In-Season Recruiting = Bunk
 

So, I just finished the 1st regular season in my Michigan dynasty (played on AA) and finished 9-2. I lost heartbreakers to ND and to OSU. The OSU game was especially crazy...I was down 21-0 after the first quarter, came all the way back to take a 31-30 lead with 0:23 left in the game, only to have Holmes (OSU WR) catch a 45 yards BOMB (I had him in double coverage too), which led to a last second field goal and a 33-31 loss. Here's my problem:

IN SEASON RECRUITING: I'm perennial powerhouse Michigan, who always gets one of the better recruiting classes. By the time recruits whiddled down their lists to their top 3 schools, I only had 2 home games left: Indiana and OSU. And at that point, I only had 5 recruits still interested in UofM. I had 2 come in to see the Indiana game, and both gave soft verbals. One didn't have any open dates left to come and see Michigan. The other 2 came to the OSU fiasco. After the the OSU loss, the 2 soft verbals decommitted, and the remaining 3 dropped me from their lists or committed to another school. So, after year 1, a year in which I won the Big 10 and am going to the Orange Bowl, I have 0 (that's ZERO) in-season recruiting commits. WTF?

One thing I did notice, however, is that only 2 of the 12 players were marked as "committed" with a zero with a line through it...does that mean I can still lure the other 10 back to Michigan in the off-season recruiting? Are the other 10 just "soft verbals" like I previously had but lost? Very frustrated, but LOVING the game....I'm just jonesin' for Madden so I can export my draft class and start my Lions Franchise (what can I say, I'm a Michigan Homer)

Re: In-Season Recruiting = Bunk
 

I got 3 with Troy! A 5 star, and 2 4 stars.

Re: In-Season Recruiting = Bunk
 

I was continually having problems too what is working for me is only targetting 5 or 6 recruits a year, this way you can spend around 20 recruiting points on them early in the season, this makes at least on or 2 of themthem cut things down to the final 3 schools by midseason. then you just invite them, pick your pitch wisely and if you smash the team you go against you always have at least 1 recruit signed and 1 soft verbal by like your 7th game, then yo can up your percentages to nearly 30 by midseason which will get the rest of your recruits to commit early, i ussually get all 5 of my recruits by the 8th or 9th game of my season.

It also helps to recruit guys from your pipline states, you usually start higher with them.

I personally love inseason recuriting because it makes it possible for the worse teams to recruit top teir talent without making serious strides to get better.

Re: In-Season Recruiting = Bunk
 

sounds like you might have spread yourself a bit too thin early on. I will usually cut it down to 5 guys I am going after by the 3rd week of the season.

Re: In-Season Recruiting = Bunk
 

I absolutely LOVE the in-season recruiting. It's one of the few things that I get really excited for every time I play a dynasty. I even created an Excel Spreadsheet for managing my recruits and it's fun as hell.

Like the person above me said, DO NOT try to recruit all 12 players. What I do is look at postions of need and I recruit two of those. If I have extra scholarships available, I look for the highest rated players in a pipeline state.

After the first week, I look at who's interested and who's not, and I'll allot points to a maximum of eight players, though I like to take it down to seven or even six. To do this, I look at the positions where I'm recruiting two players. Then I give the nod to the player with the most interest the first week and drop the other guy. If they're the same interest level, I go with the higher rated player. However, if they're both in the top three, I might string them both along and cut someone else. I usually give ten points to everyone, then a few extra to the best/least interested/most needed players on my list.

Throughout the process, I'll drop an additional one or two players if they have discipline problems AND low potential. Pay close attention to what they say each week, and if you see anything of interest, write it down. Occasionally they remove things from the feedback list.

When you schedule a visit, make sure you get the pitch right. I've lost players because I pitched my coach style and they hated it.

It's also important that you feed points to players when they go on visits to other schools. I had two players cancel their visit and sign with PSU one year.

The bottom line is, you have to pay attention and form a good strategy. Once you do that, in-season recruiting is a blast.

Re: In-Season Recruiting = Bunk
 

Yep, like everybody else said, don't bother going after 10-12 players; it just isn't feasible.

I'm in year 2 of my Michigan dynasty and my TOTAL recruiting haul (in-season + offseason) was 10 five-star players, 10 four-star players, and 1 three-star player. I was actually kind of disappointed that my class was SO stacked--the next best class only had 3 five-star players. In-season year one I only targeted 6 players, and 3 of them were TE's (UM's only position of need heading into year 2). I also targeted a FS, a SS and a MLB and was able to land all of them. I alternate between 15 and 20 pts. for each recruit.

My only defection during the offseason was Woodley (ouch!), who declared early. No transfers, and I was able to talk everyone else out of leaving early. This year in-season, I've targeted 3 QB's, a WR, a DT and an OT. All the QB's have signed, the OT and WR have signed, but the DT is determined to sign with San Jose State. I've saved and simmed several times, varying pitches, points allotted, even making sure that SJSU loses during his official visit there, all to no avail. I still play each and every game, just wanted to see if there was any way to get him to sign with me, and there's not.

Just a little heads-up on how I've worked my own UM dynasty. After 2 years I'll have signed 11 in-season recruits, all 4-5 star players.

Re: In-Season Recruiting = Bunk
 

I just got a 5 star guard to commit half way through the season with my created school...im happy bout that

Re: In-Season Recruiting = Bunk
 

Like everyone else said, don't spread yourself too thin. You still have OFF-SEASON RECRUITING.