Is there a trick to recruiting?

[chjoak]

I was playing around and simed a season with Texas A&M. Went 9-3 overall with a #12 final rank. I only ended up with 15 commits and 3 or 4 of those were guys I did not recruit. I lost a number of guys in the last week despite the fact that I was 1st on their list. Also I was only able to get 1 guy in the in-season recruiting.

Is there anything I can do to ensure I get at least 20 guys (4 or 5 star) that I want/need?

[wolverinejay]

Why only 4 and 5 stars? 3 star prospects are often nearly as good especially if they are fast and have good size.

The best way to land good prospects who are interested in your program is to find the correct pitch. After you find his (+) pitch, keep using that pitch with head coach visits or max out recruiting to get the commitment.

[maddenstar21]

The trick that I use to recruit good players is to recruit players to fit the style of O that you use for that season. the team that I use is the canes, this passed season my O was all about running the rock, my runningback finshed the season with 2655 yrd on 126 att. At the end Of the season I had about 4-5 in-season plays commite plus a boat load more at the of the 5 weeks. all together I had about 10-15 plays commite all where 4-5 star plays. runningbacks will come to your team if you have a good running game, wideouts will come if you have a good passing game. this goes the some for palyers that play on D.

I hope this helps,

[CrazyOldGuy]

I agree with Jay and M*.

Don't over look the 3 star and lower recruits, you can find a few gems. I've found some smaller wr's that have been perfect for my system.

Which brings up the next point, what has worked best for me is having a plan of the idea player that I want at each position and I recruit to that plan.


I hear your frustration though I can't tell you how many guys in my dynasty who I thought would have been PRIMO recruits only to see them DNQ on me :mad:

[VTHokie32]

One problem I've had is guys committing to other schools on the weekend they visit my school. You would think, well, the guy had decided to attend University X, but decided to take his visit to my school and would commit to UX if he didn't like my school better, but in my last simmed season, I had a guy who was coming to visit late in the year. I was his #1 choice, Virginia Tech was #2, and Virginia was #3. )He was down to those 3.) I didn't get a commit, and he was no longer on my active list, so I scrolled down and found him, opened his file, and saw he committed to Georgia!?!?!?!? WTH? Maybe the Bulldogs stepped up with the $$$$$$$!!!!!

Also, sometimes I've found that when recruiting for a weak school you're trying to build up, soft verbals are pretty much the kiss of death in recruiting. You can about guarantee if a guy gives you a soft verbal he won't be coming to your school.

A recruiting pitch I'd like to see added is "conference prestige." I'm sure this gets used in real life, like if a kid from Texas was really wanting to play for A&M or Texas, but they weren't recruiting him. He may be down to choosing from IAA or going out of state, but if the Baylor coach came and said "Hey, we are in their conference, we play them every year, we are on regional TV 2-3 times a year, and you can play against them and show them they should have recruited you." That kid would be very interested, I would think.

Also, is it for sure that every kid has a plus pitch? Sometimes it seems like to matter what you tell them, they aren't interested. If you get a negative, does that mean that's his pitch and your school doesn't fit for him?

[wolverinejay]

Also, sometimes I've found that when recruiting for a weak school you're trying to build up, soft verbals are pretty much the kiss of death in recruiting. You can about guarantee if a guy gives you a soft verbal he won't be coming to your school.

A recruiting pitch I'd like to see added is "conference prestige."

Also, is it for sure that every kid has a plus pitch? Sometimes it seems like to matter what you tell them, they aren't interested. If you get a negative, does that mean that's his pitch and your school doesn't fit for him?
1) Soft verbals are exactly what they are suppose to be, soft. For me I get a firm commit from about half of my soft verbals. Usually a soft verbal turns into a firm by adding more points to the recruit and having the other schools on his list play poorly down the stretch.

2) Conference prestige is in NCAA 06, just not as a recruting pitch. You will notice that nearly all the 3,4, and 5* prospects in off-season recruiting are only interested in schools from the BCS conferences. Take a team from the Sunbelt and try off-season recruiting and you will notice only 1* and 2* prospects are interested.

3) Only 1 pitch per player. Example, Team A is an option running team and Team B is a pass heavy team. Both teams try to recruit the #1 HB (who has coaching style as his one and only pitch). Team A will get a (+) response to coaching style while Team B will get a (-) response to coaching style. The funny thing is if you get a (-) response that doesn't mean the prospect won't commit to your school. Just keep using the (-) pitch with a bunch of points, and he may just decide to commit despite not liking your coaching style.

[DRM]

The trick that I use to recruit good players is to recruit players to fit the style of O that you use for that season. the team that I use is the canes, this passed season my O was all about running the rock, my runningback finshed the season with 2655 yrd on 126 att. At the end Of the season I had about 4-5 in-season plays commite plus a boat load more at the of the 5 weeks. all together I had about 10-15 plays commite all where 4-5 star plays. runningbacks will come to your team if you have a good running game, wideouts will come if you have a good passing game. this goes the some for palyers that play on D.

I hope this helps,

Sorry to go off topic but I have to ask, did your HB have 2655 yards on 126 carries or is that a typo? Because that would be a about a 21 yard avg :eek:

[phrozzy]

Hey, my backs for the past 2 seasons averaged over 12+ yds a carry. not that hard when u have a good line and a speedy (like 94+) and agile back.

Make sure u setup pipelines to Florida, Cali, and Texas. Makes it a lot easier to recruit there. In my dynasty, a lot of talent is coming out of Ohio, PA, and AL. So pay attention to where the talent is coming from and setup pipelines to those states too.

[chjoak]

how many states are you allowed to setup pipelines to? can you only setup pipelines in the offseason?

[phrozzy]

a pipeline is setup when you have at least 3 recruits from one state on the roster. Given that you can only have a 70 man roster, you can setup a maximum of 23 pipelines. lol i'm at 18 states right now.

Committed recruits from the current season and off-season are not counted towards creating/maintaining a pipeline until after they enroll.

[hobbs2324]

First thing I do Is go through my roster and see who is leaving at the end of the season, and I have set up a worksheet using a simple excel spreadsheet for this. I then go into my roster needs after the season has been finished and my players have left and see positional needs. I also review who might be leaving the following year and try and shore up the depth at that position.
I scout everyone the first week, gets rid of team prestige right of the bat, and lets you know if the speed and attitude are as advertised. I start with in state, then go interested, and then into top 100.
The following weeks I pick usually coach prestige first, then coach philosophy or strategy, and then academics or play time depending upon feedback. I usually send head coaches for visits but sometimes when low on points may pull a HC visit down to an assistant if I have depth at a particular position. I may recruit 3 guys at the same position, but withdraw a scholorship if I land 2 of them. I never go after positions when there is too much depth at that position already, most likely you won't sign the guy at that position and you wasted points.
Around week 4 check the interested players list again, new guys will show up when they see their first choice of schools have filled up depth at that position and they have no place to play
Good luck

[MPhilly03]

Also, sometimes I've found that when recruiting for a weak school you're trying to build up, soft verbals are pretty much the kiss of death in recruiting. You can about guarantee if a guy gives you a soft verbal he won't be coming to your school.

I read this the week that I had two 4 star recruits visting me (and my one star program). I figured that when I got the soft verbal that I was screwed. However, both actually committed.

In fact I usually play with stronger teams and had been narrowing my focus sooner (usually trying to come away with maybe 4 players). My one star program was able to get 5 '3 star' recruits and 3 'four star' recruits. The overall team stinks but at least I now have some weapons to work with!

[maddenstar21]

Sorry to go off topic but I have to ask, did your HB have 2655 yards on 126 carries or is that a typo? Because that would be a about a 21 yard avg :eek:
No typo, more than likely it was higher than that!!

[ROCKZILLA]

During in season recruiting when it is the week of a visit, check the pitch info to see if there is a green + and adjust your pitch to what interest the player. Then adjust the points. Bump up the points for your visiting players, even if only a couple points. You want to show more interest when they visit, Make them feel wanted.

[VTHokie32]

Sometimes the stupid feedback things you get each week piss me off. One of the worst is "He was on campus for the so-and-so game, but we didn't speak to him." Give me a friggin break. There is NO WAY that would happen, unless the kid went unannounced and didn't tell anyone he was there, and if that's the case he did that because he didn't want us to know he was there.

[VTHokie32]

One other question I have is when you can use Program Prestige. Say I'm Indiana, and I decide to recruit a kid who is only being recruited by schools from the MAC. I should be able to use Program Prestige as a major pitch to the kid because of Indiana's position in the Big 10, and the fact that, compared to the schools recruiting the kid, Indiana is much more prestigous. But, unless I'm wrong, I can't do that since Indiana is only a 2 star program.

[kevin21boston]

i dont think the prospect cares about conference; if Kent State is a 3 star program, then it will have priority over a 2 star Indiana program

[hobbs2324]

I've heard that prestige has something to do with conference, but can't confirm it, but Indiana really isn't a great football school so if I was a recruit and a school with a better program from a smaller conference is recruiting I personally would go to a school that may allow me to get to the next level

[ps2professional]

Well I have always had success and use a system since 04. Basically is what everybody has been saying. KNOW your strenghts. Right now I'm in the second year of my dynasty with 1-star Rice. I got 14 2-star and 2 1-star players. None of which were from in-season. Since Rice doesn't have poor discipline players I only assigned 5% to this category and 10% to training (the lower the school prestige, the harder it is to develop or have break out talent). The remaining 85% went to recruiting. Another trick I use is in the off-season I switch my coaching style to fit my needs, so If I good depth at RB, I change my offense to passing heavy and increase it to 80%. Just inderstand RB and OL are easier to get with a run-style offense and WR and QB like passing ones. I always increase aggresiveness and sub more to max (Wishful thinking in fixing the playing time issue).

The system is basically, focus on numbers and interest. I didn't have enough points to scout first. With 25 scholarships, I wanted to fill as many gaps as possible. If a position needs 2 players I recruit twice that..so 4, unless I have a strong need elsewhere. Higher recruits get visits, lower recurits get phone calls. I usually use Location as the pitch first time around (obviously b/c I can't rely on program or coach prestige).

In a nutshell, focus on players who have you at the top of their list until your program prestige increases where you can almost recruit anybody. Interested players are a good place to start and work your way out (in-state, neighbooring states, etc.). You just have to learn trial by error until you get a "sense" of when to fall out of the race and focus your attention elsewhere. Like it was said before, use the later weeks to see if any new recruits have become interested in your program or better yet "send the house" to steal a guy from another school who may have wanted to come there but you just hadn't recruited him previously. Don't know how many times I've done that...lol lol.

Hope this hepls start a foundation. :D

[hobbs2324]

nice read ps2professional and welcome to the boards. Good luck with that Rice dynasty, I took UTEP to all world status last year but never had the balls to work with Rice