Recruiting strategy.

[lakerhater]

I saw a few different strategies laid out. What’s yours?"

[SethMurphy]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

I was thinking of coming in today to get some opinions. I started an offline Dynasty as Syracuse last night, new HC. I've been recruiting trying to maximize the players I have a chance to sign. It's mostly 3-stars, a few 4-stars are interested. 1 5-star RB was, but I just lost out at Top-3.

Are most people going heavy on three to four players, trying to get stars, or are you trying to fill out a roster. Obviously recruiting as an Alabama, LSU type is different than a rebuild. Just curious how others are handling their weekly allotment. I have I think 600-650 hours to use during the season right now each week.

I've been mostly spreading it out, trying to keep myself at 1st or 2nd on as many players lists as possible. I'm week 6 I think, no one has committed though, so I'm worried about that as other schools are getting commits each week.

Would love to see a thread on how different people are approaching recruiting

[Tonka3013]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

Playing around a bit last night as Maryland I was getting mostly 3s and maybe 3-5s 4s. A 5 played with me but I couldn’t feel him in.

I started with the 35 best players who were interested in me. Scouted them completely, ranked them by their overall ranking but moved the green gems up a few spots. Removed the X-out gems from my list bc i don’t know what that means but it’s probably bad.

Basically I waited until they got down to their top 5 and then gave them all the attention I could. Mainly just trying to stay inside the cut line until then.

As I cleared spots, I’d add new players who are interested, recommended, or in my pipeline.

There’s some limit to how many recruits can get visits. When the 5s I was chasing finnaly got down to 5 I had blown all my visits. I haven’t figured out what that limit is. Maybe 4-5 per game, and 2-3 games.

I was focusing on hard sells. I’d spend 10 on a DM or something early on, then 40 on a hard sell once i knew what to pitch the kid. I have no idea how to assess whether that’s better or worse than the other options, say the 50 hour kitchen sink or whatever it’s called.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

I started a Dynasty as Arizona State. Haven't gotten far because of the servers.

I liked the strategy Bengal laid out where you go hard after the guys you want so you can free up points to go after other players later. My team has 4 Senior WRs lol so I need a big refresh at that position. I am trying to fill holes but I want quality players to fix positions of weakness for my team like OL, LB, and CB. Those are my top priorities. Sending the house for the guys I want and trying to lock them down early. I haven't even looked at 5 Stars yet, but once I lock down a couple of my targets I'm gonna see if any of them have interest in our school.


I love the dealbreakers and I love that if a prospect doesn't have interest in you there's nothing you can do to convince them. It's awesome. It's so anti-Madden. In that game if there's a 99 speed QB I can just trade up to #1 and get them. In this game if the #1 QB/RB/WR has a deal breaker or doesn't want my school there's nothing I can do. That is very satisfying.

[Instant C1a55ic]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

I saw a few different strategies laid out. What’s yours?"

I find mine to be very simplistic. How it will carry over to this game, time will tell.

I start by going over each position, taking note of how many seniors are leaving. Depending on position, I then note if I have a player or players to fill that role next season. If I don't A) have a player to fill the role just in general or B) simply need to upgrade who may be taking over, I'll add that position to a note pad in my phone.

I briefly played around with scouting in 25, I am on a 10 hour trial, so I don't wanna waste it all on JUST developing/adjusting my scout system.

With that said, I take note of the position players I need, and I start locating them by sorting them by interest. Once sorted, I break it down by player type. I call for power inside O-lineman for example, so I will locate at least 2, maybe 3 and add to my board. Always add more than one guy as who you choose may be a bust, or yoy may not like his attribute overalls. NEVER SETTLE unless yoy 100% have no choice. It's very important to not go too far down the interest board as you don't wanna be crawling tooth and nail to make up interest level. Again, I have not tested 25 100% with this, but just an overall good rule of thumb. I personally dont flirt with guys behind interest level 4.

Once they are added to my list, scout, scout, scout. I did break down the number of hours versus the 13 total players chosen during my first run, and I had 93 hours to use per player, so I could have added more so keep that in mind. I scouted the players, find my busts and gems, then replace the busts if you need multiple players for any said position.

Once I have the core guys I need "replaced" I go back into the prospect pool and sort by star level. If any of the guys have at least an interest of 3 or more, I'll add them to my pool to try and lure away. This is a good way to add top end talent to replace maybe a lower overall player. You should take notes with the new transfer portal system, etc etc. Like I said this is all kinda new to me, so adjusting my NCAA 14 structure/strategy is going to be ongoing until I find the sweet spot.

Beyond this as of now is how far I got. I have about 17 guys and I'm just going into them each week and scouting them with the available options I have. I have the basic ones, DM, Family, and socials.

Hope this helps someone get the basics started. I'll add more as I play, I have to work the next 2 days, then I'm off a whole week, so I plan to note what changes need to be made. I'll post them here if anyone is interested.


Sent from my SM-F946U using Operation Sports mobile app

[buckeye02]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

The main question I have is this….does sending the house work better than a hard sell? I believe both actions have the same up arrow result.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

The main question I have is this….does sending the house work better than a hard sell? I believe both actions have the same up arrow result.

I think it depends on the player and what pitches you have available. You also can't do the hard/soft sells until they narrow down their list (I think they have to be at their top 5).

I have noticed the arrows of impact change depending on the player. For instance sometimes a DM is +2 and sometimes it's +3.

I have been sending the house after the guys I really want until they have their list narrowed down and I can do the hard/soft sells.

[buckeye02]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

I think it depends on the player and what pitches you have available. You also can't do the hard/soft sells until they narrow down their list (I think they have to be at their top 5).

I have noticed the arrows of impact change depending on the player. For instance sometimes a DM is +2 and sometimes it's +3.

I have been sending the house after the guys I really want until they have their list narrowed down and I can do the hard/soft sells.

Yeah I know that you have to have the 3 pitches revealed and it’s recommended that those pitches that they care about is in the green. I would just like to know the bump up compared to send the house because sending the house still costs more.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

Yeah I know that you have to have the 3 pitches revealed and it’s recommended that those pitches that they care about is in the green. I would just like to know the bump up compared to send the house because sending the house still costs more.

Are there hidden boosts? Like if both of those are +5 green arrows, is it possible one is actually doing more than the other?

[buckeye02]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

Are there hidden boosts? Like if both of those are +5 green arrows, is it possible one is actually doing more than the other?

That’s my question. Although I haven’t had a hard sell where all 3 pitches are A’s or better. The hard sell has to have a bigger boost than sending the house.

[Tonka3013]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

I have been sending the house after the guys I really want until they have their list narrowed down and I can do the hard/soft sells.

Isn’t this impossible? I can only spend 50-55 hours on a recruit.

[itsmb8]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

Not buying the game until the sim engine is fixed, but I imagine my strategy with house rules will be something like this:

Starting as OC, I can have a max of 3 players I select to the board the first year no matter what and handle recruiting for them, the rest is up to the CPU HC. After that is:

Year 2 at same school - 5 players if defensive HC, 4 if offensive HC
Year 3 at same school - 7 for DEF HC / 5 for OFF HC
Year 4 same school - 9 for D HC / 6 for O HC

If I leave to be the OC at a different school, it resets to year 2 and works back up. If I become the HC, I take over all recruiting.

Scouting I can only have the first part done after week 3, the second half done after week 6, and fully after week 9. That way I can end up recruiting and going after commits of players that end up being busts.

[KingCobb]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

I won't get to try it out until I get home Thursday and will have to get a feel for the points allocations and how much recruiting actually occurs in preseason.....but if I have the points I want to fill out my board with 25 to 35 players and scout the heck out of them before I do anything else.

I think, if your recruiting fewer than 25 or definitely 20 your results will be skewed by focusing on fewer recruits. It'll depend obviously and I'm not saying evenly distributes, but some of the streams it looks like they are sending the house to everybody on their board....so we'll see.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

Isn’t this impossible? I can only spend 50-55 hours on a recruit.

Sending the house is 50 so I do that until they narrow it down to Top 5. Once they hit Top 5 you can do the Hard Sell and since you've been sending the house you have enough information to nail their pitch most times. It's a really rock solid strategy for me to far.

Still in season 1, wk 8. But so far with 3 Star Arizona State I have locked down 6 four star players. Got a shot at a 5 star and a few more 4 stars. My class is rated in the mid 20's right now.

Also as far as points, if you're the Motivator Archetype get the positions you care about/need upgraded ASAP. Then you get 65 hours for that position. So you could Hard Sell & Contact Friends and Family so you're getting massive boosts of up to 10 or more green arrows each week.

[FrankBurgh]

Re: Recruiting strategy.

gems are one star higher than shown while broken gems are one star lower than shown, so a 5 star broken gem is still a 4 star type player. the gems should get smaller schools to have a shot at better players.