Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

American Conference Standings - Week 8

American - Blue Division Conference Standings - Updated: Oct 17, 2016
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	DIV
Niagara	4-2	0.660	4-1	202	204	1-0
Cincinnati	5-1	0.830	2-1	247	164	1-1
UConn	4-2	0.660	2-1	176	151	1-0
Louisville	3-3	0.500	1-2	208	193	0-0
Northwestern	1-5	0.160	1-4	157	206	0-2
Rutgers	1-6	0.140	0-4	152	221	0-0

American - Gray Division Conference Standings - Updated: Oct 17, 2016
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	DIV
Vanderbilt	5-3	0.620	5-1	272	203	2-0
Arkansas State	6-1	0.850	4-1	263	168	1-1
Memphis	2-5	0.280	2-2	182	248	1-1
USF	4-2	0.660	1-2	171	114	0-0
UCF	3-3	0.500	1-2	153	167	0-0
Houston	2-5	0.280	1-3	173	250	0-2

Top 25 Poll - Week 8

NCAA Football Rankings - AP Top 25 - Updated: Oct 17, 2016
RK	LW	TEAM (VOTES)	W	L	POINTS
1	1	Ohio State (36)	7	0	1500
2	2	Virginia Tech (21)	7	0	1435
3	3	Ole Miss (2)	7	0	1385
4	4	Miami (1)	7	0	1358
5	6	Clemson (1)	6	0	1271
6	10	Nebraska	7	0	1131
7	8	LSU	6	1	985
8	9	North Carolina	6	1	964
9	15	Oregon	5	1	826
10	12	Florida	5	2	824
11	14	Auburn	5	2	749
12	7	UCLA	4	2	726
13	16	Alabama	6	2	676
14	21	USC	5	2	602
15	18	Michigan	4	2	595
16	13	Navy	6	1	551
17	20	Florida State	5	2	524
18	22	Washington State	5	1	459
19	5	South Carolina	7	1	455
20	11	Michigan State	2	3	396
21	24	Penn State	6	1	386
22	25	Notre Dame	5	3	332
23	19	Georgia Tech	3	3	304
24	17	Cincinnati	5	1	299
25	--	TCU	6	1	275

Others Receiving Votes:
Oklahoma (211), Miss St (173), Colorado (147), Arizona (125), LA Tech (101), Georgia (36), Texas (5), West Virginia (2), UConn (2)

Dropped Out:
Mississippi State (#23)

Around the NCAA

Tumble of the Week: Brought to you by Bounce Dryer Sheets
Previously undefeated and ranked 5th in the country with National Title dreams in their heads, the Gamecocks get throttled at home by the previously winless Tennessee. The Volunteers put up a stellar 2nd half, outscoring SC by a 34-10 margin to take the 55-38 victory. Coming into the game, the Gamecocks had only been giving up 19.5 points per game. The embarrassing defeat sends them tumbling all the way down to 19th in the polls.

Rise of the Week: Brought to you by Cialis
There would have been some kind of joke available had the Gamecocks won the Cialis Rise of the Week, but alas, the honor this week goes to the University of Southern California. The Trojans stumbled early in the PAC-12, losing their first two conference games to Cal and Washington. Since then, they have rattled off three straight victories. The latest catapults them seven spots up the rankings to #14, with an impressive 38-19 win over the previously undefeated Midshipmen of Navy. USC never trailed in the game and held Navy to 100 yards under their season offensive average.

What blackmail ammo does #20 Sparty have?
What the heck does Michigan State have to do to get kicked out of the Top 25? They have started 2-3, with their only wins coming against the powerhouses of Eastern Michigan and Florida Atlantic. In their defense, they've lost to a couple of good teams in #1 Ohio State and #22 Notre Dame... but this latest loss to a middle of the road Wisconsin team should have banished them from the polls.

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

From: Galoshes, Lunar ([email protected])
To: Nonek, Reinhold ([email protected])

Subject: Mid Season Recruiting Update

We all agreed that a big focus this season was going to be recruiting for the trenches, on both sides of the ball. Our efforts are starting to pay dividends, as the first four recruits to commit are all linemen:

John Lopez / T / 3-star (76 OVR)
6'4" / 298 lbs / Centerville, OH

John Hodgsen / G / 3-star (77 OVR)
6'4" / 286 lbs / Halifax, NS

Bryan Landry / DE / 3-star (74 OVR)
6'4" / 245 lbs / Miamisburg, OH

Matthew Vogel / DE / 3-star (74 OVR)
6'3" / 258 lbs / San Leandro, CA

The most promising of this bunch is local boy John Hodgsen, well relatively local as Nova Scotia is like 2,000 kilometers away from Niagara, but you get the idea. John would start right now anywhere on the interior of our offensive line. John Lopez is a bit more of project. While he has the raw size, strength and technique to start right away, he's not in the greatest shape and frequently looks winded in his high school games (64 STA).

The two defensive lineman are solid recruits, but not exactly world-beaters. Matthew Vogel has shown some solid bull rush technique in high school and Bryan Landry is a bit more of finesse guy. With only three defensive ends returning next season, we might not be able to redshirt either of these guys... but both should be decent rotational pieces as true freshman.

The Unexciting Guys
Here's a few depth guys that will likely sign at some point. Nothing too special here, but backups need love too....


Josh Holycross / LB / 3-star
5'11" / 217 lbs / South Gastonia, NC

We are pretty deep at linebacker and should not be losing anybody in the off season, but this kid really wants to be a Rhino. He's not the fastest or the most agile, but he's a solid run-stopping type. Impeccable tackling technique and good hit power for his size. Likely a redshirt, but could develop into a solid contributor down the road.

Randy Cook / TE / 3-star
6'1" / 251 lbs / Walnut Creek, CA

We lose our 3rd string TE to graduation this year and this guy is a replacement 3rd stringer. A well-balanced player, he is good but not great on both the blocking and receiving fronts. After looking like a lock for Niagara, somehow the Crimson Tide have stuck their greedy little noses into things. He visits them in a few weeks and they might just steal him away. If we lose out on him, former walk-on WR Mike Smith could convert to TE. He's a little slow for WR but is 6'3", 220 lbs and has decent run blocking ability for a receiver.

[Deuce2223]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

I have a feeling that win over Cincy is going to play a big factor in your ability to win the Blue division. Looks like maybe a possible rematch with Vandy for the Conference title.

Any big time WR's or Athlete on the recruiting boards to come in and help out "The Jet"

Also have you started looking at a possible replacement for Conrad.

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

I have a feeling that win over Cincy is going to play a big factor in your ability to win the Blue division. Looks like maybe a possible rematch with Vandy for the Conference title.

Any big time WR's or Athlete on the recruiting boards to come in and help out "The Jet"

Also have you started looking at a possible replacement for Conrad.

I don't have anybody on the board who has quite the same ability as Gibbs, who has progressed to 99 SPD / 99 ACC... but there are a few WR candidates that I mentioned in my first recruiting update a page back or so. As far as the next QB, at this point I'm leaning towards Tiki Browning, who is rated as a 3-star athlete, but would probably be a 4/5-star straight QB prospect. Not as fast or elusive as Palinski but good THP/THA for a freshman. Overall, the class is shaping up to be very good as a lot of the guys I targeted in the pre-season have ended up being completely ignored by the CPU teams.

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

[Deuce2223]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

Wow looks like they got some solid playmakers on the D-Line, Outside LB's and Safety's. I figured on a lower scoring game but wow 41 points.. That's tough on your D

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

Nunyer's Notes

Full disclosure: about mid-way through that 4th quarter, I was so very close to a good old-fashioned rage quit. Even in the first season when my team was like 60 OVR, I don't think I've ever seen 10 drops in a game. Granted, 3 or maybe 4 of them were legit traffic / collision drops... they had very good safeties who played extremely well... especially at closing those gaps in Cover2 near the sidelines. But at least five of them were critical wide-open drops. Gibbs and Watkins combined for seven drops, four of them were either guaranteed wide open TDs or very likely catch-and-run TDs... most of them happened in the 4th quarter. It was just nuts, never seen a choke / collapse like that.

Also, I think I need to get a new controller... currently using some Amazon-sourced chinese X360 knockoff controller that was like $20. It's actually a decent unit, but I think the left analog is starting to whig out. I've shanked a number of punts and a FG over the last few games and on at least one of them, I could clearly see that the meter went crazy-go-nuts in a direction that I wasn't pulling. Anybody have a decent controller suggestion? Do you just use the vanilla PS3/X360 controllers?

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

Wow looks like they got some solid playmakers on the D-Line, Outside LB's and Safety's. I figured on a lower scoring game but wow 41 points.. That's tough on your D

Yea, the wheels completely came off the in the 4th quarter... tons of wide open passes dropped, two really good CPU interceptions where I thought I had a window, then their RB was the everlasting fountain of stamina. I had to check to make sure I still had fatigue enabled... he never seemed to come out even after 4-5 straight handoffs.

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

[moose141]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

Good to see that you're facing some adversity this season! I'm surprised that UConn fielded such a solid team, they usually drop off pretty quickly in dynasty. Anytime that you lose the turnover battle 5-1, I think you're going to lose that game 95% of the time. Thankfully, odds are pretty small that you have a repeat performance like that! As for the controller, all of mine are just standard issue Xbox wired and wireless controllers. I would recommend those for normal gameplay, but TBH you should keep that controller that bugs out occasionally and use it for your field goal kicking! It adds a degree of uncertainty ad realism to the game because college kickers are notoriously wild, so having a few odd misses here and there makes things more realistic! I know I'm considering watching all field goal attempts from my team just because otherwise it's very rare that I ever miss a field goal unless it's one that I don't have the power for.

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

Nunyer's Note: I am recovering from a nasty head cold... and I think in my NyQuil daze, I didn't bother proof reading the article below at all. So it's a bit of a mess with grammar and outright missing words, below even my normal hack amateur standards.

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

Good to see that you're facing some adversity this season! I'm surprised that UConn fielded such a solid team, they usually drop off pretty quickly in dynasty. Anytime that you lose the turnover battle 5-1, I think you're going to lose that game 95% of the time. Thankfully, odds are pretty small that you have a repeat performance like that! As for the controller, all of mine are just standard issue Xbox wired and wireless controllers. I would recommend those for normal gameplay, but TBH you should keep that controller that bugs out occasionally and use it for your field goal kicking! It adds a degree of uncertainty ad realism to the game because college kickers are notoriously wild, so having a few odd misses here and there makes things more realistic! I know I'm considering watching all field goal attempts from my team just because otherwise it's very rare that I ever miss a field goal unless it's one that I don't have the power for.

I actually like your idea of keeping my goofy controller... as it went crazy-go-nuts in the Rutgers game and I shanked a PAT. But generally speaking, I also do the sim -> watch play thing for PATs and FGs... but manually punt because the CPU is always so unrealistically awful at punting. Today I decided to manually do everything and the controller pulled all the way right on that missed PAT... so bad that it probably had a better chance of doing a full 180 degree hook and scoring on the opposite uprights.

Overall about what I expected against Rutgers... with a mediocre 76 OVR QB and a 2nd string HB, I figured I could hold their offense in check. On defense, their DL played pretty poorly despite all being in the upper 80s OVR range... had lots of rushing lanes into the 2nd level. I probably could have had 400 yards rushing as a team if I wasn't also needing 250+ passing yards to impress some recruits.

[Hellisan]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty

I can already picture Moonboots (Intel Thunder), and feel should this ever be a movie, he'd be played by Zack Galifianakis.

Zack Galifianakis! haha.. that would be perfect casting...

I think maybe Nate Silver in his first serious acting role.

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty