds that much. The difference between coaches in these games are minimal. Look at the similarities between Kevin Sumlin and Gene Chizik on this game: Both have C+ coach experience and B Coach prestige (these ratings only "matter" during recruiting.) Both run similar playbooks (a couple ace formations then the rest all shotgun.) Gene Chizik has 50/50 run/pass on offense, 47/53 run pass on D. Sumlin has 55/45 and 67/33. Chizik has 60 aggressiveness on offense, 60 on D. Sumlin has 70 on offense, 60 on D. So the only huge difference between these two coaches is Sumlin is more aggressive on offense and plays more to stop the run on D. They're virtually identical and if they were to switch places I doubt anyone would notice.

We aren't saying that's all we want. We're just saying that we'll accept that this year if that's all they get done over nothing. We all want a Choops 2k8 system with Coach and Assistant ratings, but if we don't get that, would you rather have nothing, and JoePa still coaching 20 years from now? Do you want to see Frank Beamer coach another 20 years? (Hey, he's my favorite coach, but the dude is getting old.) Really think that Bud Foster would be a D coordinator for 20 more years? Look at it that way.

IF all we can get is playbooks moving around, that's enough of a start, as long as they finish it off in the next game. Because if I stick with a team for 6 or 7 years in an offline dynasty, I get bored of playing against the EXACT SAME playbook every year in conference games. I want to see change, and if I have to accept that it isn't a finished product, I can handle that.