NCAA 09 Recruiting Strategies

[Husker NoNo]

So with the spring game over I am missing my college football fix. I dusted off NCAA 09 and realized I never really got all that good at recruiting. What are some of the strategies that you use to put together good teams?

[huskerguy]

I always pick 3-4 recruits I really want no matter what schools their interested in, which are 5 stars with the best speed. Then I sort them by whos interested in me and only put the guys that I'm in their top 5 onto my board.

 

Then during the season I just go the quick offers or talk whatever and I give those couple of guys I really want like 45+ minutes and a scholorship then for the rest I give them 20 minutes and a offer until Im out of time. Just do this every week or change the minutes around as you decide you want someone more and have them visit on a game you plan on winning by a lot.

[IBleedHuskerRed]

Call them and make them really happy ( you can tell when the little football with the face has a big grin ) and then offer them a scholarship IF THEY ARE INTERESTED IN YOUR SCHOOL. Theres a good chance you will get them.

[HuskerJen]

So with the spring game over I am missing my college football fix. I dusted off NCAA 09 and realized I never really got all that good at recruiting. What are some of the strategies that you use to put together good teams?

 

Which platform do you use? PS2? PS3? X-Box, X-Box360?

 

I'm still on the PS2 so what I'm about to say might not be applicable to what you're asking particularly if you're on a different platform.

 

My recruiting process...

 

(Note that on this video game, to get good players, you absolutely must recruit the highest rated 4 and 5 star players that you can. It's not like real life where you can have a roster full of 3 stars with an occasional 4 thrown in and still be very good/talented...but I digress.)

 

1. Whatever school you take in dynasty mode, check the players available in your state first.

 

2. Then check for players in surrounding states.

 

(You never know when a highly rated 4 or 5 will be available in your own backyard.)

 

3. Then move to the prospects who are interested.

 

(The reason for this are simple: The closer a recruit is to you, the less hours you'll spend, out of the hours allotted for that week, recruiting him...which will allow you to recruit more players before running out of hours to use.)

 

(Pay attention to the information the game provides you about recruits...this is especially true when recruiting offensive lineman. It's been my experience that if three or four OT's are rated almost identical in the categories listed: height, weight, 40, awareness, etc the way to ensure that you're getting a great offensive lineman is to look at the number of sacks they give up each season. Ideally, you want your OL recruits to give up less sacks per season than the number of games they've started. So if an OT has started all 10 games, then 4-9 sacks given up is what you want. Then, and this applies to all positions, try to find guys who get better, via the stats provided by the game, every year they start. While this process isn't 100% fool-proof it does help to weed out probably 50% of the players whose potential and/or discipline are poor.)

 

4. Only go after the prospects who don't have you in their top five if:

 

I) the green "interest bar" is almost filled and looks something akin to this...

 

II) you're kind of stocked at a position, like say you have four RB's and while you don't really need a fifth one it'd be nice to get so then maybe you could take a RB, who is third or fourth on the depth chart, and move him to FB to provide depth.

 

5. Never recruit FB's or TE's. They're always weaker, slower and less aware than what the information the game provides you indicates...at least that's been my experience.

 

(I never recruit FB's or TE's...ever. I get much better, and way faster players, by recruiting extra RB's and WR's. The key stat to look for is a high bench press because that indicates strength.

 

For making WR's into TE's you typically want bigger WR types: 6'2" to 6'4" 200+ pounds, and the higher the bench press the better.

 

For making RB's into FB's you typically want to find RB's who are listed as "power" backs or have high bench presses.

 

Now this is not 100% fool-proof but it seems to work more often than not.)

 

6. Once I've targeted the players I want, I then methodically begin the recruiting process. I always start with program prestige, secure/relaxed. If that doesn't pique their interest then I move to location, secure relaxed. Once I get that + by a particular recruiting pitch, then I up the number of hours I use.

 

(Of course no matter what there are always those players who slip away-can't avoid that entirely.)

 

I hope that helps you out.

[Husker NoNo]

So with the spring game over I am missing my college football fix. I dusted off NCAA 09 and realized I never really got all that good at recruiting. What are some of the strategies that you use to put together good teams?

 

Which platform do you use? PS2? PS3? X-Box, X-Box360?

 

I am on the 360, but I really miss the old method of recruiting. Don't get me wrong...I know that this one is much more realistic. But I miss being able to get through a full season in 1/2 an hour. You can spend that much time on one week with the next gens!