For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

[37]

do u recruit manually or let the CPU recruit for u? and if the latter, what kind of prospects do ya end up with? question i asked is because i handle all the recruiting myself...i started a dummy dynasty with Colorado and all they seem to attract are 3* recruits...i simmed through my 1st year and ended up with a 5-7 record and i only landed 5 recruits...I followed all the recruiting guidelines/tips from fellow posters and I still find it somewhat frustrating...I know my record goes hand-in-hand with the recruiting process.....but i know i can do better then 5 measly recruits....Just wondering if i allowed the CPU to recruit entirely, would i get different results assuming my record was .500 or better....Any tips would be greatly appreciated

[Meast21Forever]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

I did all my recruiting for the first two seasons. But I've grown tired of it so I'm just letting the cpu do it now. In one season of recruiting with all the aids on, I signed 16 guys. Only one five star, but a good amount of 4s as well.

As for tips, turn down the difficulty. Playing with a lower school, it's understandable to keep the recruiting difficulty lower. Win more games, have some B+'s or A's in your school's recruiting pitches, then turn it back up. Also, when setting up your board, search for guys who are interested in you. Normally I'll add as many top guys that have me in their top 5. Then look for top 3. Some recruits will have you number one. These should be easy pick ups.

[Daniels2386]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

I do all the recruiting myself. I think this is almost as fun as playing the game ( especially this year :P ). I just like the idea of building a team, how I vision it should be. lol I think there are definitely hidden jems. I have a 4 star athlete that has 90 spd and 78ovr at LOLB. After 2 games into my OD, he is the sack leader. Pretty cool feeling

[synjin]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

With me doing 95% of recruiting myself (not counting quick calls to guys who have me ranked 1st on their list) I can do the following:

In the 2 star program I'm playing at now (and the test dynasty I ran before rosters came out) I can usually get 15-20 three star recruits during the season. Then I usually get 1 or 2 four star recruits in the offseason recruit session.

When I was 1 star, I got about 10-15 three stars and the rest 1 or 2 stars. If I got really lucky, I could get a 4 star to auto commit.


When I let the computer do it all, I do about half as well. In fact, with a 3 star program that had a great season, I only got about eight 3 star recruits and another two or three 2 stars during the season. I got another 8-10 mix of 2 and 3 stars during the offseason.

Bottom line: Do it yourself.

[tbbucsfan001]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

With me doing 95% of recruiting myself (not counting quick calls to guys who have me ranked 1st on their list) I can do the following:

In the 2 star program I'm playing at now (and the test dynasty I ran before rosters came out) I can usually get 15-20 three star recruits during the season. Then I usually get 1 or 2 four star recruits in the offseason recruit session.

When I was 1 star, I got about 10-15 three stars and the rest 1 or 2 stars. If I got really lucky, I could get a 4 star to auto commit.


When I let the computer do it all, I do about half as well. In fact, with a 3 star program that had a great season, I only got about eight 3 star recruits and another two or three 2 stars during the season. I got another 8-10 mix of 2 and 3 stars during the offseason.

Bottom line: Do it yourself.

This. Last year I was a perennial Top 3 Recruiting Class with UGA when I recruited. Got really tired and simmed a year only to end up with the number 22 recruiting class...

[37]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

All good advice....i'll def lower the recruiting difficulty as i had it on heisman...i know i gotta step up the winning part...i know i can reach at least .500 with Colorado...As far as my recruiting pitches goes, i notice that most of em are C's...and whenever they are B's or A's, im always competing against a big-team school that's one-upped me...not really surprised since Colorado is a middle-of-the-road school that hasnt had much success the last decade IRL.....I only search for prospects that are in my top 10 instead of going down the entire list cause i know i wont draw much interest from the upper echeleon of prospects...Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of building my team the way I want it...It's just that i devote so much time to recruiting every week, by the time i'm done, i dont have much interest in playin that week's game....Using up all 10 hours every week takes a lot outta me as funny as that may sound

[Mtneer08]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

I get the players I want and offer them...when I see im way ahead of any other team I let the cpu recruit them the rest of the way.

[37]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

I get the players I want and offer them...when I see im way ahead of any other team I let the cpu recruit them the rest of the way.

I tried that...i let the CPU take over recruiting halfway through the season when i had at least 10 recruits havin me as #1....after the season, for some reason i was still #1 on most of their lists (some by overwhelming margins too) but they didnt wanna sign..I found that kinda weird

[bnb]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

here's another tip i got from this board last year: i never have more than 10 recruits on my board at one time. this allows me to give each recruit a full hour of attention. as i sign a player, i replace him with another. i do this throughout the season/post-season and have had great success.

[tbbucsfan001]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

here's another tip i got from this board last year: i never have more than 10 recruits on my board at one time. this allows me to give each recruit a full hour of attention. as i sign a player, i replace him with another. i do this throughout the season/post-season and have had great success.

Huh. Never done that. I'll try it out.

[37]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

here's another tip i got from this board last year: i never have more than 10 recruits on my board at one time. this allows me to give each recruit a full hour of attention. as i sign a player, i replace him with another. i do this throughout the season/post-season and have had great success.

That sounds good but when my first recruit signs in Weeks 10-14, not much i can really do

[football5680]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

I recruit for myself.
The CPU is terrible when recruiting.

I used Oklahoma for a dynasty and ever year i could get about 6-10 5 star recruits and the rest would be 4 star except for a kicker or punter.

The system I use to Recruit is also Very effective
What I do is iI scout only 15 players at the beggining. I usually go for the best player who has me in his top 3 but never settle for a 3 star prospect.
The first Week you give all the prospect 40 minutes which is an even time for every recruit.
Whenever a player commits you no longer have to give him his 40 minutes so you will be able to give 2 recruits and hour total. These should be used on guys who dont have you as their #1 school.
Eventually you will get down to 10 recruits and you will be able to give each one an hour.
Any time a player commits when you are down to 10 recruits you need to go back to the prospects list and add a guy who other teams are not scouting hard.
You can tell who these players are because when most people are in the green these players will be in the yellow.
Save maybe 4-5 scholarships for the offseason because more recruits get added and you could end up with better players

[Woodcutta]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

I don't know if this has been mentioned already but something that I find very annoying is recruiting a 5-star recruit that you really, really want (say, Barry Sanders Jr.) but no matter what (offering all three promises, early scholarship offer, and even an A+ visit) you remain 2nd on the list of schools he is interested in. Even after a few weeks of 60 minute pitches, this player signs with another school. Thinking the main cause for this might be a later visit to the school they committed too, you check the other schools he visited and HE WASN'T EVEN SCHEDULED TO VISIT ANOTHER SCHOOL. WTH? If a recruit doesn't insta-commit and doesn't visit a school why in the world would he commit to that school? It wouldn't bug me if this was happened every once and a while but almost every 5-star recruit I don't get falls into this category.

Any thoughts on what I could do better/different to avoid these situations?

[jbrew2411]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

I have always done my own recruiting. That is why I play college games over pro games. I love building my school up because I land players that fit my system. I recruit on AA because I feel it gives the most realistic results. I would recommend these few tips.

1) Smaller is better: I keep my board at 15-20 max depending on need.
2) Recruit need first then wants.
3) Replace star players a year before they leave. If I have a star Soph/Jr then I look for a replacement. I end up red shirting them for a year then they step in once the play leaves.
4) I only recruit guys that have me in the top 3 or less then 200 points behind the leader.
5) Recruit pipelines first. You get a point boost per call and have the best chance of landing those players.
6) It's ok to drop a guy if you fall behind.
7) Use you points wisely. I use 40 per week on "needs" and 30 per week on "wants".
8) Sometimes no matter what you do you will not sign a player. Happens in real life as well. Goes back to #6.
9) Offer within first few weeks. I only put guys on my board that I would sign so I don't see the point of waiting around.
10) This year we can fix EA's lack of skill at creating recruits with ratings that match the skill set so don't be afraid to sign 3* guys. I just signed a 3* ATH who runs a 4.4 but has a C+ in ACC & AGL. No big deal I will just fix him.

[bmxdmx]

Re: For All You Recruiting Junkies.....

The ting that annoys me is if there is a recruit and i'm -20 behind another school, offer him a scholly, and he commits to the other school eventhough they waited till after me to offer. I figure the schooly plus 60 mins would be enough to keep me in the running. guess not. it's like the kids went to the other school and begged for one.