The ever so exciting recruiting aspect of NCAA

[sandman]

I'm in the offseason now. I have no clue what to do at the recruiting part. I never did this in 2004. The map of the states appears and where exactly do I begin. Any help is appreciated. I'm also looking for general tips to look for to lure players to your school. I did win the NC with West Virginia if that makes a difference.

I should also mention my team is in ruins right now. My start receiver is gone. My best lb is gone and so is my Heisman cadidate rb. I'll give a quick rundown of the players I am missing.

3 receivers
1 fb
2 qb
1 hb
2 lb
1 kicker
1 dl
1 de
1 cb
4 o-linemen

As you can see I am in big trouble. Most of the players at these positions were key elements of my team.

[herndo]

I always start with the prospects who are interested in your program. You have a LOT of holes to fill on your team, you you're gonna want to also focus on players from your state and surrounding states. That way you'll be able to spend a few less points on the kids hopefully.

However, finding recrutes' hot buttons was much easier in '04. I just won the NC with Clemson two days ago and could only get 11 freaking commitments. But, I didn't have a lot graduate so I couldn't play the early PT angle with them. So hopefully you can find a bunch of guys who really want to play early.

Like I said, this year if very different, so in a few days I'll finish my second season and try it again and test some new ideas.

[mad_bomber]

I'd also recommend focusing on players that are interested in your program. Since you won the NC you should have a nice list of prospects that are interested in playing for you.

[sandman]

I didn't do that well. I really didn't what I was doing, but I got a couple of good guys. I got the #5 and #6 best SS. I got this great olb with the first name scooter. He was the #3 best olb. It very hard to find receivers, fullbacks, and quarterbacks. Way too many corners were interested.

[sandman]

One aspect I didn't understand was the whole points system. How is that determined ( the amount of points you receive ). I thought it was dumb. Another point is, how can you get players who aren't even interested in coming to your school? Is it at all possible? Someone on another board mentioned that the coach can call a player who is far away, can this really happen? I'm sorry with all the questions, but I want to to learn as much as I can.

[hobbs2324]

The points are directly related to how you finished your year. If you win the NC then you have more points then other schools to recruit with giving you the advantage. I haven't gotten to this part in this game but last year if a guy wasn't interested at all it was kind of a waste to try and sign them. You could get themoccasionally but i always felt why would you want a guy when he doesn't want to play for you. It's like a holdout in Madden, just let him go

[phrozzy]

...but last year if a guy wasn't interested at all it was kind of a waste to try and sign them. You could get them occasionally but i always felt why would you want a guy when he doesn't want to play for you.

Your right in that they would sign occasionally but you shouldn't give up hope if he's not really interested. Sometimes the fact that you scouted them but didn't offer a scholarship is enough to push your school to the top of his list. I noticed that the week after I scouted a recruit, the comments on him mentioned something about my prestige and I didn't even offer a scholarship.

I use Auburn-it's in Alabama for those who don't know :D - and I scouted a receiver from Washington state in Wk 2. Can't really remember but he either had low or average interest. I never even looked at him again for 3 weeks. Wk 5 comes around and I noticed I'm on top of his list. Signed him without evening making the correct recruiting pitch.

The point is just because he's not interested doesn't mean you shouldn't consider him. You certainly shouldn't make him first priority but giving him a scout just might help. Of course, if he's from the other side of the country like my receiver, do ponder if you really need him or not before spending points. Scouting in the game is good way of telling the recruit your interested, but you don't have to waste a scholarship until your sure he's interested. Thats all it takes sometimes.

[hobbs2324]

All I can go with right now is my experiences on this in last years game, I just started a dynasty last night with 2005 so I'm probably a week out until I get to recruiting, anyway what I would do was put up the points maybe [1] week and see if they changed the attitude. Sometimes you can max everything out, go through the different options such as playtime, prestige, etc and not see interest increase. That is when I say let them play for someone else. I can't wait to get to recruit in this game, I've heard of the other things you must pay attention to now so I'm getting ready.

[phrozzy]

It's a little different this year. I'm sure you heard this already, but you gotta divide the school's budget among recruiting, training, and discipline. So unlike last year, where if you win the NC you get like 900 points, you get about a 3rd of that this year depending on how much you put into recruiting. Of course, if you put 100% then you'll probably get the full 900+ points. If thats the case, you'll probably be screwed if one of you players violate team rules and you can't discipline them because you have no points put into discipline. I think I'm in either the 2007 or 2008 year already and my scholarships have been cut for two years because i couldn't suspend a player for severely violating rules.

Anyway, back to recruiting. I can pull in a very uninterested recruit if within the first week I throw him the correct recruiting pitch and put the max points I can into him. So far the maximum number of points I've been able to put in is I think either 45 or 70. I probably save those points and work the kid slowly putting in about 20-30 points a week till I sign him. Pretty hard but not impossible.

I like the fact that this year the top 100 isn't all 5 stars. That's just unrealistic. Now if only EA will realize that not all Pro-Style QB's and lineman run 5.00+ 40's. In NCAA 2005, usually only the top 25 players, if even that many, are 5 stars. Kinda like rivals.com where 5 stars are impact players, and there are only a few of these each year, and 4 stars are good players, not necessarily impact but good. The 3 stars are average but have potential. Sometimes, you might even be able to land a walkon with a 78 overall rating like me.

[Edit] Sandman, if you have that many holes to fill, don't solely go after 4 and 5 stars unless they're interested. 3 stars aren't bad in this game.

[hobbs2324]

I can't wait to get to the recruiting so I can fully see what you are talking about

[djwill13]

first of all, figure out what state your school is in and start there. florida, georgia, texas, california, and new york are good states to recruit out of especially if you are located near there.

i do check my national 100 list and see who all is interested. IMO your first option is to fill all your roster spots. after that i will try and go after posistions where i see i have either a lot of seniors or juniors. that way, if a junior decides to leave school early next year, i have someone waiting in the wings.

i love recruiting athletes. i love that ea put that in there. i got 3 athletes my first year and they are monsters.

[phrozzy]

I've been able to sign a couple 5 star athletes within the past 2 yrs of my dynasty. The only thing they're good at are being athletes except for that guy who substantially increased his overall rating by playing running back.

So far I've got the said running back, a QB i'm trying to turn into a TE, an average linebacker who can dish out a licking, a pretty fast corner, and a C backing up my walkon. Sure they good but they're not stars. Role players maybe.

[orlandoPace]

ive got a couple questions about the recruiting.

if i put a lot of points on training, does it really help my team that much?

and what is so great about the athletes? i recruited 2 of them and they both were only good at being a qb, and they were not even rated that high.

i was thinking about putting a wr in at cb, is this possible and will he get better at his position?

[BamaGrad]

To be honest, I never let myself sign 5 star players... they really throw the game out of balance when they get to be So/Jrs and I end up with guys that cannot be stopped.

Getting a good 4 or even 3 star player to fill the gaps in your roster end up working out fine in this game IMHO.

I do like the recruiting aspect of the game, it's a nice touch.

[djwill13]

athletes are great because they can be used anywhere on the field. if you look into them though as if you were goin to scout them or recruit them, you can tell where they would be best playin at. some will give you acc and arm stregth, you know those are qb's.

i got an athlete and made him into a DE rated 88 his freshman year. i sat him for the next year (red shirt) so that he could build up his composure and let his stats go up again.

once you've done recruiting, you will soon go into a screen that will allow you to switch players posistions. i had a stallar running back that threatened to go to another school. i got him to stay, and moved him to fullback cause my starting halfback missed games the previous year do to academics. now i have the best one two punch in the nation.

i know last year i only recruited 3 and 4 star players, but this year, you can really tell a difference. i wouldn't recommend you do that this year

[mightypharaoh]

1. I am a fan of the ATH. U can see where their ratings are the highest and put them in the right position.

2. with recruiting even if u don't get all Blue Chip prospects u have 5 years (if u red shirt) 2 develop a player.

3. also the more blue chip prospects u recruit the more likely u are 2 come across suspensions and punishments from the NCAA.

4. The more bowls and championships u win the more players will want 2 come 2 your school.

5. With 5 weeks u have time 2 determine your recruiting angle. Although if a 5 star guy doesn't jump on board in 3 weeks I am likely 2 pass on him.

Right now I am simming a dynasty playing about 4 games per season. So I can play with the game a bit. Plus I am waiting for my sharkport 2 download the rosters from ps2 rosters.com.

[phrozzy]

Bamagrad

I understand where your coming from since in last year's game, you have at least 100 five stars to recruit, so, in effect, the five star rating really doesn't mean anything. This year the recruit with 5 stars is impact by his first or second year. Also, there are only so few 5 stars this year just like in real life where each year only 10-20 high schoolers are 5 stars.

It is a lot harder to build a program with everyone having a 99 rating this year.

[sandman]

Well phrozzy, you were right. The #5 and #6 best Strong Safeties lived in Tennessee. I meant to recruit the #6 guy because he was interested and recruited the other guy who wasn't interested at all. I put in about 30 points in Week 1. I then forgot about him until Week 5, and to my surprise he signed. In conclusion, it sometimes is worth it to go after guys who aren't interested.

[sandman]

Another topic I was wondering about was that I never knew what the ATH was about. It seems like a guy that you can just put into any position. Could someone just discuss further on this.

[phrozzy]

Good job Sandman

The athletes are players you can put into any position. That's actually kinda misleading but its the generally accepted definition. Misleading because you can only put them in so many positions. Athletes are basically high schoolers who has played or is capable of playing multiple positions, like a WR can also play DB and a QB can play SS, DE, or TE and whatever probable combinations you can think of. Basically you sign one and you put him where you think he'll develop the best at. Usually its pretty easy to figure out where he's good at. For example, if it lists arm strength in his scouting report he's a QB or WR if he's got the speed. OL lineman probably aren't very good anywhere else and a most athletes in this game who play Safeties in high school can't play CB, maybe LB but not CB. Now a DE might be a good LB or FB though.
Sometimes you might be able to put him in a position where your not so deep, redshirt him, and maybe he'll actually be good at the spot.

So far I haven't found any use for athletes except backup.
In the words of Denethor: I know their uses and they are few.

[maddenbowl62]

do any of u realize that some top recruits dont sign with any team.

[phrozzy]

do any of u realize that some top recruits dont sign with any team.

I saw that and was completely disgusted (because I would have taken them) and in awe.

Mind you, all 5 stars will definitely sign but i've noticed also that a couple 4 stars don't. Do they become walk-ons or are walk-ons randomly generated?
I'm trying to figure out how I got a walkon with a 78 rating.

[BamaGrad]

A related issue I would like EA to look at fixing is that it seems some players advance too rapidly from year to year. They should put it on a curve, where the really bad-to-average players improve more whereas a 90+ player should not be able to improve more than a point or two max.

There do seem to be way too many 90s in this game... those rating should be rare and reserved only for the true gambreakers.

[djwill13]

basically after the recruiting, you get to go where you can reposistion any player. at that screen, go to your ath (they have their own grouping) and find which posistion he'll be best at. i have one that had 93 speed and put him at DE rated 86 as a freshman. i redshirted him cause i have a senior and a junior there this year rated 89 and 83. you can find good uses for athletes, you just have to search to find it. also, recruiting athletes could actually be better than recruiting a position player, you just have to know what you want to do

it is kinda unrealistic though, 5 star players don't sign??? wtf

[Optionfor7]

I saw that and was completely disgusted (because I would have taken them) and in awe.

Mind you, all 5 stars will definitely sign but i've noticed also that a couple 4 stars don't. Do they become walk-ons or are walk-ons randomly generated?
I'm trying to figure out how I got a walkon with a 78 rating.


My exerience with 04 was that some players (even blue chips) would refuse to go to any school but their favorite and would walk on there even if not recruited. I just got 05 yesterday and simulated a season just to check out recruiting. Sure enough, I didn't need that 4 star TE (already had 4 on the roster) but he walked on to my squad without any recruiting. What I am concerned about is that I could recruit the players I needed (I got two 1 star MLB and two 1 star DE when I had 0 of either on the roster) but ended up landing the #1 and #3 QB just by showing mild interest. Its going to be a long season for my D, but maybe I can light up the scoreboard and it won't matter.

[phrozzy]

Are you sure its the same guy? Same name? If so,.........wow. Now if only my DL and OL isn't all freshman..................

Does anybody here recruit JUCO's? I tend to stay away from them because they'll have pretty much the same rating as a high schooler but with higher composure. Not a very good trade off when you consider he has 2 less years to develop.

[Optionfor7]

Are you sure its the same guy? Same name? If so,.........wow. Now if only my DL and OL isn't all freshman..................

Does anybody here recruit JUCO's? I tend to stay away from them because they'll have pretty much the same rating as a high schooler but with higher composure. Not a very good trade off when you consider he has 2 less years to develop.


I'm 100% certain it was the same guy. When I recruit, I go all out. I take notes and look at how those recruits pan out. How much time did I spend (read: points) on that 5 star HB that never developed above a 75? What did I do right when landing that 3 star QB that broke every school passing record? The managing/coaching is my favorite part of this game so I pay close attention to it. Once in 2004 I was able to put all 11 of my offensive and defensive starters on the field with 97+ ratings, which allowed me to win NC on Heisman level.

As for JUCO players, I recruit them if I need help at that position in a hurry. Say for example, I've got a sernior at FB that is mid 80s and no back up. I've signed a big 4 star HB that I want to redshirt and move over play FB but he needs an extra year or two to get good. I'll pick up a FB JUCO and insert him as needed. IF he doesn't cost alot to recruit, I may even pick up a TE, HB, LB, DE and move him to FB to have a servicable back up until my young stud is ready. Don't underestimate the help a JUCO can give you, the tend to always stay out their last two years and can sometimes have big rating jumps their senior seasons. But again, it really depends on your coaching style and what you need for your team's future.

[sandman]

I went through another recruiting session. I did a lot better this time around. I have one complaint too. How come it is that hardly nay receivers or quarterback's are interested in coming. I needed to land some decent receivers and only got walk-ons. Turns out though that I forgot to get a fullback and the ATH I receruited was an 87 overall FB.
Here are a few highlights. I got the #1 DT. The #1 CB and #4 cb. I tried forever to recruit the #10 HB. I even pumped a ton of points into him. It turned out that he walked-on at the end. What an idiot. I've also learned that pumping a lot of points like 40 in just one week can turn someone with low interest into someone with high interest.

[phrozzy]

I'm assuming when you say lack of WRs and QBs you mean lack of 4 or 5 stars, right? Well whats your main style of play? If you run a lot you'll get a lot of lineman and RBs. Some ppl may argue against this but thats what i've experiencing. If you haven't been racking yards up through the air hardly any WRs will come unless they're really needed, even then its probably only those who live close to your school. If you have been passing alot (by passing, i mean the WR actually catching the balls) and you still can't get anybody, well sucks for you. :D

[mad_bomber]

I tried forever to recruit the #10 HB. I even pumped a tom of points into him. It turned out that he walked-on at the end. What an idiot.

That's funny :D.

[sandman]

It makes sense then because my style is to pound the ball away and wait for my defense to make a big play. I will get one good receiver interested. The first time through the, #15 WR was interested but didn't sign ( even though I tried hard ). Secodn time, the #30 was interested. Again, I show a lot of interest but doesn't sign. I'll have to try to boost up my passing stats. I've now figured out why the top notch defensive players always want to come.

[phrozzy]

Well anybody who plays dynasty mode will eventually sign top defensive players because with the shortened quarters, the yards your defense gives up are relatively low. If you play straight 15 minute quarters, there probably won't be that many top players coming unless you still manage to hold a team to the same amount yards as before. There'll still be some though just not as much.

[mad_bomber]

I've been playing AA with 9 minute quarters with the cpu offensive sliders maxed out except for pass blocking and the human sliders at default. So far it's really helped in getting realistic stats for myself and the cpu.

[DRV]

well that makes a ton of sense now! Until someone posted about the Y button, my passing game was like 100 yds a game, never did any qbs or WRs want to join up (or even TEs) And with ridiculous scrambling qb and running with full/half backs i get tons of HBs that want to come aboard. My defence is pretty solid in the run stopping department, so that would explain the over abundance of LBs and DLs that want to come aboard... still cant get a damn kicker worth any beans though.... :P

[phrozzy]

I've been playing AA with 9 minute quarters with the cpu offensive sliders maxed out except for pass blocking and the human sliders at default. So far it's really helped in getting realistic stats for myself and the cpu.

i play default AA with 6 min quarters and that lasts just short of an hour. I don't see how you can stand sitting in front of a tv for over an hour playing against the same team. Student of the game I guess. But anyway, even with 9 min quarters, your defense is probably ranked in top 15 just because the opposing team doesn't have as much time to rack up yards as they do in a simulated game, right?

[mad_bomber]

i play default AA with 6 min quarters and that lasts just short of an hour. I don't see how you can stand sitting in front of a tv for over an hour playing against the same team. Student of the game I guess. But anyway, even with 9 min quarters, your defense is probably ranked in top 15 just because the opposing team doesn't have as much time to rack up yards as they do in a simulated game, right?

Wrong actually. The cpu's sliders being maxed out offensively really gives the cpu's offense a boost. I played against Iowa (I was Michigan State) and they had 357 yards total offense. Also the games only last about an hour on 9 minute quarters. I run the ball and my passing game is high percentage so the clock is constantly moving. Also 9 minute quarters allows both teams to have a realistic number of total plays.

[phrozzy]

Makes sense. I'm probably not gonna touch the sliders until I get the passing game down. Can't seem to hit them like I did last year. Everytime I do something the cpu is right there except on long balls. How the hell do they know I'm gonna run a curl anyway? They always sit under it.

Last year was wonderful. 6 min AA, 300-400 yds through the air, sometimes even 500, and around 100 on the ground. O good days they were

[mad_bomber]

Yep, NCAA 2005 plays much like NCAA 2003 did with superhuman play of the cornerbacks and receivers dropping passes.

[hobbs2324]

sorry to change the subject a bit guys or actually getting back on track to the original topic, I finally finished my first season last night and won some crap bowl game in Idaho on the "Blue Carpet".[Hooray for me :) ] I did the off season thing and put my sliders to40% on the recruiting and training and 20% on discipline. Are these ok levels, I only had [2] discipline problems last season so I figured I would be alright. I realized midway through the first week that I could adjust how much I wanted to go after a kid when I recruited, the scouting thing worked, but sometimes for the instate kids I just went b@lls out after them. Anyhow I ended up with a pretty good class yet I couldn't get any help on any of my lines which I really wanted to upgrade. I tried hard but they wouldn't go for me, instead I got a real good offensive and defensive backfield, and [2] real fast MLB's. I ended with the #7 draft class and got [1] 5 star, [7] 4 stars, [6] 3 stars, and [1] 2 stars players. Not bad for my first go I thought.
So do you think I made a mistake with my slider levels on the recruiting, training and discipline levels?
I also made the mistake of trying to strengthen the schedule and I picked Michigan for week 2, game 1 of the season and they are rated #2 in the nation and when I wanted to change them to a differnet week the CPU wouldn't let me :mad:

[Zonk]

I'm not sure what "style" you play actually attracts players to your team.
I run A LOT and I don't get many qb or wr's that want on my team- but I also don't many rb's that want on either, nor FB's.
Do you think the guys at EA have made recruiting THAT in depth???

[sandman]

I was just wondering something. It probably is a stupid question but at the end of the year I never have any points to use towards recruiting or discipline. Where do all my points go?

[hobbs2324]

yeah and I believe it was in last years game as well though everyone probably missed it. I like taking real bad programs and building them up. I usually do pretty good and probably for the reasons mad bomber and phrozzy outlined above, I always was able to get stud defensive players, but rarely the offensive gem. I think they made it more wide reaching this year so all teams see this happen and not just the dregs of the NCAA. After the second or third season I was always able to get great offensive talent as well as the standout defensive player, pretty much whenever I wanted too. I got great players in my first recruiting session at MLB and both safeties as well as both CB's I picked up came right in and started. I had decent depth at CB and SS so it wasn't only the fact that they knew there was a need and opening to play like at HB, I needed [2] and got [3]. A couple more recruiting periods and I will probably be able to get it figured out better

[sandman]

Another point I would like to make would be that the walk-ons are surprisingly good. I don't know how it was last year. This CB that walked-on is now the best corner on my team at like 85 overall and he is also the fastest.

[maddenbowl62]

I did the off season thing and put my sliders to40% on the recruiting and training and 20% on discipline. Are these ok levels, I only had [2] discipline problems last season so I figured I would be alright.

i did that one time and i was on the cover of si bcuz the ncaa was investigating me bcuz i didnt put that many points on discipline. i should have never put a lot of points on recruiting bcuz most of the players in recruiting wanted to be on my team.

[hobbs2324]

Because my team was one of the worst in the NCAA when I took over I thought I would need to heavily pursue guys so who knows with the discipline thing. I'm hoping to get through a couple games tonight and maybe I will find out if any of my guys are problematic

[blackpowdereer]

Bomber....I also use 9 minute quarters....and the cpu maxxed and the human sliders on default....except interceptions...and I have them both set at -5 from default. I get realistic stats on both D and O. I have begun to figure one thing out about my passing game. If you set up the passes with running plays....and don't rely heavily on the pass....your percentage goes up on catches. I use WVU and I do a lot of triple options and counters and toss plays....I have some horses for HB and FB. 2nd year of dynasty(3rd dynasty sim I've run)and I still have Chris Henry, but I only use him sparingly. I am very successful with PA plays with straight drop WR doing a fly....it's timing on most of them....if you practice your timing...and hit them in the gaps....you can increase your catching %. I am beginning to understand what EA was intending for this game.....rather than someone picking a pass heavy offense....and sitting back and picking off the DB's with slants and flares....you now have to actually use sound judgement for playcalling if you expect to throw for more than 100yds a game. I think the Bomb is just a glitch that is being abused....and even IT can be beat with several methods....one is the thunder green blitzes....SS blitzes....another thing I have found....if you practice with your DB's.....and on those bombs....deliver a BigHit EVERY time they catch the ball....you will see them start to miss more than they catch. I played a guy last night online that was a Bomb thrower....I got beat....but by the 3rd quarter he couldn't hit his bombs anymore....I big hit his recievers EVERY time I could...and they started dropping the passes.....I blitzed him almost every play and had 9 sacks....the first two quarters he hit on 5 bombs...and scored on each one....but as the game wore on...his WR's were starting to look over their shoulders.

Of course this is all JMHO ;)

[phrozzy]

Yep, NCAA 2005 plays much like NCAA 2003 did with superhuman play of the cornerbacks and receivers dropping passes.

I didn't have as much trouble with 2003 as opposed to this year's.


I am beginning to understand what EA was intending for this game.....rather than someone picking a pass heavy offense....and sitting back and picking off the DB's with slants and flares....you now have to actually use sound judgement for playcalling if you expect to throw for more than 100yds a game.

I agree. I've been playing today and notice that if i exclusively throw like I did in 2004 and 2003, the WR's will start dropping balls and QB's accuracy gets shot up. So I start running and thats successful for a little bit but not for long. So I go back to the air game and that starts working for a couple series. I have to pretty much mix run and pass plays instead alternating between series.


This CB that walked-on is now the best corner on my team at like 85 overall and he is also the fastest.

Your walkons aren't exactly like unrecruited walkons like 2004 and 2003. These guys are possibly guys you recruited but never signed with a particular school. They could be local 3 or 4 stars that were highly interested but you didn't even bother looking at them. On the recruiting, training, discipline budget, I put 45-46% into recruiting depending on how many recruits i need, 10-11% into discipline and rest into training. 10-11% for discipline is enough to get you through a season without much trouble, least for me it is.

I wonder if we break a 1000 viewings of this thread.

[sandman]

I wonder if we break a 1000 viewings of this thread.[/QUOTE]

Hopefully. ;)

[phrozzy]

C'mon guys start asking questions and post comments. Leave out dumb ones like this one though. We want more views. Trying to catch up to "Official NCAA 2005 impressions." Think they're at 1800

[hobbs2324]

what does it matter how many views of a thread there are. Good info= good thread, no info= dead thread, check out the draft time thread we had going in madden, the thread is dead but got alot of views, if there is something good to talk about then there will be unlimited posts

[riskus]

please dont junk up this thread

[AgentKujan]

Since there is no longer a maximum number of players you can have on your team, I was wondering how many players do you keep on your roster? Or do you still cut players that are not progressing the way you would like? I don't cut players anymore but I have had a number of players transfer due to a lack of playing time.

[djwill13]

75 players is the max number you can have. if i have upper classmen that are progressing, i'll get rid of them first. try subbing in your 2nd teams or go into your formation subs and get your stellar players pt, that way they won't transfer. i've had less and less transfers this way. i've only tried it though for 2 seasons. i'll let you know how the 3rd goes by the end of the week.

i wouldn't advise cutting players if you aren't at your max roster.

[sandman]

I usually have four quarterbacks at the beginning of the season. I don't see why there would be a need to have four because three is sufficient. Hobbs, I thought there was a lot of useful in the draft time thread, but the problem I saw was not that many people care about the imports that in depth. I'm not being rude in any way about this, but I really don't care about the views. I just thought it would cool. The inside is what is most important.

[AgentKujan]

Thanks djwill13,

I am definitely going to make some formation subs. I didn't think of using that at all. I haven't reached my max yet because I only recuit players I need to fill positions that I am short or need help at. The most players I have had is 65. I started doing this on '04, it gives other teams a chance to field strong teams.

[hobbs2324]

I reached the point where the CPU wouldn't let me cut anymore players, I was like Bear Bryant in that ESPN movie that came out a couple of months ago. My team sucked so bad that I'ver got guys I am begging to leave so I can use their scholarship on some one useful :D

[hobbs2324]

Sandman you are correct, the info is the most important thing. I just posted a ? about the AB blitz on Xbox that I couldn't get for the life of me. It got [2] responses which should fix my dilema, and I bet the question will be posted a ton more times, just watch, especially around xmas time when a whole bunch of new guys get the game
Later

[TOBIAS1]

Couple of thoughts on the recruiting band wagon here:

I play with Florida State on Heisman w/ 6 minute quarters, won the NC, won the Heisman with Craphonso Thorpe, and pulled out a nail biter against Oklahoma for the NC!!!!

OK to the recruiting: I put 40 on recriting, 30 on training, 30 on discipline

To my surprise I thought more guys would want to come to my school but didn't!!! I was ranked originally 6th in the nation at the start and now I am 1 witht a NC!!!!

I noticed there were a lot of 4 stars that wanted to come to my school and none of them were the positions I needed???? I mean my 3 best O lineman left and the backups were like a 72 average!!! I needed some holes filled at the LB position and only a few 4 and a couple 3 stars wanted to play??? This is coming from the number 1 defense in the land too!!!!!!!! :eek: Your telling me as a high school stud that you could have a chance to play for the NC's and you aren't even interested!!! :mad: Sorry not realistic.

Also I have a crazy passing game that I was using and only 1 reciever wanted to come to my school!!!!!!! So that kind of throws out the idea that the recruiting looks at your previous years numbers and then they want to sign. I mean if they did do that then the top 1 through 5 recievers would want to play for me!!!!! That some of the best D lineman would want to come but none were there!!???

I could understand if HBs didn't want to come and play cuz mine only got like 750 yards and like 8 TDs, so as a recruit coming in I can see that the team looks pass before run. That makes sense to me.

I'm going to try on the second year of the dynasty and play with the coaching options a little, I've got a feeling that is were the data is compiled from that the cpu uses to determine who wants to come to your school. Cuz when I looked at Bowden's gameplan he was big on the spread offense, liked the 60 to 40. But then again wouldn''t more revievers want to come to my school :confused: I don't know we'll see.

[djwill13]

no problem, you'll find your team much better when your best players are on the field. also, at the end of the season, look into your depth chart. if you have a ton of recievers, it wouldn't hurt to move them over to db or other posistion swaps. also, to further enhance your returning players, cut down on your recruiting by 7-8 points and raise your training by that number. just some thing i've experimented with over the past couple of seasons.

[phrozzy]

TOBIAS1,

I'm assuming that you just finished your first year. I also didn't get too many recruits the first year, but I also didn't win the NC either. It's over next couple years that people wanted to come. I'm not sure if it applies this year, but in 2003, I noticed the difficulty has some effect on recruiting, not only in the number of points you get but how easy or hard it is to land a recruit. Maybe thats it, I don't know. Also just because a recruit isn't interested doesn't mean you shouldn't try for him especially if he's instate

There is nothing wrong with 3 and 4 stars in this game. They're definitely not as bad as last year's and years before that. This past recruiting season, I landed a 5 star CB and a 3 star CB. Amazingly the 3 star had a 82 overall while the 5 star had 80, not to mention the 3 star was faster than advertised even after scouting.

Personally, I think your putting too much into discipline and not enough into recruiting.

[hobbs2324]

I was able to fill all of my position needs adequately my first offseason, I went with 40 on the recruit and 20 on discipline, we'll see how that turns out though. If the recruits don't see a good possibility of playtime it won't matter what ring they win at the end of the year, I think the guarantee of playtime as well as the in state interest meen alot to recruiting. Also you won the NC, but how did your offense and defense rank?
A side note guys, am I crazy to have not gone after one athlete after the first week, they all seemed to come off the board quickly if they were any good so I just concentrated on the quality guys. I also thought about the possibility of the project guy leaving school early or transferring as soon as he started getting any good

[phrozzy]

Why is everyone putting so much into discipline? I've signed a bunch of low discipline kids and some have made it through 4-5 years without trouble. My scholarship was cut recently because i didn't suspend a kid with A+ discipline for coming to the meeting late. Nothing major I even won the conference title. I'd put more points into training and recruiting.

Well if you didn't need any athletes or you have pretty good players at a specific position interested, then it didn't really hurt you that much. I've had more transfers than draft guys.

[riskus]

I had a bad year 5-6 (4-4) with a bad school (Rice) and still managed to have an OK recruiting class. This was the first time I have played this game but with only 100 points a week I managed to get a 5star ATH wich ended up being a 93 DE and a couple of 4 stars.
Hopefully next season will be better.

[DRV]

I have horrible time disciplining, i used to go only 15% but after two years im working off a suspension in scholarships... and i suspended everyone except two guys once because i had no points left. anyway, i always notice the comp seems to draft on average 22 players or so, where when i recruit i can only really get about 11 to sign to me in 5 weeks... and this includes pumping tons of points into all my targets every week, asnd imediately finding new targets once some of my targets sign with other schools, still i can only really land about 11 guys and usually i lose the 4 and 5 stars even after 5 weeks of pumping full points into them.... oh and I am back to back NC. No one wants to seem to play for me.... especially QBs! lol anyway just wondering if anyone else gets the shaft when recruiting, or if you all get like 20 guys and im just doing something wrong...

[mightypharaoh]

I have the recruiting assistance on so I have noticed that I still get about 15-20 recruits per year. Out of those I would say that half are players that I selected.

This off season I have 90 pts in discipline and after 6 weeks my kicker has been suspended twice. This time for 5 games. While I won't put 40% into discipline again I will keep it about 35.

[djwill13]

from a guy that got his team suspended from the ncaa the first year even after winning the nc, i'll tell you, suspend your players or you will get docked 10 scholarships and be suspended for 2 years (probation). that's why everyone is putting a lot of enphasis on discipline. it also depends on your team discipline also (and how disciplined your players are).

[hobbs2324]

Yeah I just suspended a kicker for 3 games for falling asleep in meetings and missing them completely. Those kickers are such free spirits

[Terramar]

Hey guys, this may be a silly question, but what is the effect of having the recruiting assistance on or off? I have it on, but don't really know how it effects anything..

[djwill13]

the computer helps you get recruits other than people that you are recruiting (so your recruiting class will actually be higher than just the recruits that you go after)

[AgentKujan]

I just finished my first season Louisiana Tech, I finished first in the WAC with a 9-2 record. I didn't have a lot of discipline points and there were some players that needed suspending that I couldn't. One player was taking money from a booster, another was caught getting his exams taken by a friend. After the season, the NCAA put me on 2 years probation with a reduction of 10 scholarship each year. So for the next 2 years, I can only give scholarships to 15 players and hope to land enough walk ons to field a team. Of course, that 9-2 WAC championship team had 19 seniors, UGH!!

[djwill13]

sounds like your in for some tough times. you may want to shift your expenses to 20% recruiting, 35%training, 35%discipline or something similar. also focus your recruiting for IN STATE ONLY.

the increase in discipline % should help you be able to help you get the ncaa off your back by the end of your two years. don't worry about the recruiting, just focus in state and hope your training pays off

[sandman]

Everyone here talks about how they put discipline at a so and so %. Then they talk about how recruiting is at a so and so %. My problem being at the end of the season when the screen pops up to put points into a specific area, I never have any available points to do so. Where could my points be going and what am what am I doing wrong?

[djwill13]

are you talking about the % screen?? you have to take away from one % to give to another

[phrozzy]

Ok I'm sorry about all the discipline crap I said. Just started a new season with pretty good recruiting class, #1 with 22 signees.

I'm 5 weeks into the season. First week, I lose a SS for interrupting meetings, 3rd week a starting DE for grades, 4th week LB for forging signatures, 5th week the frosh RB for something I can't remember.

I'm down to 4 points in discipline left for remainder of the season. I'm probably gonna get hit with another probation.

[djwill13]

try simming the rest of your non ranked games. for some reason, i've notice i never have to discipline players when doing this

although, that may have been b/c my teams discipline is A+

[mightypharaoh]

Ok I'm sorry about all the discipline crap I said. Just started a new season with pretty good recruiting class, #1 with 22 signees.

I'm 5 weeks into the season. First week, I lose a SS for interrupting meetings, 3rd week a starting DE for grades, 4th week LB for forging signatures, 5th week the frosh RB for something I can't remember.

I'm down to 4 points in discipline left for remainder of the season. I'm probably gonna get hit with another probation.

So the devil of discipline rears it's ugly head!!!! As I said I think I put 2 much into discipline this year(40%) but I will keep it about 35%.

DJ u said u focus on instate recruits, wouldn't that deal with the state u are in? I would figure that players from FLA, CAL,TEX or GA would rank much higher than state prospects from NY, CT or MASS.

[djwill13]

i was saying that if you are on suspension so that you can focus your efforts to discipline. look in state and surrounding states.

i play with UGA, so lookin in state is a good strategy for me lol, especially when i was suspended.

[mad_bomber]

One player was taking money from a booster, another was caught getting his exams taken by a friend. After the season, the NCAA put me on 2 years probation with a reduction of 10 scholarship each year. So for the next 2 years, I can only give scholarships to 15 players and hope to land enough walk ons to field a team. Of course, that 9-2 WAC championship team had 19 seniors, UGH!!

These player discipline stories get funnier and funnier. :D

[djwill13]

how long did you suspend the guy for taking bribes? i'm sorry, he would be cut at the end of the year i don't care how good he was

[maddenbowl62]

did any of u realize kickers always get in trouble. i had to suspend my 99 sophomore kicker 3 times in one season. luckily for me i recruited a kicker who i forgot to transfer to a kicker.

[phrozzy]

Theres still some problems if you sim but a whole lot less

I've been simming at least couple games to a whole season for all the years I've played in my dynasty. This is the first one where I resolve to play every game, win or lose. And I just lost to Arizona State because my elite 11 frosh QB threw a perfect pass to the soph receiver and it bounced off his head, so its fourth down. My kicker comes in to try a 39 yarder having missed from 51 and 49. 10 mph winds pushing back and towards the right and the goal post on our left. He missed it.

One funny thing happened this past recruiting session. My starting HB wanted to transfer..............to Auburn. Thats cool except I'm using Aub. So I try to talk him out of it but he transfers. Now he just wasted a year and I already used his red shirt.

[sandman]

Guys, I need to know what I asked about earlier. When the end of the season rolls around, I never have any points to use towards any area, such as recruiting, discipline, etc. What am I doing wrong and what determines the points of points a person receives?

[hobbs2324]

I don't know sandman, I think I automatically had 30/30/40 with the 40 being the discipline. On a side note, I finally changed controller configs and I can now AB Blitz :o yeah for me, Now I have to handle the blitzing player better

[djwill13]

sandman, in order to give % to another area, you must take away from another

is that the screen your talkin about?

[hobbs2324]

Are you talking prior to recruiting or in the recruiting session itself. I didn't realize until I was halfway through my first week recruiting that I could adjust how many points I could give, I thought at the beginning I was stuck with the standard amount for scouting and couldn't understand why recruiting a player always came in less. I know I can be a retart sometimes, other then that I would make sure you have full control of youyr team. Go into gameplay settings and confirm that everything is toggled correctly, and also look at what level of play and make sure the sliders for that particular level are set up correctly

[djwill13]

for all you guys having problems with recruiting and how much % to give to what do this

save your dynasty defore you start any of the off season stuff and make changes and see what different things occur and don't save

once you find something you like in the % screen, save

before you go to the leaving players screen, save

if you don't get your beloved junior to stay, reboot the game and try again once your done, save

before you recruit, save

if your not happy with your recruiting class or the players you got, reboot and keep tryin till you get what you want, save

this is cheating mind you, but if you are having trouble it will help you get your feet wet in recruiting

[hobbs2324]

it will actually give you much more practice with the inner workings of it and help you understand the ins and outs of the recruiting process. It's like the mini camp in last years madden, truthfully, how many of you guys did every part once and then start the game. I'm not to proud to admit I did those stinking drills all night to get the practice and improvement that you knew you could get. I watched that xbox reboot a few hundred times the night I completed my drafting :(

[mightypharaoh]

Ahh yes the days of saving the game after every mini camp drill if u got a silver or gold. Soon those days will be upon us once again.

The one thing u have 2 worry about with the reboot is the player that is leaving may stay but 4 others may leave. 6 on 1 hand half a donzen on the other

[djwill13]

lol, hobbs how do you think i knew about this?? i had to do it last year in ncaa 04 lol

not proud to admit it either, but i did

it can prove to be very useful if you are having trouble with things. i just did it last year to get acuanted with the recruiting for one season. after that, i've just been taking what i've been given

[sandman]

Thanks DJ. I feel like an idiot. I just thought you were rewarded points to use in each area.

[sandman]

I just won the NC and am going to start my next recruiting session. I had my best passing season statistically and will hopefully draw some decent receivers. Wish me luck and on a side note has anyone had any luck in landing a really good tight end. This seems to be the most difficult position to fillin the game.

[mad_bomber]

What were your passing stats?

[phrozzy]

Not a player who is listed as a Tight end when you recruit, no I have not. But I did successfully turn a QB athlete into a first team All American TE.

Dudes I'm running out of points here for discipline. had to sit a guy for a quarter for academic stuff. think i'm down to like 2 or 3 points and i'm only in week 8.

[sandman]

Well, I was disappointed I only got 9 recruits, but they are excellent. I finished with the third best class ( my highest ever ). I've been experimenting with trying to recruit players who aren't that interested. I pumped points in to the best reciever who wasn't even interested, and he came. I got the #1 punter, defensive end, corner, and middle linebacker as well. I would have had a glaring hole at the punter position if the chips hadn't fallen the way they did. I was not impressed with my athlete at all. I tried him at every position. His highest overalll was 72 at WR. I ended up putting him as a tight end at 65 overall.

[phrozzy]

Make sure you red shirt him. You should always redshirt athletes unless they're gonna be starters. You know if you have enough WRs you can pick a tall, somewhat strong one and turn him into a TE if you really need one.

[Skaught]

I just won the NC and am going to start my next recruiting session. I had my best passing season statistically and will hopefully draw some decent receivers. Wish me luck and on a side note has anyone had any luck in landing a really good tight end. This seems to be the most difficult position to fillin the game.


I try to go after a TE every year. I won the NC 2 years in a row and had two 99 overall TEs last season.

[sandman]

I have a returning 84 overall TE. I did redshirt the athlete. I find it pretty sad though that the best player on my team is the FB. He even made the cover of SI.

[hobbs2324]

Last years game I took over UNC, picked up two fast FB's and won the NC and the heisman 4 years straight, :cool: . I got the highest rated top 100 TE in my first recruiting session with the new game, and I believe it was only because I had a good one that left and needed someone to take over the position. Playing time and seeing my previous TE do well probably helped

[sandman]

It turned out that #1 high school receiver is an 80 overall in college. Will really help me out in a run for the repeat. I love his name too, Banji Lavin. It just rolls off the tongue.

[phrozzy]

I signed a Lebron James from Akron, Ohio at QB. He's white and sucks

[maddenbowl62]

I try to go after a TE every year. I won the NC 2 years in a row and had two 99 overall TEs last season.

thats the same with me. every year the top te wants to came to my team even though i dont need him and i get and he becomes a 99 after 2 or 3 years.

[DRV]

First off, you cant save durring post season schedule atleast on game cube, is this a GC thing only? because i always get a message, warning cannot save durring post season/recruiting.... if you can save on x-box or PS2 that must be nice....

YOu can negotiate with players leaving? This last year i had a awesome HB (rated 88) and he was the starter his freshmen(RS) year because i had lost mine to the draft, he breaks his elbow the first play of the second game, mind you he blew the hell out of WVU with something like 220 yards and 3 TDs, but hes out for the season... he wants to transfer at the end for not having enough playing time!!!!! what is with that???? how do i negotiate with him? i have a save of the end of that season... i would go back and do that but i just recruited a 5 star qb and 5 star wr, not to mention i pretty hefty D players.... so its probably not worth it since his back up was alright last year. but this could be helpful for the future....

Also, when it says players leaving screen, if you have a senior does it tell if hes going to the NFL or does it just say graduating, and he might go you dont know until madden?

I ask that because.... i had a two time heisman winner and it just simply said graduating next to his name.... i was pretty steamed... not to mention the other two 96+ guys on my team just simply graduated...

[mightypharaoh]

I think it is safe 2 assume that those graduating seniors will show up in your madden import draft classes.

And actually u have 2 negotiate with your players before recruiting new players. If you continue without saving your draft class is wasted those players just get removed. If u continue and save and then go back u will have 2 draft classes from the same year. It happened 2 me with 04.

If your players are worth negotiating with then make it happen but look at the scale 2 see whether they are leaning 2 leave or stay.

[clintsangel]

[QUOTE=djwill13]75 players is the max number you can have.

Actually its 70. my boyfriend cut down to 75 because I saw what you said and it cut 5 more players. They vertually all were ones that he in no way wanted to lose.

i one the other hand cant get more than 60 players. I got put on probation and for some reason no one really wants to come to Pitt. I dont know.

Just thought I would correct the error and hopefully the same wont happen to others :p

[djwill13]

oops, you know on further thought i do remember them saying they cut it from (ea) 75-70. tell your husband i appologize. thanks for pointing the error out though

don't feel bad about not having your rosters high. i'm at 58 and i've won 3 straight NC's.

my squad is off the chain though. lol

[hobbs2324]

Way to go DJ, I would have given my old lady a couple of black eyes and a toss down the stairs if she told me that kind of bad info and I lost 5 starters. :eek: :rolleyes:
JUST KIDDING GUYS!!!! Don't report me to the authorities, besides it would take me being put on probation on top of having the CPU cut 5 starters to make me go that postal :D


Thats why I always say "post responsibly"
Peace Out!!

[phrozzy]

I just signed this insane receiver. He's 6-8. 6' 8"!!! Jesus. This guy towers over most DB's in my dynasty. Not only does he have this amazing leap and wingspan, he can run. Think its sub 4.4 if i remember correctly.

[Farmer]

I just signed this insane receiver. He's 6-8. 6' 8"!!! Jesus. This guy towers over most DB's in my dynasty. Not only does he have this amazing leap and wingspan, he can run. Think its sub 4.4 if i remember correctly.

6'8" !!!!! :eek: !!!!!! Good Gawd man!!!! If he has deacent hands, you should be unstoppable while he's playing for you! Man You're lucky.




-Farmer

[djwill13]

hey, i'm human i can make mistakes. i didn't do it on purpose.

i know your just messin with me though hobbs it's all good. yo, has everybody checked out the playbook? wonderful job there guys. sorry i haven't been posting much, but i've been keepin my head burried in the book. see, schoolin paid off for something lol

later

[Str8A]

I know EA's big advertisment was the top 25 stadiums in the nation, but I have yet to build mine up to that level. For those who have, I was wondering, do you receive some type of notice that you are now one of the Top 25 hardest places to play or do you just sort of find out when you get the icon to pump up the crowd?

One additional question. I've noticed that since I have improved my team and have been winning some games (Indiana University), when I go to my coaches screen after the game, my attendance has greatly increased. My question is, if you begin to build your school into a perennial powerhouse and the crowd reaches capacity, do you get an option to increase stadium or do you just end up playing with a packed house every other weekend?

(Sorry if my questions confused anyone)
Thanks guys!
Str8A

[sandman]

In regards to your first question, before the season starts you can check out the "new" Top 25 Toughest Places to Play. I play with WVU. Mountaineer Field was #23 in the beginning. By season 4, it is now at #14. Moving up the standings does take time.

[hobbs2324]

I read in another thread that the attendance is factored in for the road as well as home which really doesn't make sense. Some one posted that they were a small school and their first game was at Ohio State and his attendance that week said 100K or something like that and his stadium maybe held like 20 or 30.
On another note I did a recruiting class last night for my second time and kicked butt. I unfortunately was too excited to start playing that i forgot to look and see how I did as far as top recruiting classes but I had to be way up there. I seemed to get almost every guy I wanted it was ridiculous. I guess that is one advantage of playing in Texas, the in state kids like playing near home, and I was able to pull some blue chip guys from all over the country. I ended up cutting most of the guys remaining from the original roster who still sucked and were taking up scholarship opportunities for my next class. I got a DT with 70 speed and a DE that had 80 speed, I almost wanted to move him to LB but he would be the slowest guy I would have out there. It was wierd I got 2 guys my first week and I was concerned, I went back and recruited my same guys again, and got like a dozen my second week, I've never seen that many guys decide to come at one time, and the following weeks were like 2-4 guys a week. I had a lot of room on the team because I was at the minimum roster size last year and then had like 10 guys leave for graduation.
I think if you have a good home state to recruit in, it makes the process much easier. Texas being so large I had a gigantic pool of players to try and get. Being the number 1 defense made alot of defensive guys want to come, and I was able to get a decent offensive line with all freshman


Yo DJ, keep reading, I'm sure your teachers would be proud that you are putting your edumakayshun to good use!!! :D

[Str8A]

Hey congrats Hobbs on the recruting bro! I haven't gotten that far, but I keep up with all the posts and it seems to be a bit of a process and you seem to be getting it down. I can only hope to get decent recruits come season's end for my team.

I DESPERATELY need WRs, but from what I've been reading I think I'm going to have a hard time getting them to come to Bloomington. From reading several posts, it seems as if you gain recruits based on your production during the season. My problem is that I think I will have a hard time getting WRs because I run to compensate for the lack of a passing game and horribly horrible WRs :D. I mean it y'all, my QB puts the ball right on the numbers and even on their hands and they just can't seem to come through for the team. I've played 9 games in my season so far, and I think I've had 1 receiver in 1 game go over 100 yards! I do have to note that my #1 went down in week 4 for 6 weeks, but still, someone should be stepping up.

I've got just a few more weeks to play out before it's time for me to recruit so wish me luck! And for everyone that has posted their stories or even posted questions, keep it up!! I enjoy coming by and reading others' stories when I have to work late and don't get a chance to play. It keeps my excitement fresh and keeps the game from getting old!

Peace,
Str8A

[McNabb to Owens]

You want a challenge try to recruit people to Rutgers lol. But, it seems coach style works best on defensive players. I offered playing time to this one center when i had no center and he said he didn't feel like competing for the starting job. I love to recruit Athletes though got one that was 78 overall moved him to DE turned into a 94 overall beast.

[mad_bomber]

If you really want a recruiting challenge try San Jose State. I"m currently waiting for an NFL assistant coach job to come along so that I can bolt :D.

[hobbs2324]

Did Rutgers last season so I know what you are talking about. Utep I thought would be hard, but I have gotten mostly 4 star players and a boatload of them.. My first recruiting class I couldn't get a receiver, butthe second one I got 2 both with 78+ hands and 95 speed :) . It really depends on if there is a position available for some of these guys. If they see a sh1tbird playing, they know they can beat them out, they will come. Make surte you go after 4 star guys and not 5 stars. Also I scroll through the top 100 and see if any have interest in the program, and then make a pitch. I pretty much recruit everyone and don't waste the points scouting, most of the time I can use less points recruiting then scouting. Instate guys I put up 7-10 points and out of state I put up 8-15 points depending upon interest level and their ability. Stress school prestige and location first to instate guys, playing time to out of state, then play style, prestige or philosophy
Thats all I got for now
Later

[maddenbowl62]

I just signed this insane receiver. He's 6-8. 6' 8"!!! Jesus. This guy towers over most DB's in my dynasty. Not only does he have this amazing leap and wingspan, he can run. Think its sub 4.4 if i remember correctly.

i recruited a receiver like that but he was a juco transfer.

[mightypharaoh]

I just signed this insane receiver. He's 6-8. 6' 8"!!! Jesus. This guy towers over most DB's in my dynasty. Not only does he have this amazing leap and wingspan, he can run. Think its sub 4.4 if i remember correctly.

I got a 6'6" WR and he leads the nation in yds and TD catches. He' sgot 91 spd so decent but not a burner an 86 cth and a 93 jmp. Ahhhh I was able 2 land him bc I really opened up my passing game last year. I was surprised as he was from TX and a top 100 player, and started with high interest but Miami was not in his top 3.

Oddly though even after having a RB with 1800 yds last season and 20 td's I couldn't get a top notch back. I did pull a juco transfer with 91 speed so he is a fairly good scat back.

[phrozzy]

Well my receiver has a catch rating like that of any 4-5 star freshman, average to slightly above. But his height is what helps the most. My other receivers drop passes because the DB's hands are all over them. All this guy has to do is reach above their heads. LOL Imagine me jetpacking with him LOL. He leads the nation's receivers in TD's and is 100 yds behind some guy from Cal. Think the Cal dude has 38-40 receptions for 700-800 yds. My guys has 23-28 receptions for something in the high 600s.

Personally, I think the hardest recruiting is done at any New England school. Talent is a premium up there. You can play with all the UTEPs and SJSUs of the world but they're in states where there's enough talent to go around. The North is definitely the hardest to recruit good local players unless you're a powerhouse then you can recruit anywhere.


I mean it y'all, my QB puts the ball right on the numbers and even on their hands and they just can't seem to come through for the team.

Let the cpu run to the ball and you catch it yourself. "User catch" has a higher percentage of completion than automatic.

[hobbs2324]

yeah phrozzy I am noticing that now as far as recruiting goes. I pretty much went after mostly Texas talent and came out with a kick butt recruiting class

[phrozzy]

All you need is to recruit from the west coast mainly California, Texas, and the Southeast. Even if you don't bother with the other states, guaranteed top 15 class if you sign 13+ recruits from those regions

See how far you get if you exclusively recruit from Northeast states.

[DuckFan]

Bumping this thread...

Feel free to ask any questions you may have about recruiting. As the "original chise guru" I will be happy to respond... :cool: :cool: Nice to know that I was missed... :D

I just posted a huge reply in the "impressions" thread, so you may want to read that first, in case it answers any of the questions you may have. But I will be happy to answer others here.

Recruiting-Training-Discipline sliders.
Which Recruiting Pitch.
When to Scout.
Which Team Stats you need to know before you start recruiting.

Ask away...

I am off to do a round of recruiting, but I should be back in an hour or so.

DuckFan

[mightypharaoh]

Bumping this thread...

Feel free to ask any questions you may have about recruiting. As the "original chise guru" I will be happy to respond... :cool: :cool: Nice to know that I was missed... :D

I just posted a huge reply in the "impressions" thread, so you may want to read that first, in case it answers any of the questions you may have. But I will be happy to answer others here.

Recruiting-Training-Discipline sliders.
Which Recruiting Pitch.
When to Scout.
Which Team Stats you need to know before you start recruiting.

Ask away...

I am off to do a round of recruiting, but I should be back in an hour or so.

DuckFan

The original Guru himself has returned!!!!!!!!

What made u come out of retirement? Glad 2 see u back on the boards. I'll be sure 2 check out the thread.

[DuckFan]

My life has simplified somewhat in the last month... and with the new game out I figured I should come back and see what was up...

Had no idea I had an official title... how bout getting me that as a custom title :cool:

But now I really am off to recruit. I hear there is a scrambling QB who wants to be a Duck...

[mightypharaoh]

My life has simplified somewhat in the last month... and with the new game out I figured I should come back and see what was up...

Had no idea I had an official title... how bout getting me that as a custom title :cool:

But now I really am off to recruit. I hear there is a scrambling QB who wants to be a Duck...

That part is easy u can change that in your control panel. Good 2 see u back and I have a few questions for u.

peace

[russ1606]

I have been thinking when you would really find it worthwhile to scout and had this idea.

I play as the Memphis Tigers, a 3 * team. It can be hard to get good recruits but seem to have a few 1 or 2 star players in-state...not great but often better than the initial crummy players returning. I think I will scout those players...if they are better than expected, I will offer and scouting helps get their attention apparantly. If they are really bad or discipline problems, I do not risk getting stuck with them if I offered a scholarship. Seems a waste to scout the lower tier recruits, but unless you are a juggernaut, you will want the top players if you scout them regardless of the feedback.

[mad_bomber]

Memphis will have one of the best offensive teams in the country this season as all 11 starters return to an offense that averaged 450 plus yards a game a season ago. They've done rather well in recruiting recently, especially when considering they're recruiting against SEC teams. They beat out all of the SEC schools for their current star running back DeAngelo Williams and this past season they again beat out all of the SEC schools for one of the top high school safeties in the country. Memphis is fertile recruiting area for many schools. Currently 6 of the country's top defensive and offensive line prospects play high school football in the area and the likes of OU, Miami, Notre Dame, Michigan, and USC are actively recruiting these guys. The Tigers are basically following the K-State guide to building a program and I think they're on their way.

[hobbs2324]

I never scout the 3* guy unless he has the most incredible speed, other then that I love the 4* guys, 5's are great but hard to get, 4's seem to always come, and I have a low level team but can recruit some pretty decent talent even in my first recruiting class.
MP, you can't change the title in control panel since they did the upgrade to the forums unless they recently enabled the feature, I wanted to change mine a little bit, but can't
I'm going to check out the impressions thread, by the way, got UTEP up to #3 in the country last night with a huge 37-7 win over Miami, :) , I have to smear some WAC schools and take on Michigan [#13, were a top 10 team and lost to Michigan ST. but rebounded back up a couple of notches] last game of the season

[sandman]

Well I've been out of NCAA for awhile practicing for a Madden tournament. I will go play Tennessee tonight. They have moved up to the number #1 Toughest Place to Play. I'm looking for the #1 receiver in the country I recruited to make be a playmaker. :D

DuckFan- I'm not sure if you addressed this or not, but what is your philosop with recruits that only have low or average interest. A lot of people feel that it is not worth your while. I feel the opposite. If you are able to pitch the right draw and pump 30 points into the guy, I think you will definitely get a bite.

[DuckFan]

DuckFan- I'm not sure if you addressed this or not, but what is your philosop with recruits that only have low or average interest. A lot of people feel that it is not worth your while. I feel the opposite. If you are able to pitch the right draw and pump 30 points into the guy, I think you will definitely get a bite.

It depends. To be honest I rarely need to, because I am so often working from a position of strength (so there are tons of interested players).

But like anyone else, sometimes I have a position need and none of the guys at that position are interested. Here, I follow the same basic strategy as with the interested guys and find try to find the right pitch. But I have still had rounds of recruiting where I needed a TE, I talked to eight different guys in five weeks, and no one ever signed, it does happen.

As far as straight-out cold calls go, I have great success with kickers and punters that way.

There are seven reasons a guy will move you up in his choice list:

He likes your Team Prestige
He likes your Coach Prestige
He likes your Coaching Style
He thinks you have Playing Time available
He lives near your school
You have a pipeline in his state

and finally, and sometimes most important, you are talking to him.

It sounds silly, but sometimes even if your pitch is terrible, if you are talking to him and no one else is, he may very well sign.

In NCAA 2004, I recruited the #1 K and #1 P every single year for an entire franchise, and signed at least one of them every single year. FORTY years in a row I signed one of the two (and most years I signed both).

The reason for this is that the AI teams do NOT talk to legmen... they just don't. So if you do, they show up.

They have adjusted the system slightly for this year, but the AI teams still do not talk to legmen enough. Once my team is at 5-stars or better, I cold call the #1 K and #1 P every single year, always pitching Team Prestige (since it's the one pitch a guy cannot have a negative reaction to). I am 14 recruiting cycles in and I have signed the #1K eight times and the #1P seven times. Many times when there was no chance of them getting playing time.

He may really care about location, or Coaching Style, or Playing Time, but ultimately if you are the only one talking to him, he is quite likely to sign...

The positions you are most likely to sign in this manner are K, P, FB, TE, SS, and C... For some reason the AI doesn't talk to those positions enough. You will rarely succeed with a cold call to a WR or a QB who is Average or below (I don't consider a "High" to be a cold call, you might be 4th on his list...)

There are of course, exceptions to every rule. I cold call every 5-star player from my wife's hometown to make her happy, and I have signed a couple that started out Very Low. But only a couple out of 100 or so in two years.

One piece of advice that newer players may need. ALWAYS double check your interested players screen each week. In weeks 3-5 there will be players who got bummed out that their favorite school signed someone else and they will magically appear as interested in you. Don't make the mistake of only looking at the guys you have two weeks invested in. It's very easy to just go to "Current Targets" and start spending points. I have had plenty of random 5-stars who didn't care about me in week 1 suddenly have me listed 1st in week 4. Pull the scholarship from some lesser player and get that guy signed!

[Str8A]

Welcome back DuckFan! It's always a pleasure to have your advice and use your results within my own game as many others do.

You just came back and already got mad advice and techniques for us. Keep up the good work, I (and I'm sure many others) appreciate it!

Peace,
Str8A

[hobbs2324]

I noticed Sunday night doing a recruiting session that all of a sudden at week 4 I had a bunch of 5 star guys want to play for me. I went to the 3 star guys and pulled offers immediately as soon as I was told no more scholarships were available. I'm not sure if it was this thread or another but I was so excited with my recruits and my potential team that I forgot to check out what my class ranking was for my recruiting. It had to be up there. I have already spaned the #5, #1 and the #1 teams in the NCAA so I have a great team in year 3 and am now ranked #2 so I psyched about my possibilities. I may do the cold call occassionally but as with everyone, speed is always what I'm after, the guy has to have incredible speed for me to waste the points and scholarship if he has low interest
Side note, in an earlier post you said something about colors and symbols and how that helped you with potential recruits, please explain, either I missed it or am not fully understanding what you meant

[sandman]

Okay, I was wondering because I have been able to do it a few times. I was just landed the #1 receiver who had low interest. My main concern was knowing if it was worth it or not to use up all those points.

[DuckFan]

Side note, in an earlier post you said something about colors and symbols and how that helped you with potential recruits, please explain, either I missed it or am not fully understanding what you meant

Just that when you scroll through the top 100 recruits (or the "All" list), any players who have you in the top 3 have a green circle to the left of their ranking. And if you have offered a scholarship, the guy has a target symbol instead.

Makes it a lot easier to scan the page... rather than trying to see the school name in the lists of top 3s...

A minor thing, but helpful...

Just had my strangest recruit yet... a corner with 97 SPD, 96 AGI, and 98 ACC just happened to have 74 and 76 as his throwing numbers... Guess who just became my substitute option quarterback...

I LOVE the fact that recruits now have random extra skills that may not apply to their main position. So few college players are "prototypical". It's nice to see the occasional QB who can kick, the MLB who is a great run blocker, and the CB who can throw...

[hobbs2324]

Sandman, how many points did you invest and how many weeks did you invest them. I try to spread 8-14 points per guy, per week over a lot of guys, like a blanket. If there is an incredible player I may go for broke but I haven't had the success with that option. [2] seasons ago I worked at the #1 end available for 4 weeks, out of state guy, built his interest up and cost me alot of points, left me standing at the altar [sp?] My next recruiting class my [2] senior ends graduated and of course I did better my second year from my first, but I ended up having the #'s 1 and 2 ends sign with me as well as 3 other guys came on or walked on. In my second week I had like 10+ guys come on to the team, I walked out of the room as the game was preparing the siginings and when I came back the whole screen and then some was filled up. But the next week the #1 guy was still there and his interest was way high so I had to try and get him.
Duckfan, seems like the color status bar they had in last years game that you had to click the right thumbstick in to see. I usually just scroll individually and look for the interest level to be high but I'll look at the colors tommorrow

[djwill13]

i see this question coming, so i'll go ahead and answer it:

How do you pull scholarship offers???

Took me a while to figure this one out also. On PS2, select a guy that you have previously recruited or are spending points on recruiting. now, select the option to recruit, but instead of asigning any points press "select"

I'll let hobbs (the xbox loser) tell you guys how to do it on xbox

[scgator78]

Just a wondering question. Has anyone kept track of decent guys who werent signed with a school to see if they end up as JUCO recruits down the road?

[DuckFan]

Just a wondering question. Has anyone kept track of decent guys who werent signed with a school to see if they end up as JUCO recruits down the road?

As near as I can tell, all of those guys actually DO sign with a school, they just don't do it by signing day.

What happens is that after signing day, they show up at whichever school they have rated highest that needs someone at that position. They tend to go with the ones that offered scholarships first.

For the sake of argument, let's say there is a 4-star WR from Hawaii who is only looking at Pac-10 schools and only Pac-10 schools are talking to him.

Let's say the four CA and the two AZ schools all offer him a scholarship, but the OR and WA schools do not.

After week 5 he hasn't signed with anyone, and his top 3 shows WSU, ASU, CAL... but he was also "High" on both USC and OSU.

When it comes time for walkons, it will go through his top schools one-by-one. WSU has 6 WR so he doesn't go there. ASU has 5 so he doesn't go there. CAL has 6 so he doesn't go there. USC and OSU each only have 4 WR after week 5, so he goes to USC because they were the highest-rated school left and had offered him a scholarship. If he was only "Average" on USC, he would have gone to OSU (since it seems to choose interest level first with scholarship offers as a tiebreak).

I end every recruiting cycle with 4 or 5 guys who have me listed 1st but did not sign with anyone (even though I offered a scholarship). When walkons are assigned, if I have an opening at the position, one of those guys ALWAYS shows up. Now I usually have 3 or 4 offers out if I still have a slot left, so there is no guarantee you will get the guy if you have one slot and only talked to one guy. But when I look at my rosters after walkons, it's aways one of the guys I was talking to (if I was talking to anyone).

Now if I don't have an opening, those guys go to someone who does...

There are reasons why I will choose not to talk to anyone at a position and intentionally take a walkon without recruiting anyone, but that's a story for another time... :cool:

[DuckFan]

i see this question coming, so i'll go ahead and answer it:

How do you pull scholarship offers???

Took me a while to figure this one out also. On PS2, select a guy that you have previously recruited or are spending points on recruiting. now, select the option to recruit, but instead of asigning any points press "select"

I'll let hobbs (the xbox loser) tell you guys how to do it on xbox

And since we are answering questions in advance, let me address one as well.

You HAVE to hit the recruit button to change the points on a guy... If you have scrolled through your guys and still have 20 pts left, so you go back through to add a few extra to some of the guys, you have to reclick the recruit button on each. If you scroll down to a guy, open the recruiting window, change his pts from 6 to 12, then pull out of the window, his points will stay at 6. You HAVE to change to 12, then reclick recruit, then go to the next guy.

It's really annoyed me so far, because I like to quickly go through and make my changes, but they don't "take" unless you reclick... :(

[phrozzy]

Yeah it's not really as streamlined as last year where I can just go through and select all 4 choices and make a pitch in 3 seconds to a recruit. I can understand why though since they added a point system and scouting.

Another topic: Doom 3 is f**kin freaky. I just played 30 min of it and my heart is beating hard. My roommate said my face is red. This game rivals Clive Barker's Undying in scariness.

[hobbs2324]

Just so you guys know , I came up with the xbox loser because it seemed like I was the only one playing these games on xbox last year. It felt like I bought the betamax when everyone else bought the VHS :o , so I'm happy to see people coming over to the darkside. Anyway to withdraw the offer in xbox is basically the same as PS2, I have to go to my recruit, click the recruit button and go to withdraw scholarship and then back to the recruit button

[sandman]

Sandman, how many points did you invest and how many weeks did you invest them. I try to spread 8-14 points per guy, per week over a lot of guys, like a blanket. If there is an incredible player I may go for broke but I haven't had the success with that option. [2] seasons ago I worked at the #1 end available for 4 weeks, out of state guy, built his interest up and cost me alot of points, left me standing at the altar [sp?] My next recruiting class my [2] senior ends graduated and of course I did better my second year from my first, but I ended up having the #'s 1 and 2 ends sign with me as well as 3 other guys came on or walked on. In my second week I had like 10+ guys come on to the team, I walked out of the room as the game was preparing the siginings and when I came back the whole screen and then some was filled up. But the next week the #1 guy was still there and his interest was way high so I had to try and get him.
Duckfan, seems like the color status bar they had in last years game that you had to click the right thumbstick in to see. I usually just scroll individually and look for the interest level to be high but I'll look at the colors tommorrow

I spend the first two weeks making sure I land the guys who are interested first. By week 3, I look at the top recruits who haven't signed yet and I personally think I will have a shot at. The next step is to give them 30 points apiece. I'll probably start out at 250 because i do really well each year. Recruiting them "cold" as DuckFan says, I do to 3 guys tops. No more than that.

[DuckFan]

If there is interest, I would be willing to start a new thread and break down an entire season's recruiting step by step from beginning to end, including what my needs were, who was interested at each week, what pitches I made, how interest changed, who signed when, and the final results.

My next round of recruiting is probably tomorrow, and I should have needs at seven or eight positions, so there should be a good mix of things to look at...

[hobbs2324]

start it up slacker :rolleyes: , yeah i would love to hear what you do, if I can ever get to play tonight I should be either recruiting Friday or Saturday night

[sandman]

Sounds great DuckFan. Can't wait.

[mightypharaoh]

ditto for me as well. DuckFan I hope u will be posting in the Franchise thread.

[LjSnUo]

Well i just got done with my first season and finished up recruiting. I managed the #1 class with recruiting assistant off. I find that if you just target players where you need them and you go for low points untill you find the right hook then load points into em it works well

for example i had a qb that i couldnt find out what he wanted, i used everything and it was playing time and that was the last thing i picked well i didnt really put to many points into him untill i found his hook then i had him the next week cause i put like 15 into him (15 was max)

another is an out of stater, he was a cb and it took me 2 weeks to find his hook as soon as i did i put 60 points into him, got him after that week and a week at like 25 or so. It was worth it though.

[DuckFan]

Looks like I probably will do a full recruiting recap in a few days... It won't be my next round, as I only have 8 seniors and there won't be many needs. But I will do one for the following year.

Just FYI, in the last five years of recruiting I have wound up with 43 5-stars and 52 4-stars (no recruits lower than 4-star).

So a typical year for me is 8-9 5-stars and 10-11 4-stars.

That's with total recruiting points around 280 for the 1st week...

My best result so far was in year 10 of my Dynasty. That year I had won the NC, and had a huge class leaving. So there were 11 "needs" at the start of the year. I had 325 recruiting pts available and finished with 13 5-stars and 7 4-stars (plus had a 4-star WR walk on after signing day).

My worst result since my team was a perennial top-5 finisher was 6 5-stars and 13 4-stars...

These results are all playing Oregon. So no instate recruits, lots of California players available for 2-30 pts, but the rest of the country at 6-90 pts to recruit...

[hobbs2324]

We touched on it a bit in the discipline thread, but do you scout every player you are interested in or only some of them. My scouting points seem high per guy and I would run out of points pretty quickly I would believe

[DuckFan]

I scout 2-3 guys a year, almost always guys from California (10 pts each). Scouting a guy from Florida would be 30 pts for me and there's just no way I can afford that...

Typically I only scout guys when I have several to fill one spot. If there is only 1 5-star OLB who wants to come, I don't bother scouting him, I'll take him whatever his numbers are. But if I have 3 5-star Centers that want to sit behind my SR for a year and then start, I will scout them if they are 10pt guys...

I tend to scout HB more than any other position. I always have 3-4 on my roster already, but they tend to go pro as JRs, so I try to recruit one every year whether I "need" one or not. And there are always lots from Cali... So I will look at the 4 or 5 of them that want to come play, pick out a couple to scout and then go after the guy I like best.

At most positions I don't bother. I figure if my roster has 35 5-stars and 35 4-stars on it, it really doesn't matter whether I got the "good" 4-star guys or not...

If my school was in CA, TX, or FL, I would probably scout 5-6 guys a year, maybe even more. Because at 5pts a pop they're not bad. But my typical guy is 5 states away, and I feel good if I can hit him for 15 pts (which is the same as his local school spending 3). I just have to trust that he WANTS to come play. Because there is no way I can throw 60pts a week at a guy...

[hobbs2324]

My scouting has been 20 points for in state guys I think, I'm going to do a recruiting class tonight or tommorrow so I will confirm since I have already stuck the size 10-1/2 in my mouth in the discipline thread :o
By the way, the in game progression stat you spoke about, I had my HB bust a 72 yard td on our first offensive play last night, and when I got the ball back for my second possesion I ran a 38 yarder in for a td, checked his progression stat after 2 plays, 2 td's and 100+ yards [+7], NICE!!! ;)

[phrozzy]

You don't really have to scout every recruit you go after. A general rule I myself follow is scout all in state and scout those whose skills you doubt or are unsure of and scout those who live far away. Better to spend 20-25 points once and find out he sucks than spend 5 weeks worth of points and sign him then realize he sucks.....or even worse not sign him at all.

Exception: if you have the points, you should attempt to scout most if not all recruits before you sign them. You don't have to do it all in the first week though.

[mightypharaoh]

I just finished a recruiting class and for the second year in a row I was rated with the #1 class. I landed 6 5 stars players. 10 4 star players and 1 3 and 1 1 star players for a total of 16 players. This was cool bc I only needed 5 positions going in, which I filled and the rest was just gravy. I managed 2 get the #1 HB, a top 5 WR (6'7" 4.40 40) and several top athletes. I need 2 get these in b4 I start on Madden.

[sandman]

Guys, I haven't been able to play. I'm spending all my time manually inputing the names for the draft classes. It has taken me two days just to complete the Big Ten. I've looked evrywhere, the links on ps2rosters, ESPN, etc. None of these sites have the names of this year's freshmen. Does anyone know where I could find them?

[mightypharaoh]

http://www.maddennation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15203

This is for sharkport or x-port. Which u will need, I bought one on ebay for 20 bucks. I did have 2 go 2 PS2 rosters.com 2 download the drivers and get the directions on using it.

good luck

[sandman]

I like to do input the names myself. Anwways, I double checked the ESPN college rosters and I couldn't believe how accurate they were! One of the best sites I've seen.

[mightypharaoh]

I like to do input the names myself. Anwways, I double checked the ESPN college rosters and I couldn't believe how accurate they were! One of the best sites I've seen.

Do u at least have the sharkport keyboard? Or the Joystick with the small key pad on it? It took me almost a month 2 do the top 20 teams and even then I didn't include any O-line

[phrozzy]

sandman,

the espn rosters are last year's. Go to the school's website for upcoming year's rosters. Some haven't put them up yet but most have. as for freshman,

http://rivals100.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=80740

just select the team and then 2004 recruiting class. the weights and heights are mostly accurate. I compare rival's list to the ones on the schools' website to see if the school has them listed already and to check the weights and heights. Go with the school's vitals if they're different from rivals, EA goes by those.

if you're willing to wait a while, check

www.ncaafootball.net after the season starts and see if they have updated rosters. Very clean and easy to find since they're all in one place

[sandman]

Phrozzy, I can't figure it out. It says 2003 on the ESPN rosters, but these rosters DO have this year's freshmen. I recorded their heights and weights in the game along with jersey numbers. I checked the jersey number on the ESPN roster and it matched the height, weight,and home state of the freshmen in the game. Weird.

Mighty P.- I do inputting on the PS2 and it is going by pretty fast.

[CrackinBacks]

I play on all american with the CPU sliders +2 and the User sliders -2, 8 mins qrts, and I use Akron. Just started my 3rd season, I didn't follow the discipline suggestions in the first season and downgraded most punishments, and had to pay for it, by going on NCAA probation, and I lost 10 scholarships for the next 2 years. Talk about tough to recruit. Plus I had guys leaving early, and had to try and talk them into staying.....It is completely fun, trying to figure out who to pick to recruit, and if you do some scouting, you can get some solid players.

[mightypharaoh]

Mighty P.- I do inputting on the PS2 and it is going by pretty fast.

Cool. When I was inputing the names I had 2 do it with the analog stick. Man was that tedious!!! I just knew at that point I had 2 either have a memory card shipped 2 me or download them which I did.

[phrozzy]

It says 2003 on the ESPN rosters, but these rosters DO have this year's freshmen. I recorded their heights and weights in the game along with jersey numbers. I checked the jersey number on the ESPN roster and it matched the height, weight,and home state of the freshmen in the game.

I just checked the site and your right. The rosters have been updated for the upcoming season, at least the eligibility and vitals of the players have been. They haven't added for some schools the freshmen yet. Like FSU, they didn't have Lee or Weatherford in yet but they have updated the vitals and class. Pretty good.

Just use that website I gave you with all the committments of the past year on it.

[sandman]

I tried, but it was just waaaay too time consuming and too much work. I decided to instead sim my dynasty until the fifth season. That way the only players who won't have their names inputted are the redshirted fresmen from year 1. All I have to do is find their names from that website phrozzy. Thanks!

[phrozzy]

Hey no problem

I've been inputting the rosters myself since 2003 so the comparison part is routine now. I admit though it does get tedious. Every year I put in about half the teams then say to myself "Screw it."

I haven't even done the top 25 yet this year and I feel like quitting already.

Got another 6' 8" receiver and this guy can jump higher than the last. Think I'll start him opposite the other one. Either that or make him into a TE

[hobbs2324]

What I did last year was scout the best guys in the game at each position, usually the top 10-15 guys, and entered their names into the game. If someone with just a # gets drafted in madden it won't be all that difficult to find what the name was from the info provided. I also would maybe enter all the names for the guys on the team I play with. You guys are spending too much toime working and not enough playing. Most of the college guys won't even get drafted in madden

[phrozzy]

I don't do it for the draft classes hell I don't even play madden.

I just don't like see # so-and-so in place of the player's name. I like to know who actually turned that 5 yd curl into a 90 yd TD. Since about 6-7 players from my high school made it into the game, I like to keep up with them in my first 4-5 years in the dynasty. See if they get into trouble or not. I may feel a little indifferent if they do, but hey it's fun.

When I'm inputting names, I tried to input at least one team's roster every time I turn on the game. Evidently, I don't abide by that for too long and end up inputting whenever I feel like it. And that feeling is becoming rarer and rarer these days as I advance in my dynasty.

[DuckFan]

I realize I am in the minority on this... but I really don't pay any attention to the guys I import into Madden (if I do at all)...

Yeah, there are current real-life seniors that I sort of care about where they wind up in Madden, but beyond that first class I really don't care.

Last year I found I enjoyed the game more if I had absolutely no clue what the guys were like in college, because it just made it too easy. It was bad enough that EA screwed up in how they set contracts and gave away the players ratings before you sign them.

Inevitably what happens for me if I plan to import is that there is one or two guys who played on my NCAA team that I really want to keep playing, and I import a whole draft class just to keep them. Then they don't pan out as pros and I wish I had just gone with a random class...

Although I must admit, importing the 7'-4", 420lb, Speed 99 fullback that I created in NCAA 2004 into my Madden game was pretty damn cool... I created the guy as a high school prospect, recruited him to my school, played him for 4 years, then signed him in Madden and watched him tear up DTs for 2 seasons. Then he got a career-ending injury... Gee, can't imagine why a 7-foot-4 fullback would be injury-prone... :p

[DuckFan]

I am also a big fan of changing all the names on Oregon State's team to swear words... It's childish I know... But I get a special glee from seeing who their offensive leaders are... (pardon the pun) :cool:

[djwill13]

not only that, but a lot of the players numbers in college don't transfer over into madden

so #4 would be #12 in madden or something like that lol

[mightypharaoh]

I am also a big fan of changing all the names on Oregon State's team to swear words... It's childish I know... But I get a special glee from seeing who their offensive leaders are... (pardon the pun) :cool:

Sacked by the Big Ugly MoFo!!!! 15 yard reception by Dookey Butt. lol 2 funny.

[mightypharaoh]

not only that, but a lot of the players numbers in college don't transfer over into madden

so #4 would be #12 in madden or something like that lol

That becomes a problem if u are trying 2 track players while they are in the league. After the draft u don't know what number they are going 2 be. Oh yeah u get Madden and import the draft class that has BMW (Mike Williams) and his is WR#1. U go and make a draft day trade for WR#1 and u get..... a 5'7" guy from the University of Stupid Crybabies, who has a 78 SPD rating.

[hobbs2324]

you have to make sure you get WR#1 from USC thats how you solve that problem, a little leg work buddy, don't go soft on me!!! :D

[mightypharaoh]

you have to make sure you get WR#1 from USC thats how you solve that problem, a little leg work buddy, don't go soft on me!!! :D

It's so much easier with the names. I remember last season trying 2 find Marc Clayton and had zero luck bc in the next draft there was a WR# 14 from LSU. Nah dawg give me the complete rosters every time

[hitmanwa]

Ugh, my head hurts after reading that. Good stuff though.

From eveything I read I got the following as it relates to the Recruiting process. Hobbs, DF, anyone else feel free to correct or add to this. I'm still trying to get a handle on what I should be doing to build a solid team.

Recruit mostly in state at first and only interested players.
Scout sparingly.
Allocate 10-15 points for these recruits and try to pinpoint the angle early and use other listed schools to help determine that angle.
Hit out of state 5 and 4 star recruits late...4th and 5th week and allocate 20+ points if possible.
Don't recruit DEs and look at other possible positions for Aths and other players.
Can possibly use strategy sliders to attract new players based on style.

Is this the basic jist of the recruitment process?

Also...


DuckFan...

If there is interest, I would be willing to start a new thread and break down an entire season's recruiting step by step from beginning to end, including what my needs were, who was interested at each week, what pitches I made, how interest changed, who signed when, and the final results.

My next round of recruiting is probably tomorrow, and I should have needs at seven or eight positions, so there should be a good mix of things to look at...
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Did this ever happen? I looked around but couldn't find one. I know you're probably very busy but something like this would be extreemly helfull if it's at all possible. :o

Thanks In Advance,

[hobbs2324]

hitmanwa, I don't think the syep by step thread ever took place, I think Duckfan got Madden for his wife for her B-day, :D , and he has been playing madden since.
I think the instate idea is correct, but depends on what state your school is in. My dynasty is in texas so I have a ton of players to choose from as well as I have oklahoma, louisianna, florida and california not all that far away. Florida, Texas and California I have heard have great amounts of players to pick from. I go after the kids with avg or above interest, but usually start out with interested prospects then maybe in state, top 100 and then all prospects. If you are located in one of the states which is a hot bed for talent, then you can luckily not put out that many points for a kid. definitely look at the team and coach prestige, alot of times with the texas kids it is location and out of state kids play time gets them, but I started doing team and then coach prestige with out of state kids first, then the play time thing, in state I go location, school prestige, then coach and then coaching strategy or something like that. I still go after the DE's I know the glitch is there but won't take advantage of it, but have used an athlete as a DE because he was pretty fast, and was rated highest at DE or safety of all places.
One thing I didn't do my first [2] recruiting classes was take advantage of the scouting angle. I needed to use all my points for recruiting as many decent players as I could to start winning games so I thought it might be a waste. The thing is I was gambling with my discipline, and luckily never got bit to badly, but once I started doing the scout thing I am more confident with the NCAA problems not happening and if I do take a problem kid now it's usually a hb and if he causes me a problem I tank him for longer then the suggested time, and if they screw up twice in the season I bury them on the depth chart and cut them the next off season

[DuckFan]

Hobbs is indeed correct. I have not yet returned to NCAA. Though I will be fairly soon. Not permanently of course, but I should be getting back to my Dynasty sometime in the next week or so...

The step-by-step post is on my to-do list... :)

[hitmanwa]

Aye, thanks so much for the replies and especially for the help you two provide. 99.9% of your posts both here and on the madden forums is invaluable. :D

Thanks,
Hit

[hobbs2324]

Thanks, I think I am responsible for the .1% that isn't valuable ;)