Troy Dynasty - NCAA14 || Season 5, Week 2 - Luck of the Irish?

[Danger]

Just now, Fl0nkerton said:

Hope its cool, if I ask questions in here. Don't want to de-rail the thread. 

OK so I started a dynasty with UAB, obviously we're pretty garbage. Started off 0-4, rebounded a bit to 4-6.

When it comes to recruits, are you just supposed to throw your points at the players you want? Being a small s***ty school I'm not getting a lot of love obviously.
Should I be using a different strategy other than throwing points and upgrading the recruitment part of the head coach?

I'll make a comprehensive recruiting guide when I have more time not at work later.

[MWil23]

I'm trying not to derail this conversation, but I just started a dynasty as the Air Force academy with Navy's Flexbone Triple Option playbook. I am on Heisman mode and have beaten some good teams in squeakers, as my philosophy is roughly 80/20 or 85/15 run/pass ratio, making for quick and low scoring games. If I avoid turnovers and get a stop/two or force a TO, then I have an almost perfect chance at a win. I just beat THE U in OT. 

[MSURacerDT55]

40 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

I'm trying not to derail this conversation, but I just started a dynasty as the Air Force academy with Navy's Flexbone Triple Option playbook. I am on Heisman mode and have beaten some good teams in squeakers, as my philosophy is roughly 80/20 or 85/15 run/pass ratio, making for quick and low scoring games. If I avoid turnovers and get a stop/two or force a TO, then I have an almost perfect chance at a win. I just beat THE U in OT. 

Up until recently I used to get the updated rosters with the names, do a dynasty with Murray State with imported teams and put at least 30 real life recruits into the pool. Was super fun

[MKnight82]

6 hours ago, Fl0nkerton said:

Hope its cool, if I ask questions in here. Don't want to de-rail the thread. 

OK so I started a dynasty with UAB, obviously we're pretty garbage. Started off 0-4, rebounded a bit to 4-6.

When it comes to recruits, are you just supposed to throw your points at the players you want? Being a small s***ty school I'm not getting a lot of love obviously.
Should I be using a different strategy other than throwing points and upgrading the recruitment part of the head coach?

My recruiting tips:

Preseason

- You always want to have a full 35 players on your recruiting board, because you get some small recruiting points towards a guy for just having him on your board.  This comes in handy once you've signed a few guys a few weeks down the road and you can then switch over to other guys you've had waiting in the wings.  So have a full 35 players on your board at all times.  

- Scout everyone.  Your first 3 upgrades as a HC should be to max out scouting.  There's nothing worse than putting max points on a guy you find out is a bust.  

- When setting your initial recruiting board, look for physical phenoms.  Buy that I mean look for guys that are elite size for their position, or elite athletes for their position.  Go to player search and scan for the following:

OT: 6'5"+, 290+ lbs, with high bench press rating

OG: 6'0"+, 300+ lbs, with high bench press rating

OC: 6'0"+, 290+ lbs, with high bench press rating

DT: 6'0"+, 290+ lbs, with high bench press rating

DE: 6'4"+, 255+ lbs, with high squat rating

OLB: 6'4"+, 235+ lbs, with high squat rating

CB: 6'0"+, 190+ lbs with high 40 time

If you find these positions in this size with high ratings in these areas they should be good players.  Don't worry about QB, HB, WR, or S, they are a dime a dozen and easy to recruit (I'll get to them later).  

TEs are very hard to recruit, you should try to add at least one every year, especially early on, even if they aren’t very good. 

 

-  You can look for players from your state if you want to (since they in theory should be easier to sign) but it isn’t necessary.  If you’re really hurting at a position and must land a recruit at that position you can put a guy or two from your state in that position on your board. 

 

In Season Recruiting

-          Week 1 continue scouting your players, and put points on high end players you’ve found.  Week 1 doesn’t matter that much, everything will start to shake out in Week 2. 

-          Week 2 is when the recruiting year really begins.  Go through all 35 players on your board on the top schools page.  If you’re falling behind on that recruit more than 200 points, remove them from your board.  Even if they are a player you really want, even if it’s a player you had max points on, remove them from your board.  It’s a waste of time and resources you likely won’t sign them.  I usually go from 35 recruits down to only 8-10 on my board in Week 2.  It’ll pay off trust me. 

-          Go to the full list of recruits, and go through them on the top schools page.  Start with the 5 Stars, then move down.  Look for players that didn’t have a gain from any school and add those players to your board.  Sometimes you can find elite 5 Star recruits that for some reason the computer isn’t recruiting at all.  Do this until your board is full again with 35 players.

-          While you’re doing this keep in mind the players you want though, high end athletes with good size.  Look for QBs, HBs, WRs, and Safeties during this process too.  There will be a ton of them the CPU doesn’t recruit.  Don’t settle for crappy guys at these positions, there will be a ton to choose from. 

-          Scout all of your new recruits to your board.

-          If you found any 5 Stars the CPU isn’t recruiting, you should probably put max points on them.  Otherwise, put your points on the players you think are the most talented.  If you’re competing with anyone on your original 8-10 you had on your board leave max points on them.

-          I always put max points on players (except JUCOs) because I find its better to get them signed and move on to the next recruit than string along 20 recruits all year and try to sign them late in the season.  This opens you up to losing recruits to schools when they’ve missed out on some guys and they come sniffing around your recruits. 

-          Advance to Week 3 and repeat the process from Week 2.  You may find 2-3 guys are now dropping a bunch of points because a school has targeted them.  Remove these guys and keeping repeating.  Eventually you’ll end up with a board of players the CPU isn’t targeting at all. 

Signing Day

-          Pick 2 or 3 guys you want and spread your points over them.  Don’t try for more than that or you could lose all of them.  If you followed my process of max points all year you likely won’t have many left to sign this late anyways. 

 

General Tips

-          Don’t settle for mediocre HBs, WRs or CBs.  There are always a ton of high quality ones each class. 

-          Look for high end recruits in States that have their top schools not from that State.  If you’re looking at a guy from Florida, and his top school is FSU, you’re not landing that guy.  If you’re looking at a guy from Kentucky, and his top school is USC, you have a lot better shot. 

-          When you get insta-commit, don’t offer a scholarship until your school is 1^st on that player’s list.  Before you have insta-commit, offer scholarships right away.   

-          If you’re a 1 star program you should try to sign 20+ guys your first year.  You need to add a ton of new talent.

-          Don’t recruit players less than 65 OVR, you can do better.  Remove them from your board and add someone else. 

-          Look for JUCO Sophomores.  You get an additional year out of them over JUCO Juniors and they are usually some of the most physically talented recruits.  If you're recruiting JUCOs, usually 200 points a week will land them.

-         I typically plan visits as soon as possible.  This goes along with my sign them as soon as possible strategy in order to move on to the next guy strategy.  I've seen people wait until very late in the season in order to get a late boost on a player.  IMO, this is the wrong strategy.  You'll have to keep max points on that guy all year long whereas if you had brought him in for a visit Week 8, maybe you sign him by Week 10 then can move those points to another recruit.  

-         ATHs are typically the best recruits.  Think of a guy that can play CB or WR, if you put him at CB he'll likely have the best catching ability of anyone in your defensive backfield.  ATH that are TEs or OL make great blocking TEs.  LBers with great coverage ratings, etc.  

 

 

Edited September 25, 2018 by MKnight82

[Danger]

Well since MKnight covered most of the basis. I'll add a couple more things.

 

Pre-Season recruiting:

• Since before the season recruiting is hazy in general, put guys on your board who their top 3 pitches are a relatively good match for what your school is offering. Those effect how much of a weekly bonus you get towards specific prospects. They're your best bets at this point, but as MKnight even said, most of them still won't stick.

In Season Recruiting:

• Use the filter tool to find players who are being ignored, good bets for this are to search for "Lock % less than 25%" then mull over which players don't have any scholarship offers. These guys are there for the taking.
• Don't put any points into a prospect until they have you on their list of schools. So if you've just added a prospect to the board this week, don't put any points into him until the following week. For whatever reason these points don't effect your overall standing until you're already on the prospects list. 
• After scouting upgrades, I would recommend going for "The Closer" in season 1 getting you 6500 to work with by the middle of the season, then "The Opener" after that so you can start off season 2 with 6500ish points. And as soon as you can, go for Kitchen Sink
• I'd recommend leaving 300-500 points per week for scouting new players or offering scholarships.
• Realize when you can coast on a prospect. If you're the leading school and you're getting close to the 100% lock, decrease how many points you put on the guy so you get the ball rolling on another prospect. I typically decrease the amount of points to about 200 when they hit about 75% if I'm the only one recruiting that player significantly. 
• Anything below three star except special teams specialists are not worth your time.
• Offensive Lineman are prone to the biggest jumps with "Gems"
• WR and RB are a dime a dozen, unless there's a really good prospect that's already interested in your school, wait towards the end of the recruiting cycle to approach them.
• DT, MLB, OL, and TE are typically the hardest positions to fill. Prioritize those if you can. 
• Lot's of ATH are quarterbacks, always check what an ATH projects to be based off his scouted ratings. 

Visits:

• If you're the only team actively recruiting a player, the sooner the better, but if you're in a battle for that player, the later the better.
• Never schedule during a bye week. 
• In general the best to maximize stat bonuses are weak conference opponents, in the Big 10 this is like Rutgers, in the Big XII, Kansas is a good one.

I'm sure more will come to mind.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Danger

[MKnight82]

29 minutes ago, Danger said:

Anything below three star except special teams specialists are not worth your time.

I was curious about this, so I went back and looked at my old Dynasty pages to see if this has merit.  First off, you need to add 2 star JUCOs to that list for sure.  There are some very solid 2 and even 1 star JUCOs.  Let's take a look at the 2 & 1 star recruits in my old dynasty.  It looks like the JUCOs definitely made an impact, but the other guys were mostly career backups.  So you can sign some 2 star guys to fill in depth early on in your build, especially if you are really hurting at a position.  But they're likely going to cap out at around 80 OVR, meaning they'll likely always be a backup unless you're desperate.  

http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=560779 

#1635 Overall Prospect - #172 DE – 2* - Dustin Byrd, 6’6” 308 lbs – 60 OVR 
60 SPD, 69 STR, 69 ACC, 67 PM, 69 FM, 71 BS 

- Upon Completion - LE Dustin Byrd – When I signed Byrd as part of my first recruiting class, he was the only Dlineman I was able to land that year. So even though he came in a 2 star 60 Overall recruit at DE he had to start his first season because I literally had no other DEs on the roster. Unfortunately for him I was able to land quite a few DEs after that, which allowed me to redshirt him his Sophomore year and put him on the bench the rest of his career. He did develop into a 78 Overall DE, and is an impressive 6’6” 326 lbs in size. 

Career stats – 30 tackles, 10 TFL, 2 sacks, 2 deflections 

#1738 Overall Prospect - #147 CB – 2* JUCO (SO) – Bobby Hurst, 6’1” 190 lbs – 74 OVR 
90 SPD, 90 AG, 96 ACC, 83 MC, 81 ZC, 75 PRS 

- Upon Graduation - CB Bobby Hurst – Hurst was another JUCO Sophomore from the Year 1 recruiting class and was a 74 Overall 2 star recruit. He’s leaving an 84 Overall and started all three seasons as my #1 CB. Hurst began year 1 as my kick returner but was eventually replaced by WR H Johnson in that role. Hurst developed into a pretty good coverage corner and lead the team in interceptions the past two seasons. He’s actually leaving my program as the team’s career leader in tacklers, more than MLB Lance Gordon which is really impressive. 

Career stats – 109 tackles, 5 TFL, 8 INTs (1 TD), 3 FF, 2 FR, 7 deflections

#2330 Overall Prospect - #164 OT – 1* JUCO (JR) – David Walker, 6’5” 293 lbs – 70 OVR 
81 STR, 79 ACC, 78 PB, 77 RB, 75 IB 

- Upon Graduation - LG David Walker – Walker was a 1 star JUCO Sophomore I signed in the same class as Bowman and Johnson. He originally was a 70 Overall OT, but I moved him to OG his first year to be a backup and he eventually became a 79 Overall. He was a career backup and saw limited time in games, but that was his job. 

Career stats – 2 pancake blocks, no sacks allowed 

#1799 Overall Prospect - #139 OLB – 2* - Chris Ward, 6’4” 221 lbs – 62 OVR 
79 SPD, 66 STR, 65 AG, 80 ACC, 55 PM, 59 FM, 61 BS, 70 TKL, 68 ZC 

- Was a backup for 3 years but got cut due to me landing better players in future recruiting classes.  

#2157 Overall Prospect - #107 MLB – 2* JUCO (JR) – William Grant, 6’3” 252 lbs – 69 OVR 
82 SPD, 73 STR, 62 AG, 91 ACC, 49 PM, 72 FM, 76 BS, 73 TKL, 63 ZC 

MLB William Grant – Grant was signed as a 2 star JUCO Junior as part of my Year 2 recruiting class. He came in as a 69 Overall and is leaving a 75 overall. He started for the past two years, which is what I signed him to do while other recruits redshirted. Grant was solid but generally underwhelming. 

Career stats – 41 tackles, 6 TFL, 1 deflection 

#1574 Overall Prospect - #69 ATH – 2* JUCO (JR) – Maurice Cleveland – 6’1” 187 lbs – 73 OVR 
92 SPD, 86 AG, 89 ACC, 69 CTH, 52 MC, 83 ZC, 85 PRS, 72 TKL, 71 HP 

- Upon Completion - FS Maurice Cleveland – I signed Cleveland at the same time as Fontenot for the same reason, I needed a starter at FS so I could redshirt some raw safety prospects. He signed as a 73 OVR JUCO (JR) ATH and is leaving a 80 OVR FS. Cleveland was a solid but not spectacular safety. He was always reliable to make the tackle in the open field. Not a big playmaker but a solid starter. 

Career stats – 110 tackles, 6 TFL, 1 INT, 2 deflections 

#1933 Overall Prospect - #72 ATH – 2* JUCO (JR) – Jake McDonald, 6’1” 273 lbs – 72 OVR (73 OVR at OC) 
68 SPD, 74 STR, 83 ACC, 79 TKL, 72 HP, 68 PM, 80 FM, 75 BS, 82 PB, 77 RB, 74 IB 

- Upon Graduation - OC Jake McDonald – I signed McDonald as a JUCO (JR) to be a backup for two years while some of my other prospects redshirted and he fulfilled that role. He rarely saw the field but did his job. 

Career stats – 1 pancake block 

#1969 Overall Prospect - #127 DT – 2* JUCO (JR) – Adam Love, 6’2” 305 lbs – 78 OVR 
65 SPD, 86 STR, 72 ACC, 77 TKL, 77 HP, 83 PM, 82 FM, 77 BS 

- Upon Graduation - NT Adam Love – I signed Love because I wasn’t getting a lot of production from my NT position and needed a new starter. Love was brought in as a 2 star 78 OVR JUCO (JR) recruit and progressed to an 84 OVR. He started every game and was solid in the run game, but didn’t really give me the push up front I was hoping for. He was a solid player but nothing special, but he gave me the chance to redshirt and sit NT J Childress that I’m hoping for big things from. 

Career stats – 36 tackles, 10 TFL, 3 sacks 

[Danger]

Considering changing by base defensive scheme to 4-2-5 since I play in the Nickel or Dime so often, going to start recruiting Corners even more than OLB. So long as I have 4 total OLB on the team, I think I'll be fine.

[MKnight82]

15 minutes ago, Danger said:

Considering changing by base defensive scheme to 4-2-5 since I play in the Nickel or Dime so often, going to start recruiting Corners even more than OLB. So long as I have 4 total OLB on the team, I think I'll be fine.

So this is from my VCU thread, but I find this formation from the 3-4 multiple playbook highly effective:

 

For an explanation on why I'm recruiting the defense the way that I am, let me explain the weird defensive set that I use:

FS

SS

MLB

LOLB

Backup SS

CB2

CB3

ROLB

NT

LE

CB1

 

I almost exclusively run this Dime set out of the 3-4 multiple playbook.  It has two Dlineman, the ROLB comes up and plays with his hand in the dirt.  There are 3 CBs and two linebackers in coverage.  If the offense comes out in a 3 WR set or less, the Backup SS stays back like an additional Linebacker.  If there are 4 or more WRs in the set, the Backup SS moves to this:

FS

SS

MLB

LOLB

CB2

CB3

ROLB

NT

LE

Backup SS

CB1

 

So you can see the Backup SS is a very important versatile piece in my defense.  I need to recruit a guy that can essentially play corner and tackle like a linebacker.  You can also see that the RE position is virtually worthless to me.  I essentially need a ROLB that plays like a RE.  However, there are times the ROLB drops back in coverage, so that position needs to be versatile too.  The ROLB is extremely important to my pass rush.  Also, the NT is really the only true run stuffer on the field so I need a guy that can eat up a lot of space.  

I run this defensive set because the majority of the teams in the game run a no huddle offense that doesn't let you substitute players and this is a very versatile scheme.  

[Danger]

Eh, I usually like having 4 d-lineman. 

Lone Exception is on the super obvious passing downs where I'll run some 3-2-6

[MKnight82]

6 minutes ago, Danger said:

Eh, I usually like having 4 d-lineman. 

Lone Exception is on the super obvious passing downs where I'll run some 3-2-6

What advantage is there having 4 lineman?  There are a lot of teams that run no huddle spread offense all game with like 4-5 WRs.  Also, if you get up 2 TDs the computer basically abandons the run.  I've found a smaller faster defense is the most effective, even if it isn't very realistic.

[Danger]

Just now, MKnight82 said:

What advantage is there having 4 lineman?  There are a lot of teams that run no huddle spread offense all game with like 4-5 WRs.  Also, if you get up 2 TDs the computer basically abandons the run.  I've found a smaller faster defense is the most effective, even if it isn't very realistic.

Because without 4 D-Lineman, Run defense is awful. 

Also my DT's for whatever reason are by far my best pass rushers the way I scheme defensively. 

[MKnight82]

7 minutes ago, Danger said:

Because without 4 D-Lineman, Run defense is awful. 

Also my DT's for whatever reason are by far my best pass rushers the way I scheme defensively. 

Depends on the run scheme.  Smash mouth up the gut yes, but there are very few teams in the game that play that way.  And you can always call an even line (4 men on the los) with a 3-4 scheme.  I’d argue the 3-4 is much better at stop runs to the outside and far superior at stopping the option.

[Danger]

Just now, MKnight82 said:

Depends on the run scheme.  Smash mouth up the gut yes, but there are very few teams in the game that play that way.  And you can always call an even line (4 men on the los) with a 3-4 scheme.  I’d argue the 3-4 is much better at stop runs to the outside and far superior at stopping the option.

I'm not particularly comfortable with the 3-4. I've never really used it, not sure how to utilize it to it's fullest potential. Usually when I expect the run I just match to the offenses personnel and call Cover 2 out of that formation, or Cover 1 with the other safety playing shallow zone.

[MKnight82]

11 minutes ago, Danger said:

I'm not particularly comfortable with the 3-4. I've never really used it, not sure how to utilize it to it's fullest potential. Usually when I expect the run I just match to the offenses personnel and call Cover 2 out of that formation, or Cover 1 with the other safety playing shallow zone.

I get that.  Recruiting for the 4-3 is also easier.  The game doesn’t generate enough guys with size to play the 3-4, and guys don’t bulk up like they do irl

[MSURacerDT55]

4 hours ago, MKnight82 said:

        Look for JUCO Sophomores.  You get an additional year out of them over JUCO Juniors and they are usually some of the most physically talented recruits.  If you're recruiting JUCOs, usually 200 points a week will land them.

This, as well as getting in on recruits who haven't gotten offered early (mostly ATHs), this is the key turning around a bad program quickly