Recruiting Tips?

[silkysmooth]

Messing around as Purdue it really seems tough at the start. I'm competing with Michigan, Penn St. and Ohio St. all over the place, even for 3 star guys. I have pipelines in Florida and Texas to start which helps a little bit but I have a bad feeling that once I have a year or two under my belt and a lot of my actual players have left, I will hit a major downturn where my first recruiting class or two falls short of my original team and I begin to slide. Judging by Purdue's schedule for the first year, I can potentially squeak out 7-8 wins with the team I have, which may or may not be enough to push me up to a 4 star prestige team. Winning games seems to be a big factor in recruiting this year, as having a 5 or 6 win season drops prestige and really drops down the interested recruiting pool.

[kcarr]

Quote: Originally Posted by Adamantium

So what's everybody's visit scheduling strategy? Get them in early while you still got the chance, or wait til the end of the season and try to leapfrog all the other teams? So far, I've been scheduling them into the first rivalry game that I can. There's nothing more infuriating than scheduling a blue chipper for a week 13 showdown with Ohio State and then he commits to Notre Dame after visiting them in week 12. I think in the offseason recruiting it DEFINITELY benefits you to schedule them ASAP. I landed 2 5 stars and a 4 star in weeks 2 and 3 of the offseason because they loved their visits so much.

During the season it depends on the recruit. If it is early in the season I will schedule earlier as the recruit seems to be moving along more quickly looking for a team and if it is later in the season I will more likely wait till the end.

If I am the only one chasing a kid I will get him in right away hoping to get him signed and be able to move the few minutes I am using on him to someone else.

If I am leading a race for a player I will typically try to be one of the last teams to have him visit. It seems that usually if you are in the lead they will only soft commit to other teams on visits giving you the chance to have your visit and move back to the front. Also, if you then get past the other team's visits without them passing you up then you can back off on the kid and get him with very little effort.

If I am back in 4th or 5th quite a ways behind I will schedule for the 1st big game I have hoping that a great visit will move me up to the front and give me a fighting chance.

If I am in a real fight for a recruit then I kinda go back and forth. Sometimes I will try to get him to the 1st big game on schedule and sometimes I will wait till the end but I usually go with the 1st big game, especially if I have boise state coming up.

Offseason, although in this game I haven't gotten to it yet, in previous games you could get a lot of commits with a good visit so I would schedule them right away.

[zadokguy]

I have a quick newbie question regarding recruitment. If a recruit gives your team a soft commit, what are the chances of a hard commit? I am focusing large portions of allotment time on my top 10, and it does seem to work.

Nine of them have given me a soft commit, but being a newbie I have no idea what that really means. Should I continue to spend 50-60 minutes on these guys every week, or are they essentially a lock?? Any advice would be appreciated. This board has really helped me improve my recruiting skills.

[Crono139]

Soft commits are never a lock, but they do mean that your school is their pick at that point in time.

It doesn't mean that you can stop recruiting them, but feel free to move them down your board slightly and/or decrease the number of minutes that you spend on them.

Be sure to pay attention to the interest levels of the others schools as that is most important when deciding what to do.

[zadokguy]

Thanks for the advice. I am currently sitting between 200-400 points ahead of the second ranked team(s). I may lower my allotment time to 40 minutes. I do not want to lose my lead, but I also want to move on to a few other recruits.

[RDMercer]

What fills up your board with other players that you haven't targeted? Is it recruiting assit on? Sorry if this is a newb question, but what exactly does recruiting assit help you with anyways?

Also, these are all great tips, thanks fellas.

Peace

[ghostdogg70]

I have a system that works well for me.

1. Fill your board but fill it with players that are actually interested in your school. Trying to convert non believers is a slim-to-none prospect and a waste of valuable time. Not filling your board will cause your positioning on the recruits list to drop due to your not showing interest and when you finally get around to him your starting from behind the pack instead of the front or middle. So always fill it and if a recruit commits elsewhere remove him immediately and replace him with another interested recruit.

2. A no Brainer. Set your board according to Caliber. A 3 star should never be at the top of your board unless you're using a team where that's the best you can get. Once they're set by caliber go back and arrange them by where they rank you on their list being sure to keep the caliber groupings together. This makes it easier for you to see where your efforts are best spent.

3. Spend your calls according to their interest levels. If you rank 1st on their list give them 60 min ALWAYS. These recruits want to play for you and are yours to lose. How much time you spend on each recruit are as follows. 1/60 2/50 3/40 4/30 5/20. Sometimes the Advisor will show you a player who doesn't have you on his list but can possibly be persuaded to play for you. If you choose to try to recruit this player give him 10 min until he shows interest. 6-10 rankings can be quick called until they show more interest. For quick calls use the same rank/time ratio as above substituting 1 for 6 and so on up to 10.

4. Always make personal calls to what I call special circumstance recruits first before quick calling recruits. Those are the ones that are ready for visits, the recruits that will fill your team needs for the next season and if offered the three adviser suggested recruits. Your calls are going to be all over the board due to this rule. Lots of the time these adviser suggested recruits have you listed low on their lists and you've been only quick calling them. The personal call can lift you 2 or 3 positions on their list if made when suggested. Note: Team needed recruits will always get a personal call every week.

5. If your school is in the recruits top 5 offer him a scholarship immediately. You'll get a boost and usually the other top 5 schools are holding out that offer for a few weeks so you'll have a jump on the competition. If the recruit is in a needed position offer him a scholarship no matter your position on his list. Your going to be calling him every week anyway so it can only help your position.

6. During Personal calls the most important topic is to ask how a recruit feels about a subject. It tells you whether or not to spend time on that issue. It's the same as having any negotiation conversation. What you KNOW is GOLD. Always try to bring down a competing school a few notches if they are rated higher than you on the recruits list but lower than you in a certain topic but don't wast your time on a school ranked lower. If a school is ranked higher on both issues consider making offers and promises. Again only offer scholarships if you're in his top 5 or he's a needed recruit but promises can go to anyone just be reasonably certain you can fulfill them or he gone after the 1st season.

7. Remember you are competing on a topic by topic basis if your school is rated a B+ and the school you're competing against is an A it doesn't mean you can't come out ahead. By consistently hitting on that topic you may still get that recruit if the other school doesn't exploit their advantage. Keep notes if necessary. That said if the situation's reversed point it out over and over again. Be a verbal guerrilla fighter. Hit your competitions weak spots constantly. If a recruit isn't interested in a topic don't waste time on it. Above Average importance and up are your target zones. On topics where you are the stronger school but the recruit's interest is Average/Above average attempt to persuade him until he says to stop. In this case you can try to get an Average to Above Average or higher but never try on anything lower. Attack all of your competing schools ranked higher than you. If the #1 school is strong but the #3 is weaker and you're #4 or 5 bad mouth that punk on a consistent basis. It's all about rankings. Maybe next week you'll be snuggled up next to that #1 monster and can start chipping away at his dominance.

8. On key recruits it helps to always check and see how much time the competition spent on that recruit. If it's less than you did and if you did your job and was able to bad mouthed them at least once then you are in good shape and should gain position.

Using this method I've gotten a strong recruiting class. I'm almost done with my 1st season and I'm ranked 3rd in recruiting classes. They'll start filing in mid to late season with a few early commits here and there.

[UKryno50]

Okay i just finished my first year of dynasty with Miami. I had an amazing recruiting class. I had 20 commits total, four 5 stars, five 4 stars and nine 3 stars and the rest were 2 stars. All I did was find who the 10 top rated guys were who had me the highest and talked to them and hour every week. If I was number one I offered a scholly. The first week I had two diff instant commits from a 5 star and a 4 star. When those players committed I moved on to directly filling my board with the players who filled the needs for my teams. Every week I only talked to 10 players for an hour. Within 3 weeks I had every pitched figured out and thats when I went to hard selling and comparing to other schools. If i fell behind with a guy i tried to compare every pitch even if one was an A+ vs an A and I promised most of the guys who werent instant commits no redshirt, winner against rivals and game in home state. (most of my guys were pipeline anyway). Towards the end of the season I got the achievement for stealing a soft commit from another school so that can def be done and 3 of my five stars came in OFF SEASON recruiting. Dont slack at this time of the year. Those 3 five stars all had me in their top 4 and i talked to them as well 1 hour a week, promimsing, making visits and comparing as much as i could. It was pretty cool because the last 5 star player i signed was in week 5 of the off season recruiting and his top four were Tenn, FSU, Notre Dame and Miami. Tenn led and we were all behind -1 point. It felt like a real life superstar recruit was waiting until the last minute press conference and picked up that green/orange hat! I then got the achievement for #1 class.

sorry just felt like sharing my experience.