Recruiting 101

[MillerTime89]

Quote: Originally Posted by DookieMowf

How do you guys handle offering a scholarship to guys who have you #1? I usually offer as soon as they have me #1 (if it's a guy I truly want) I like getting those instant commits early on so I can focus on others. If they don't commit, I still get that big bonus. When is the best time to schedule a visit and should it always be vs a rival or a game you know you can win? Someone said try to have a game where you have large amount of players visiting?

These are good questions that I would like some feedback on as well.

[BNSF]

When a player has you as their #1, sometimes you are the only team with green interest. Sometimes there are 2-3 teams that are green. The best time to offer a scholarship is when you are the only team with green interest.

Question for the board. I want to check on this so next time you start offering scholarships, first check to see if there are other teams that are also green in the interest tab. I checked 3 of them yesterday. All 3 of them had multiple teams that were green and I didn't get an instant commit from any of them. I'm willing to bet that you are far more likely to get an instant commit if you are their #1 and are the only team in the green.

I hope all that makes sense.

For recruiting, I usually will put 25-30 on my board to start and will rank my top 15-18 players. I try to call everyone but the bottom players will only get 10 minutes usually. On average, I'll give the top 15 players 30-40 minutes but if I am #1, I might only give 10 minutes if I am in a comfortable lead. I also will add players who do not have me in their top 10 but I think I could get. I always get a top 3 class, usually #1.

There are so many different ways to recruit in this game. Just decide which strategy you want to do and then go for it. I very rarely offer 3 stars or lower. Only 4-5 stars, playing as Michigan State. Smaller schools will have to adjust slightly. Even if I was a 1* school, I would never recruit a 1 or 2* player unless they were FB, K, or P. Every year I get 23-25 players. It's not that hard.

I hope that all makes sense.

[GoBlueWolverine91]

When I play with a big school like Michigan I fill up my board to the maximum of 35 prospects. I do this because many prospects end up committing to other schools more quickly given that they're mostly 5 and 4-star players who are being recruited heavily by most of the top schools. This way I have some backup plans on hand when I lose out on some of my targets.

I generally only recruit the top 20 on my board though, at least until guys start committing to other schools; at which point I go further down the list to 21, 22, etc. and refill my board as necessary. The first week of recruiting I talk to the top 10 players on my board for a full hour, offering scholarships to players who have me atop their list. The following week I talk to the next 10 players on my board, again offering scholarships to players who have me atop their list as long as I'm willing to take a commitment from them at that time. I only offer scholarships to players if I know for sure that I want them or if my plan A has signed elsewhere and am forced into offering a scholarship to my plan B (generally a 3 or 2-star) player at a position of need.

The rest of the time I usually spend a half hour talking to those 20 players, though the occasional situation will pop up where I focus on a recruit or group of recruits for longer. For example, if I'm neck and neck with another school for a top recruit I'll talk to him longer, maybe even for a full hour.

I also take advantage of making promises that I should have a fairly easy time completing. Such as "Winning Record Against Rivals First Year on Campus" (completed if I go at least 2-1 against ND, MSU, and OSU), "Promise a Game in Player's Home State" if they're from the state in which I play my home games or are from say, Ohio where I'll play at OSU the first year. Then there's of course the other promises that only apply on a prospect by prospect basis (e.g. "No Redshirt," "Solid Playing Time", etc.)

As far as scheduling visits go, I usually like to reserve them for big rivalry games, unless I think a prospect that I want won't last until such a game comes around.

With the recruiting difficulty at Heisman, I almost always end up with a full class of 25 signees ranked in the top 10.



However, when I'm using a small school such as Texas State I only fill my board with 20 prospects and cycle in new ones when players commit elsewhere. I try to stick to my pipeline states so I get the pipeline boost and am able to take advantage of the "Promise a Game in the Player's Home State" promise. Given that virtually all of my pitches are rated as D's or lower, I have a tendency to rely more on promises than I would with a big school.

Like I do with big schools, I talk to the first 10 players on my board for a full hour the first week and the second 10 for a full hour the second week, followed by evenly distributing 30 minutes to each prospect afterwards. Excluding the occasional situation where I need to spend more time on a recruit.

I'm not nearly as picky when it comes to offering scholarships with a small school as I am with a big school. You pretty much will take whatever you can get. Though after scouting the players I do like to set a 53-55 overall threshold. By that I mean I try not to sign anyone rated lower than a 53-55 unless it's absolutely necessary.

Having said that, I try to stay away from 1-stars unless they're JUCOs (more on JUCOs later) and fill up my board with 2-stars even if they don't have interest in me initially. I look for guys in my pipeline states with only one or two schools on their list that I can compete with. For example, I'll add a guy to my board who's only team on his list is North Texas as opposed to the player who's only team on his list is Texas A&M.

Sometime I will also target 1-3 3-star prospects with only one school on their list. These are my "wishful thinking" prospects.

Just to make it more of a challenge for myself, I also try to limit myself to only 1-3 JUCOs per class. This is just a personal preference thing, as I'm really not a fan of JUCO recruits to begin with. Usually I only recruit JUCOs if they're at a position of need and I can't garner any interest from other recruits.

Doing all of this, most of the time I'll get a class of 17 or so filled out with mostly 2-stars with the occasional 3-star and 1-star thrown in.

[b2th3m1th]

Quote: Originally Posted by MillerTime89

These are good questions that I would like some feedback on as well.

I usually always offer week one. Insta-commits are tough to come by I have success offering first week and getting a lead on other teams. If you get the bar filled fast enough they will commit, so no real reason to wait.

I will delve into that topic in my recruiting vid. almost done filming. ETA right now is wednesday morning. If I the editing goes by quick tomorrow morning (i work nights) I may get the audio in there, it might be up tuesday morning.

[BNSF]

I forgot to mention that I NEVER recruit JUCOs. I wish there was a way that I could filter them out. Also of note, I almost always redshirt the Freshmen.

[theaub]

Quote: Originally Posted by b2th3m1th

I usually always offer week one. Insta-commits are tough to come by I have success offering first week and getting a lead on other teams. If you get the bar filled fast enough they will commit, so no real reason to wait. I will delve into that topic in my recruiting vid. almost done filming. ETA right now is wednesday morning. If I the editing goes by quick tomorrow morning (i work nights) I may get the audio in there, it might be up tuesday morning.

Agreed with always offering week one. Even if they don't insta-commit, you still get a boost from offering it which can lead to them committing earlier in the season. Its far better to have recruits commit by week 6/7 in which case you can focus additional resources on other targets than having to spend even 20-30 minutes per week before they commit on a visit in week 9/10.

[twimstaxs]

It is Year 1 Week 13 of my 2* IU dynasty. I currently have signed 19 players. 14 3* 2 2* and 3 1*. Ranked 17th in recruiting. In week 10 I found 4. 4* WR that had one school on his board no offer. I recruited him. I am now his top school. Scouting says he is a bust but I'll still sign him. 4* HB same thing as WR.

[theaub]

Also I pretty much 100% agree with b2th's guide, even with teams above three stars. Since you only need to recruit 16-18 guys per year with a 70 man roster, I generally set up my recruiting board in week 1 as such

Spots 1-9: Nine targets I want the most, regardless of interest. Need to keep it somewhat reasonable though (if you're in 10th and -800 back there's no point targeting a guy). As an Auburn fan and thus someone who enjoys the in-state recruiting battles, I'll usually have a few good Auburn/Alabama battles in here

I usually will have at least 2-3 targets who are first on my list here, since on Heisman recruiting it is difficult to jump teams and if I miss out on everyone here then my class is going to be terrible. I'm generally hoping to get 5-6 of the 9 targets here. I will phone each of these players for a full hour, offer a scholarship and also attempt to have them scouted in full (I will be using a hour on them in the preseason).

Spots 10-15: These six players must have my school first on their list. I will have scouted them for an hour in the preseason and thus will have a general knowledge of their abilities. For these targets, I will phone them for ten minutes only and just offer them a scholarship. I am hoping to get 1-2 to insta-commit (usually happens).

Also note that its not set in stone that I'm going to have six recruits here. If I only have three targets that I like after my top nine, I'll just phone each of them for 20 minutes (or maybe one for 40 and two for 10 if I really, really like one target). Its just to note the general process of going hard after nine targets and then trying to get insta-commits in week one from other players who are interested in you.

Other notes
- With the new recruiting system, just sorting by the green dot doesn't provide 100% accuracy since there are players who will only have one or two schools in their top ten. You could easily be, say, number three but you wouldn't know if you never added them to the board. I've just randomly added five star recruits at number 31-35 on my board in pre-season and then gone to week one and seen that I'm 2nd or 3rd on their interest list and got them to commit by week six.

- When you get to weeks four/five etc, you'll generally have the majority of the players on your board down to their top 5 or less. As such, if you haven't started to target a guy by this point you will likely be so far down on the interest meter its very tough to get him. Thus, go into the search, and search for "10 schools remaining" in the commitment status. You will find a decent amount of prospects there, and if you add them to the board and recruit hard you will have a strong chance of getting them

- Attempt to set up your visits in waves. Have the guys who you target early in the season show up in week 6/7. The ones who you start going after hard in weeks 3/4 and maybe a bit later should come in for the home game in week 9/10. Then any remaining prospects should visit in week 13/14.