NCAA 09 Recruiting Tips

[ChiSox05]

Quote: Originally Posted by rodriggo

Does anyone know how the "talk to prospect" is supposed to work. I usually unlock a prospect's "most" pretty quickly, am I just supposed to keep working that until ball head is all teeth? Do I have to wait until "Pitch Completed" shows up? Can/Should I "cancel" out of a hard sell once ball head is happy? I've got 4 ***** recruits committed but no other schmo wants to sign up.

once you unlock the most, and 2 very high pitches hard sell those that match up well with your schools strength and this will make them gain interest. You want to finish pitches if you have the time because when the pitch is completed the prospect becomes more interested. You also want the football to be smiling because when you hang up with the football smiling you get a bonus interest boost.

[Bloodhound79]

Here's the strategy I have employed in my Online Dynasty:

Identify the # of players leaving due to graduation. Add 5 to that number since you can't convince people to stay in OD's. I fill out my recruiting board with a full 35, but I don't actively recruit that many. I Actively recruit approximately 5 more than total requirement. My positions of need, I offer scholly's immediately so that I get the bump and to the top of a prospects board (you don't want to wait and then get left out when they narrow their search). I Quick Call my top targets for 40-60 minutes (depending on how bad I want them, and how many recruits I'm targeting) for the first 1-2 weeks, in order to open up their rankings. After a player narrows down to his top 8 or in some cases top 5, I start doing regular calls, hard pitching the top 3 category matches (only in categories that I am elite or excellent and he has it listed as high, very high or most). I focus on the top 10-15 prospects each week.

[Son of Sam99]

I had the top recruiting class last season & the third class the season before as Michigan in my OD.

I offer scholarships to only the number one prospect I want for any given position as soon as possible. Or if I have a recruit who has me as number 1 in the first week offer them & some times they'll sign right away.

I find the player's two Very high & Most intrest and just hard sell thoes from then on. I hardly ever use sway. I've found it works well to hard sell the three things he's most interested in untill each pitch is complete then hang up.

Also I schedule them to visit as early as possible for a big game. Althougn I'll admit that is easier for Michigan since they always have Notre Dame in the first few weeks.

I always keep at least 20 recruits on my list & always have the most needed players at the top. I only spend manual time on them going down from the top so that I'll usually call just 7-12 players.

Thats how I always handle it & I've gotten the results as stated at the top. But I know it is easier with a program like Michigan. Either way I feel like the hands down best way to recruit is by winning.

[macgyver]

My roommates and I have been playing as Baylor for a few seasons and this is what we have found.

Trying to sway pitches is almost entirely stupid, but also very beneficial
-you may find this helpful if a recruit doesn't like something you excell at. IE, say the recruit thinks early play time is very high yet your school only offers poor early playing time yet your conference presteige is excellent and they only view that as average. Try once or twice to sway that so that they view conference presteige is high so that when they come to visit you will get more response from them by selecting conference presteige rather than early playing time.

Bring in recruits to big games only and later in the season
-Early on we wanted to bring in recruits as early as possible but we have found that waiting until week 10 or so has better results. Bring them in after other schools so you can show them your school is better. Also if its not a big game then they won't really care that much.

Don't expect recruits during the season
-We rarely got recruits during the season (probably because we were Baylor) but by the second week of off season recruiting we had always almost filled out our scholarships. View the in season recruiting as a way to know all the levels of as many recruits so that you can win them over with visits and promises.

Make promises
-We didn't do this as often the first two seasons but it really seems to win over recruits. Especially make promises you have control over (No red****, win against rivals). But if you want to be good you have to remember to redshirt some freshmen. Don't make promises you can't keep (gaurntee all american) thats up to them.

Through out the season check the top 100 prospects
-OK this is a huge thing I found during the middle of our 3rd season and it really pissed me off. In week 8 I looked through the top 100 prospects looking at prospects top schools. In doing so I found that there were at least 10-15 people who at that point still don't have any offers and were not highly interested in any one team. These people are EXCELLENT hidden prospects who won't show up when you search usually because your school is tied with 30 other schools who are just barely out of their top 10. Spend some good time on them and you'll soon have them seeing things your way.

Quick call=a very good thing
-Use it. I hate wasting time trying to find everyone's levels so I used quick call all the time unless I was setting up visits or ensuring I know enought about a recruit before they arrive for a visit.

By doing this we were able to take Baylor (on Varsity level) from 5-7 the first season to 13-1 the second season (lost one early to Alabama) and then went undefeated and won the National Championship the third season. Basically the first season we had one 4 star and a mess of 2 and 3 stars. Then we turned all the 2 stars into 3 stars and in this last recruiting class we had two 5 stars and twelve 4 star recruits.

Also, it doesn't hurt to try to make a player from the same town as your school, just so you can be certain that proximity to home is elite. Don't make him too good though otherwise you may not be able to sign him.

This may not be the best way but being able to take Baylor to the national championship in 3 years while playing in the Big 12 against Mizz, Texas, Texas Tech, etc as well as scheduling at USC, and always playing an A or A+ schedule, not too bad.

[El Rambo Gato]

What I do is organize my prospects from 1st interest to my lowest interest, i focus most of my time on prospects that have me 1st and 2nd. I always use the quickcall method if they have already visited my campus, and i dont need to waste time on them. I take only 20 min. each per player that has me 1st interest....

I use the call method to find 2 very mosts and 1 most. Then i schedule a visit for them asap if possible.... works like a charm, i play as the Wisconsin Badgers, and I keep getting more 5 and 4 stars recruited like butter.