Recruiting strategies, tips, etc...

[Stu]

Here are some observations after a full season and offseason of recruiting with Miami.

In Season
-Bye weeks are very important. I found it much easier to recruit as Miami since their bye weeks are very early and very late. The early bye weeks (weeks 1-3) don't really hurt you too much, and having bye weeks later in the year don't hurt since you have already finished most of your recruiting.

-Wins/losses are very important. You'll notice that you often go up or down based on your performance and the performance of the other teams on the recruit's list. While you have little control over this, it is worth considering when deciding how hard to go after a guy.

I got 5 players to commit during in season recruiting. Two 5* and three 4*, all from pipeline states. I played a game every week from weeks 4-11. This seemed like the critical time for me. By week 11 most recruits had made a decision or at least cut their list to 3 schools. I signed all 5 players in weeks 10 and 11.

Off Season
- It is still pretty easy to recruit as an elite team. I signed 4 more 5* players during the off season, bringing my total to 6.
- It seems to be heavily based on needs. Miami had 4 starting OL graduate and desperately needed OT's. I was able to sign two 5* tackles, both of whom had me at the top of their list.
- Program Prestige and Coach Prestige seem to be the most effective pitches when using a 6* program.
- Once you get the right pitch and the player has you ranked 1st or 2nd, "Bringing the House" will usually get them to sign.
- If you get to weeks 4 and 5 and still have some scholarships to fill, it isn't a bad idea to go after some lower ranked players from states that you are close to having a pipeline in. It will help you out during the next season's recruiting.
- Pipelines are huge during both in season and off season. As an example, Miami starts off with 3 players from Louisiana. At the beginning of year 2 I now have 10 players from Louisiana. It's best to get pipelines in the "big 3" (California, Florida and Texas) then get some pipeline states that have some good talent and are close to home.

[JIMIHEMMY]

Here are a few things I noticed during Off-Season Recruiting.....Scouting is your friend!

- If you have points left over after you pitch players, use them. The best use is to scout players. If you are not sure about a position, don't pick a player yet. Choose the top 3 or 4 that have the interest bar high for you and scout them. When the next week starts, you will see who has the most interest in you and where you rank on their list.

- Scouting without pitching is also helpful. If you are not sure about a player, scout him first. Even if you don't pitch a player, scouting automatically pitches Program Prestige. When you check the player after the week has passed, you can see if Program Prestige is a draw for them. If it isn't, well then you have 1 pitch out of the way.

- Scouting will halp you get players who you thought may not be interested in you. In my Temple dynasty, in the first off-season, there were 3 Qb's that I liked. One was 3* the other two were 4* and Elite 11. 1 from NC, 1 from MI, and 1 from MD. MD is my only pipeline of these three states. None of these QB's had a very high interest interest in Temple at first, they were maybe 1/2 to 2/3 full. After scouting, all 3 had me in their top 3! I was able to sign all 3 even though I still had 3 QB's on my roster.

- Don't be afraid to use Program Prestige as a pitch even with a lower teir school. Being Temple, I was able to raise my team prestige to 2* after the first season. Program Prestige worked for at least 5-6 recruits, included one of those Elite 11 QB's I mentioned above....

- After the first week, you will see some players with the red down arrow, showing their interest is dying. You may still be in their top 5 though. If you are (meaning they have the green dot left of their names), if you scout them, it will at least change the arrow to <>. It lets the recruit know that you are at least somewhat interested. Think about it, if a school at least scouted you, wouldn't you think they are somewaht interested in you?

- Lastly, if you are having trouble signing a recruit, tied or close to it in interest with another school, sent the house a few times....try to scout them if you haven't already. Again, it makes them think you are interested in them.....

[chuck4171]

- After the first week, you will see some players with the red down arrow, showing their interest is dying. You may still be in their top 5 though. If you are (meaning they have the green dot left of their names), if you scout them, it will at least change the arrow to <>. It lets the recruit know that you are at least somewhat interested. Think about it, if a school at least scouted you, wouldn't you think they are somewaht interested in you?
[/quote]

Most times...if you’re having trouble finding good players, troll all available players after week one recruiting. Look for the red down arrow, even if you didn't recruit them in week one, uninterested, or non-top-5 players will still show that their interest in your school is dropping. Give them a few points, and you can quickly be back in their interest zone again.

I've done this when just starting out with a 1-2 star prestige team (when no-one wants to go to Rice), and managed to find a couple 4 and several 3 star recruits.

Another point...BEFORE you go off into off season schedule, scroll through and check you player requirements for the next year. Yeah they are only accounting for losses of Seniors, but you can custom tailor your team a little quicker this way. For instance, I typically like to have OLB or Safeties. So before I advance to the off season, if I’m looking for some OLB/MLB help, I change my defense type to 4-4 or 3-4. If I’m looking for safeties, I’ll move it to 3-3-5 or 4-2-5. This then will require 3 FS and 3 SS. When players see you have a "need" at a position, it's much easier to pitch and sign. If you don’t like the lot your given, before you complete “cut”ting players, jump back to coach strategy, and change to the defense that will help you trim down what you got.

Example. Playing as any low prestige program with a 3-4 defense. I know I’m losing my starting impact SR (RS) SS. I’ve got two lowly Frosh back-ups that I didn’t recruit. Didn’t manage to get a quality SS during In-Season recruiting. Well before completing to go into the off-season, jump back to dynasty menu, coach options, strategy…change to 3-3-5. Back to in-season recruiting…check recruiting requirements and now I see that I’ll be short one SS. Good deal. Back to off-season, through on to recruiting. I see several 1 and two star, but I’d really like that four star 6’2, 212, 4.34 320 bench, 500 squat SS. Scout him, recruit him, everything at him…nothing. End of recruiting, and I get two walk on one star (1*) SS. Both my Frosh advance a little and the walk-ons are atrocious…62 and 59. During cut players, I try to cut the jokers at SS. I can cut the worst since I still have three left, the computer won’t let me cut the other bad recruit…jump back to dynasty menu, coach options, strategy…change to 3-4 or 4-4 or 4-3. Now I get back to cutting players, and abracadabra…I can now cut him. Same thing works with DL, changing from 4-4, 4-3, or 4-2-5 to 3-4, 3-3-5. LBs, 4-4 or 3-4 to 3-3-5 or 4-2-5 or 4-3.

There is the same feature on offense as well, simply swap from spread to option to flex bone to West Coast to balanced and see what it does to your player needs at HB, FB, WR, and TE.

[Jackrabbit]

Thought I'd go with Central Michigan (1*) and see how recruiting is.

In a word...awesome...

In my fifth year, and I've only gotten two 4* - no 5* will sniff me yet. It's awesome because, in reality, it takes 5 or 6 years to become a major program. Look at Boise State, they're on the cusp, but not yet.

No rules, just basics.

1) Stress training. Recruiting points gets you athletes, but if they improve only 7 or 8 points throughout their college life, a four star (60-70's rating) only really gets to upper 70's a a senior.

2) Same idea goes for getting Excellent potential players. I got a three star RB with good potential. He's now a RS Jr and he's a 90. For Central Michigan!

3) In-season recruiting, I try to keep all 12 going into the first cut-down (most likely to five teams). Look at who you are up against. I can't recruit against 5 and 6* teams, but can against teams within conference. Put the points in those recruits. Often times, those major players will take longer. Sign some smaller (2 or 3*) first, and try to keep your team in the big boy's top 3. Then worry about those.

4) Try to fill next year's empty roster spots duirng in-season. You lose buco ratings for switching a FS into a SS spot when its time to change positions.

5) ATH of any caliber are good. Got a 2* rated ATH at 6'0" 250#. Made him starting OLB, made the FR All-American. Soph, he's at all-conference.

Central Michigan doesn't compete with any big schools, nor should they, but we're getting better. Went 5-6, 6-5, 5-6 my first three years. They offered me a two-year extension. Went 4-7 my fourth year, but signed my best in-season class (One 4* recruit and three 3* recruits). Got to the off-season, and administration offered me a three-year deal. Took it and ran. I'll go home and finish up my off-season of year five tonight.

[jdschoon]

Has anyone posted tips for what to look for in recruits? What does bench help in lineman, what to look for other than speed in a HB, etc.

Is bench for pass blocking and squat help for run blocking or vice versa?