Help me with recruiting...

[Herm]

Ive never been big into online dynasties because i suck at recruiting or maybe im just not patient enough. What are some pointers you guys can give me for recruting in a dynasty. I loved the Madden franchise leagues because free agency seemed more direct to me, i got the money, i offer the player, he comes if he likes it. I liked the wheeling and dealing over AIM for trades, draft picks, etc as well.

Ive always traded NCAA immediately when madden comes out but this year i'd like to keep NCAA and play in a dynasty with some adults who will actually finish. Im 27 and just had a son so I wont have time to play 300 online games of madden/ncaa per year like I did in the past.



Basically what i need to know are some general tips about recruiting. How many visits, calls, etc does it normally take to see if a player likes you.



Really i'll take anything here. I WOULD love to play in a 1 star team dynasty and be able to use MTSU like i did in a dynasty last year before it folded.

[Herm]

thanks will be given for all serious answers as my thanks allotment allows

[DSpydr84]

In preseason recruiting, see what players have your school in their top 10 list of available schools. Add every player (or as many as you'd like) to your recruiting board.

If you have not filled the recruiting board with those players, add a couple players that might be slightly out of your reach, or a player that fills a hole in your roster. The goal is to get the best players you possibly can and continuously mold your system around those players, instead of trying to find the perfect players for your system (or at least that's my goal).

Once recruiting has started, call the recruit and pitch whatever your school is excellent/elite/great/good at, and try to keep it in that order. Watch the football smiley to see how the call is going, and obviously cut the call short if things are getting rough. It's better to hang up on an angry player and try again next week than to try and rectify the situation right away. Be relentless in recruiting: don't talk until their blue in the face, but call them every week and hard sell your pitches. Assume you and the player never talked before, and you're trying to make a great impression every week. You want to build that interest meter as high as possible for the off season (or hopefully he commits sooner).

If a player has you first on their list of schools, and you instantly find something that they feel is either "most" or "very high" importance, offer them a scholarship. I'd say 4 times out of 10 they will commit right away. For everyone else, wait until you have a good call and you're in their top 5 list before you offer a scholarship. I personally hand scholarships around like candy, but I know a lot of people hold off.. so that's up to you.

From there, you have to play the interest bar and use your scheduled visit wisely. If you're the front runner with a little seperation from the rest of the pack, get that recruit in early (week 5-7) and try to get him to soft commit to your school as soon as possible, or at the very least get a lot of seperation from everyone else. If you're a little behind the pack, call the recruit and hard sell pitch whatever matches your school and his interest (ie. Your school offers "elite" playing time, and playing time is "most" important). Try to limit your talk to 2-4 pitches at the most, and ALWAYS complete the pitch (it will say "Pitch Complete!" in the top right hand corner in red.. sometimes it takes a while). And try to schedule a visit after the other teams have had their visit (if it's a close race, the player doesn't usually commit to another school early, so you want to have the last impression on his mind).

On the visit, it's totally ok to only schedule one or two things (you can swing a B+ or an A- if you have one thing planned but it's a perfect match [elite=most]). But, the more things you schedule that perfectly match the recruits interests, the better the visit will go. Like CLW mentioned, scheduling games against rivals or conference opponents will get you brownie points... but MAKE SURE YOU WIN THE GAME. Nobody wants to play for a loser, especially when you're preaching all season about how you're a championship contender.


Above anything else, HANDLE YOUR TIME WISELY. Know when it's going well and when it's not. Don't waste your time on players that you have no business talking to, or that simply do not like your school. You are very limited to how many people you can talk to in one week, maybe 20 players out of 35 if you're lucky. I always try to use all 25 of my scholarships so I can pick and choose who I want to keep on my roster instead of settling on the guys I have, but again, that's up to you. Know when to push a guy, know when to sway a pitch in your favor, and know when to schedule visits. An off-season promise will do wonders as well (as long as you live up to that promise of course).

With the off-season visit, always schedule the player as soon as you possibly can. He's looking for a school at this point, and if you really wow him, you could jump up substantially (I've had a player go from no interest at all to his second school after one off season visit and a couple promises. That's the power behind these things).



Good luck!

[Herm]

thanks for the replies guys, i was in online madden leagues for years and loved them but now i think with my current situation a dedicated Online Dynasty is best for me.

[jaggles82]

so how much time do you usually burn on a guy using quick call?

[Herm]

Herm,

greyhairdynasty dot freeforums dot org

This is the link to the forums for the league myself and a friend run for NCAA 09 on the 360. It's called "grey hair" b/c the intention of the league was to bring in a more "mature" crew, at least in style of play (sim). Check it out and see if you'd like to join. MTSU would be available so long as they are a 1* or 2* program. Some of our teams are now 3* (Season 2) but all started off as either a 1 or a 2. This dynasty is kind of a "trial run" for what we plan to do for NCAA 10.

Let me know...

Thanks,

JHeb

JHeb1973 at cox dot net

I greatly appreciate the offer, but im on ps3.

[Poundtherock]

I prob used up all my "thanks" for a couple weeks in this thread. Good info for a novice 'chise guy like me.