I suck at recruiting!

[volball625]

Quote: Originally Posted by WakeUnc2321

I play on Heisman difficulty w/Wake Forest and have won back-to-back national championships. 2nd year of my dynasty, had like 6 or 7 5*, and the rest 4* The key for me is saving the dynasty right before i advance to the next week. If on the 2nd or 3rd week I don't have as much interest from my targeted recruits I'd like, then I quit, reload, and advance the week again. *It varies and is random so keep trying until your prized recruit finally has interest* I also quick-call b/c it's more efficient. I never settle for anything less than a large interest gain and usually do 10-20 mins so I save if the prospect gets a large interest gain, and if not then I quit, reload and try it again. Anything over 40+ min can give 2 large interest gains.

AKA you cheat.

[rckabillyRaider]

Quote: Originally Posted by volball625

AKA you cheat.

LOL

[stewart#28]

Great info...couple of questions...
1.When a player does commit, then drops to the bottom of my list do I need to give him any attention?
2. I do trim my list down to 20-25 players but the computer always add more the next week, how can I control this so they don't add players?
3.If a players does commit, SOFT, to another team should I continue to spend time on them?

[dharrisfan2003]

Quote: Originally Posted by stewart#28

Great info...couple of questions... 1.When a player does commit, then drops to the bottom of my list do I need to give him any attention? 2. I do trim my list down to 20-25 players but the computer always add more the next week, how can I control this so they don't add players? 3.If a players does commit, SOFT, to another team should I continue to spend time on them?

1. No, because you can't. In real life, coaches continue to "recruit" their commits, but in the game there are no de-committments.

2. You have to go into Recruiting Options (or whatever it's called,not playing the game right now) in the main recruiting page, and turn off the option where the CPU can edit your recruiting board.

3. Yes, ESPECIALLY if they haven't visited your school yet. You can still get a commit from a Soft Verbal to another school.

[jello1717]

Quote: Originally Posted by stewart#28

Great info...couple of questions... 1.When a player does commit, then drops to the bottom of my list do I need to give him any attention? No 2. I do trim my list down to 20-25 players but the computer always add more the next week, how can I control this so they don't add players? Go into recruit options and turn off the CPU assistance. There's 3 types, calls, scholarships, and board. The board one is the one where they fill up your board for you. I have them all turned off. 3.If a players does commit, SOFT, to another team should I continue to spend time on them? I do if I want him. I usually don't get them, but I have stolen recruits on a few occasions. If they're due to visit me in the near future, I'll definitely keep spending time on them.

.

[dharrisfan2003]

Here's how to land studs. This is for players who are using 4-6 star teams.

Preseason recruiting

1. Turn off CPU Assistance in Recruiting Options. All CPU Assistance can do is make things more confusing for you.

2. ONLY contact guys that are interested in you. Contact 15-20 recruits. If you have more than that, it'll be really tough trying to land them all. Plus, it's a 70 man roster, so you're gonna end up cutting some of the players anyway.

3. Once you have contacted these players, go into your Recruiting Board and list them by Ability.

Notes
*When contacting recruits in the beginning, I contact 1 or 2 more recruits than normal if they play a position of need for my school. If I need 1 DE recruit, I usually contact 2 or 3.
*Just as a heads up, FB, TE, and C's are usually the toughest positions to recruit, because there aren't as many of those recruits available. It might be a smart idea to bump these guys up your recruiting board at the beginning, although they might not be as high of a recruit as some of your other recruits on the board.

In-season Recruiting

Week 1: OFFER SCHOLARSHIPS to every recruit on your board. If you don't, other schools that have already have a headstart on you. If you're the #1 school to start, there's about a 20% chance you get a commit from that player right off the bat. For now, don't mess with your recruiting board much. When offering, I usually use 45 minutes for the top 6 recruits, then 35 for the rest. if you're getting low on minutes for the guys lower on your recruiting board, then do some math in your head to know how much time you should use.

Week 2: FIRST, look through your recruits on your board and see what other teams have offered. If a player doesn't have any more offers, move them down a few slots on the board. If a player wants to visit your school, manually call and schedule a visit. The best visit weeks are week 6-11. DON'T schedule a recruit to come in in a non-conference game, or a game you think you'll most likely lose. Rivalry games are the best to schedule guys in, but if they come after Week 11, don't schedule them in on that date. Most recruits sign before that date. Quick call the rest of the recruits that don't want to visit yet, and use all your recruiting points.

Week 3-6: Keep scheduling visits for recruits that want to visit, and keep quick calling the rest of the recruits. Also, if recruits don't have any offers besides your offer, move those guys lower on your board. Also, if you're 2nd or 3rd for a prospect, and you have guys higher on your board where you're #1 by a wide margin, move the guys you're trailing in up on your board for an increase of interest.

Week 6-11 (visit dates): Once its a day where you've got a player visiting, schedule events you want the recruits to attend. Very High and Most's only, unless your school sucks at whatever the recruit has VH/M in. If that happens, try to sway your pitches that the recruit has High interest in, and you have Elite/Very Good/etc. in. Then schedule those events. Keep doing this with the rest of the visiting recruits. for the other recruits that aren't visiting, quick call them 60 minutes. Whatever left over points you have give them to guys that are visiting that you are trailing for.

Week 6-11 (after prospect visits): MANUALLY recruit these recruits that have already visited but haven't committed. Hard sell the VH and Most pitches ONLY. Sway the High interest pitches if your school is good in those. I usually try to pitch 3 VH/M pitches each week, unless it's taking more than 2 hours. Make sure to COMPLETE these pitches (PITCH COMPLETE! will show up), if you don't then you don't get an interest gain. For the rest of the recruits that haven't visited yet, Quick call them.

Week 12-15: Manually call their VH/M pitches and sway High pitches if your school is good at those.. Just keep hard selling.

Offseason: If your school is #1 for a recruit, and they have 100% interest, visit them Week1 of offseason. Pitch the VH/M if your school is good in those. Promise things you know you can achieve.
If your school is Not #1, then manually call these guys, but don't set up a visit date until you know when your competition is scheduling, then schedule that date. Promises are huge for these guys. Promise everything you know you can achieve.
If you have no more prospects on your board, look through the recruits that don't have any offers yet, and put them on your board and offer them immediately. Keep recruiting these guys until the end, and schedule dates like I said before, and hopefully you'll get a commit.

[Donovan]

Great tips guys, keep em coming. I'm recruiting as 2 star Bowling Green, so obviously its much tougher for me and most of my targets are 3 star guys, its a slow tough crawl building up a small program. And I really screwed up recruiting my first season not knowing what to do, but I enjoyed the first year and dont really want to restart.

[mgoblue678]

Serious thumbs down to the guy who cheats to recruit players. The whole point of recruiting is not to reload saves until you get what you want. It's your game so you can do what you want but I seriously don't see the fun in cheating your way to a good recruiting class.