Recruiting Guide?

[worst2first]

Someone really needs to write a guide to recruiting. The manual doesn't really provide enough information and I am having a very difficult time managing it. If you have any strategies or suggestions I would appreciate it.

[ThrowTheBall]

To be fair, the manual isnt really meant to be a strategy guide. But yes, we need to put our heads together and get some thoughts on the subject. Here are just a couple of quick observations: * - Obvisouly, you have to scout a player if you want to know what pitch is going to work best for him. * - When a player commits, it can affect the interest of a player you are actively recruiting. Ive had guys drop from an interest level of 10 to 3 after a player of similar caliber at the same position committed. A couple of things I would like to know is: Is there a way you can tell if the pitch you are using is having a positive or negative affect? I cant really seem to find that anywhere. And is the scouting service's only function to give you recommendations on player recruiting? Does it affect the way a player is rated during the recruiting process?

[wareagle]

I agree. I would like some sort of tutorial on the ins & outs of this. I am finding it very hard to land hardly anyone (Baylor may have a lot to do with that) but it still seems very difficault.

[C-Bailey24]

[QUOTE=ThrowTheBall]* - When a player commits, it can affect the interest of a player you are actively recruiting. Ive had guys drop from an interest level of 10 to 3 after a player of similar caliber at the same position committed.[/QUOTE] While this is true you can still land that player sometimes so don't automatically give up on him. If he has no offers fro anyone else or if the offers he has are from schools you can compete with and not one of the big boys then all is not lost. There is still a 50/50 chance he will sign as i've had this happen in a few recruiting classes so far. Also, you can land a few stud players here in there who start out having no real interest in your school. Again the key is basically recruiting him early and really hard and hoping the schools he's more interested in don't offer a scholly or offer really, really late in the recruting phase. I landed a STUD QB this way along with a few other players who are now sophmores on my team. The asterik beside the names of schoools who've offered to a player was a very helpful addition.

[Old Boiler]

[QUOTE=ThrowTheBall] * - When a player commits, it can affect the interest of a player you are actively recruiting. Ive had guys drop from an interest level of 10 to 3 after a player of similar caliber at the same position committed. [/QUOTE] And i just watched a conference rival land TWO 5-star CB's in the same week. :eek: Oh, if only i were so charming!

[Druez]

A few tips from a beta tester for smaller schools. Location -- Location is the key to landing recruits slightly out of your league. First thing I do and I play as Rutgers is recruit locally. I'll select NJ as my state and sort by interest. Any 3 star that is a 9 or 10, I start recruiting heavily and maybe one 4 star, that is from my state. Pitch -- I usually don't use a pitch early unless it is a 3 star or 4 star recruit. Pitching early is a gamble, if you pick the right pitch for your player early on you get a nice bonus to recruiting that player. As mentioned above, if I find a 4 star recruit in my area that has an interest level of 7 or higher, I'll pitch location first week and offer a scholarship. I'll try and pitch style of play to mobile QB's since I run an option attack. PITCH TIP -- each week you don't use a specific pitch, you will gain more information about what a recruit likes. Here is the kicker each week you wait to use "the pitch", the bonus you get from getting correct is smaller. Risk vs Reward. Accept Visit screen -- I recruit from this screen quite often. I look around and check who wants to come visit my school. Later in the recruiting weeks this is very useful. Players that might not have shown you any love early on in the process, might be getting a bit desperate. So, in the later weeks, drop a few scholarship and recruit heavy and you might land a nice one you haven't been recruiting up untill that point. As Rutgers, below average prestige, I usually try and recruit 3 star and some 2 star recruits. I don't waste my time or energy going for any 4 star recruits unless they are local to my school. See the above description. As years go by at a smaller school your classes will get better. I suggest as a smaller school to draft a mobile QB and run smash mouth or the option. Schedule low prestige schools and try to pick up as many wins as possible. As you win more games you get a bit more love from the recruits. I'll write up more later, but I want to play now!!! Another tip, redshirt often at the start of your game. Your team probably stinks, so they won't make that much of a difference. What you are trying to do is put together a run of two years so you get a boost in prestige and can garner a few more looks from the recruits slightly out of your league.

[Old Boiler]

[QUOTE=Druez] I'll try and pitch style of play to mobile QB's since I run an option attack. [/QUOTE] For OL and defensive players, are there any hints as to what they might be looking for in "style of play"? I haven't used this pitch yet because i can't tell if it will be appropriate.

[Druez]

[QUOTE=Old Boiler]For OL and defensive players, are there any hints as to what they might be looking for in "style of play"? I haven't used this pitch yet because i can't tell if it will be appropriate.[/QUOTE] The rule of thumb that I have used is this. I generally don't pitch early except for location. After that I read into the clues that come each week. What he finds important or somewhat important. That narrows it down a bit. But if you see a player that is really good giving interest to a smaller school, quite often that might be playing time. I usually only pitch style of play to pass rushing LB's, QB and RB. I never use that pitch to a wr, because I don't throw often.

[Moss84]

Does any one ever offer a scholarship before you pitch? What pitch do you use when after you have scouted the player and they give you two choices? It also seems to me that it is very tough to have a player committ to your school right away compared to the computer teams. I have tried using the visit screen to recruit also but haven't had a lot of success. The best ranked class I have received so far is 9th. I also have noticed that when you bring up a player card on the recruit screen and click on the down arrow, it doesn't always show the next player on the recruit window. Has any one else had this problem?

[Moss84]

What is the edge of taking the best recruiting service? Is it the more detailed info you get from the email? What effect does 15k compared to 50k on a particular position give you an edge on scouting when you set up your budget?

[Capital]

You can recruit without choosing a pitch. After you know the pitch that is most desired, you can cancel the action and then recruit/pitch with the desired pitch/action. Do you think that by not choosing a pitch during the first recruit, that I could be losing a bump?

[Druez]

Let me try to explain it again. If you wait till you know everything about the recruit, before you pick the pitch you will get very little bonus if you guess the correct one. The earlier you pick the specific pitch the higher bonus you get. But, the earlier you guess the more risk involved in guessing the correct pitch. For example, If I pitch in the first week location and his preference is prestige. I do not get any bonus for the pitch and I don't have another chance to guess the correct pitch. All I can do is spend money in recruiting the rest of the time. If I wait till the 5th week to guess the specific pitch and I have a good idea which one it is. If I get it correct, the bonus to land the recruit will be smaller. Does that clear it up?

[C-Bailey24]

[QUOTE=Moss84]What is the edge of taking the best recruiting service? Is it the more detailed info you get from the email? What effect does 15k compared to 50k on a particular position give you an edge on scouting when you set up your budget?[/QUOTE] I'd love an answer to these also.

[Old Boiler]

[QUOTE=Capital]You can recruit without choosing a pitch. [/QUOTE] You can land good recruits without [I]ever[/I] using a pitch, if they seem to like you. I keep seeing references to finding [I]the[/I] correct pitch; is there only one pitch that can yield a bonus? For example, if i pitch "location" to a local kid, for whom location is "very important," but location isn't the single most important concern -- does that mean i get no bonus at all, or just less bonus than the better pitch would have yielded?

[Biltong]

[QUOTE=Old Boiler]You can land good recruits without ever using a pitch, if they seem to like you.[/QUOTE] I agree with this, even seen it work with 5 star guys. One thing I would like to know is how the AI teams get guys to commit 2 weeks in. I can't seem to manage that no matter what level of prestige or talent of the recruit. I don't even have full scouting info yet and the guy has already comitted. Has anyone managed this as the human player? May just be my bad luck?

[Arlie Rahn]

[QUOTE=ThrowTheBall]Is there a way you can tell if the pitch you are using is having a positive or negative affect?[/quote] There are a couple ways. First, the week after you make the pitch, look at the recruit's card and you will see an * next to the "best" pitch. If you match, you probably got a nice bonus (depending on the week you made it). Next, look at the player's interest level. If it stayed the same or went down, your pitch didn't do much good in all probability. If it went up, you probably got a bonus from it. [quote]And is the scouting service's only function to give you recommendations on player recruiting? Does it affect the way a player is rated during the recruiting process?[/QUOTE] The ratings are based on your initial budget. The scouting service provides you better info on their pitch comments, schools interested and overall interest level. If you choose too low of a service, you may get no interest info at all for out of region players.

[Grunthos]

One thing that can get you a commitment right away is: - Pitching playing time - To a player who values playing time highly - At a position where your depth chart has been decimated I landed a five-star cornerback in week three at an average prestige school this way, purely because I started the offseason with only 2 mediocre CBs (two guys graduated and another transferred out). He was in my region but not from my state, and had interest from larger schools.

[Miral]

This is one thing I would like to have definitively answered, of the several recruiting pitches, do they actually mean more than what the recruit says is his most important? For instance a guy halfway across the country who says location is most important, if you recruit based on that pitch do you stand a better chance because you have the right pitch or stand a worse chance because he is far away and location is important. Same thing with prestige and chance to win for teams like Temple. The manual does not say one way or another, and posts on this forum have been rather dubious and conflicting on the matter. I know in real life these things are obviously true, but in the game is this taken into account or not?

[ThrowTheBall]

Part of the problem I think is that you guys are trying to get the recruiting aspect down to a science, so that [action X] leads to [result y]. That just wouldnt be real. Ask a real coach if recruiting is that easy. Is the recruiting process in BBCF identical to real life? Of course not. But the unpredictibility is simulated in the uncertainty of the result of the pitch.

[Miral]

[QUOTE=ThrowTheBall]Part of the problem I think is that you guys are trying to get the recruiting aspect down to a science, [/QUOTE] I wouldn't call this science just logic: If in the game "Location" doesn't actually mean a recruit is interested in staying home, and is just a recruiting pitch you can get a bonus on, then there's no reason to pay attention to the actual name of the pitch or what it means in real life. So if its not modeled in the game teams like Temple can pitch Play for winner and Prestige; but if it is modeled into the game, then you know as a losing school to avoid a recruit that has that pitch of play for winner or prestige.

[ThrowTheBall]

Look at it this way, if your temple and the prestige pitch works on a recruit then they wanted to help build the program's prestige. That happens in real life. And if your Miami and the loation pitch works on a player from Oregon, then by location it meant he wanted play far away from home, which is also "logical".

[Miral]

Anyone with a definitive answer?

[Druez]

[QUOTE=Miral]I wouldn't call this science just logic: If in the game "Location" doesn't actually mean a recruit is interested in staying home, and is just a recruiting pitch you can get a bonus on, then there's no reason to pay attention to the actual name of the pitch or what it means in real life. So if its not modeled in the game teams like Temple can pitch Play for winner and Prestige; but if it is modeled into the game, then you know as a losing school to avoid a recruit that has that pitch of play for winner or prestige.[/QUOTE] I think Location can mean that a recruit wants to stay home or location might mean that a recruit wants to get as far from home as possible. As a low prestige school I have landed 4 star recruits by pitching location the first week and keeping max dollars on them. Generally if you set your recruiting to be in the state you are in and you see a guy who is normally out of your league showing you some interest 6 to 7, pitch him location the first week and there is a good chance that is why his interest in your school is so high.

[dime]

"Each recruit has one specific interest that is more important to him than anything else; if you believe you have pinpointed it you can select it as the Recruit pitch. You can only select this pitch once, it cannot be changed afterwards. The sooner you accurately select a pitch, the more impressed the recruit will be." As I understand it, even if the pitch doesn't seem to match up for your school (location for a guy who is far away), you should use it if that is the kid's biggest concern. Think of it as your coach pitching that the location isn't that bad or he'd enjoy the weather or whatever is good about your location...

[TazFTW]

I have a question about this screen [IMG]http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/1157/recruit4po.jpg[/IMG] What are the colors indicating? Potential? Current? Also why would R. Davis (the green guy) be listed in the Top 20 when there are other blue players below him? Scouting error?