Coaching/Assistant Suggestions

[dhouston1]

I believe the below suggestions would add some more depth to the coaching aspect of the game. [B]1) Allow coaching skills to increase/decrease based on team performance.[/B] Below is the question I ask in a previous thread: Do the coaching ratings for your team staff ever increase/decrease after a season is completed or do they always remain the same? I was expecting some of the ratings to change after taking my team 10-1 for the last two seasons. My OC ratings were mostly average and below average. With the the teams good record for the past two seasons, as well as, my offense being ranked pretty high (14 & 12) for those seasons I thought my OC's ratings might increase. I thought the opposite would happen if you lose games and/or rank low in offense. [B]2) When coaches test the market for new possibilities, loyalty to the school that he has coached at for a length of time should be a determing factor of what offer to take. After all, if you have stuck with your coach through the good and bad times, why would he not be loyal to you if you still want him around?[/B] When your coach has been winning and ratings have increased with each win, the coach will obviously want to test the water for possible new opportunities. If you decide to try and retain the coach, then you would make an offer from the "hire screen". One of the factors in the coaches decision would be loyalty to your school. Meaning if he is happy with your school and you offer him the money he is looking for, then you might be the obvious first choice. [B]3) One of the real life jobs of a coach (unfortunately) is dealing with off-field problems. Implementing a possible off-field troublemaker, based on morale value or some other value, would give the player another stat to be aware of. [/B] If you covet the five star RB, and overlook the fact that his morale (or some other value), then you as a Head Coach could have the potential to deal with off-field issues. [B]4) On the hire/fire screen, the user should be allow the opportunity to change their offer amount without having to fire the coach. This was the suggested method to me in an earlier post, however, I still have not figured out how to fire the coach I have offered the amount to in order to resubmit my offer.[/B] To me, even if this is the method of changing salary offers to coaches, I should not have to fire a coach that I do not have. The offer page should show me the top school the coach is interested in and allow me the user to change the salary offer if I choose. [B]5) When selecting a recruit to visit, the coach should have some comments (maybe e-mail) giving some of his thoughts (positive/negative) concerning the recruit.[/B] In the real world of sports, I would imagine a coaches assessment of a recruit is valued more that what the newspaper or some other media outlet states. These are just some of my opinions of changes that could add a little more strategy and life to the coaching/assistant aspect of the game. Any thoughts or other suggestions?

[Miral]

#1 I am totally against this concept. I know EA Madden did progression based on season performance, which is backwards. Belichek and Brady are not better now because they've won the superbowl, they were good before hand, and that's why they won it. In BB, A team goes 12-0 because it had great personnel, it didn't have great personnel because it went 12-0. ----- #2 and #3 I agree with. #2 It would be nice to see an indication of how fond a coach is of joining you before making an offer (the way transfers are ranked high/low).

[Roll Tide]

Or at least you get the right to make an offer before your assistant goes on the open market. The email always has "you can make me an offer if you like", but you never really get the chance once he is on the open market unless no other team bids on him and if he is good, then there are 4 or more bidding for him.

[dhouston1]

Thanks for the responses and insights. Miral, I would have to disagree a bit with your comments on #1. While I agree that personnel in BB is the reason you go 12-0, that is the exact reason why I am suggesting this addition. Currently, there is not much of a strategy/value to the coaches/assistants in the game, and there should be. If you allow the coaching skills to remain stagnant, then there is not much strategy that you have to put into the coaching hire/fire screens except hiring the most expensive coach that you can. I am suggesting that the skills increase and decrease to provide a bit of strategy and preparation into how you want to deal with your coaching situation the following year, instead of just hoping to get an increase in budget so that you can buy the most expensive coach available. To me this is just like the recruiting process. You land the four star recruit not knowing what you are going to have by the time he finishes his career. The enjoyment that you get knowing that your four star recruit left setting all kinds of records based on his performance throughout the years is a great feeling. Another point is you as the head coach have your attributes go up and down (i.e. prestige) to the point that you can be fired. These are based on your performance, so what is the difference? To me, these are (in my opinion) the type scenarios I would like to see added to the coaching scene in order to add a little more depth and strategy.

[NIUHuskies]

It's not so much that a coaches rating increases or decreases with the sucess of your program, but rather they are learning just as much as your recruits. Coaches are not born great, but rather have to learn just as much as recruits. Through the years as coaches, they learn new techniques and styles of play which ultimatlel increases thier ability to teach young players about the game. I agree that most texted-based sports games do not focus enough on the coaching staff. Especially on the college level, coaches are a big part of the reason why schools win. Kids coming out of school may think they know everything there is to know about there sport, but like most things in life, young kids are ignorant. As far as the off the field problem, i again agree with this. I would love to see something like this implemented in any text-based sports game.

[Miral]

I agree with that, a coach should develop because of experience. A guy fresh on the scene should improve after 20 years on the job.

[NIUHuskies]

Maybe have a hidden potential rating for coaches. After all, when a coach gets hired, no one knows for sure how well he will do.

[dhouston1]

Great thoughts. Having his attributes go up and down by small amounts during that 20 year period would be cool. It would at least make you decide whether to stick with him or try for someone else. I guess my point iwith this suggestion is that right now, the coaches/assistant aspect of the game is too vanilla and I would like to see a little more gameplanning/strategy involved. I appreciate all the thoughts. Great stuff.

[cameronhalsey31]

I don't get why it would ever go down, though. Do you think that a coach regressed, just because his team had a down year or two? No, look at Joe Pa. Look at Kirk Ferentz at Iowa. He's annually a coveted coaching candidate for the NFL. When he took Iowa to a 4-19 start in his first 2 years, did he get worse? No. I agree with the coaching ratings changing. Only, have them go up or in case of a subpar year just not change.

[NIUHuskies]

I never intended on implying a change in rating based on a teams performanced. IRL, a coaches skill does not go up or down based on their teams performance, but rely on the tutoring they recieve from the coaches they work under. If you look at the long line of asst who worked under great coaches, you can easily see the significant impact head coaches have on their young asst. The trick is to portray this system into a game. As far as I know, this would be afirst, but would eliminate peoples under estimation of the importance of asst coaches in game. So, as an example, lets say you start a new career in game. Obviously, you are new to the ranks as a head coach and you will have a tough time drawing some established asst coaches. This can be protrayed through a coaches prestiege level. The better you do as a coach, which is based on your teams performance, they better chance you have of recruiting top nothch asst coaches. In they same token, you can stick with your current asst coaches and watch them progress just like you. Eventually, they should be offered head coaching jobs, or asst coaching jobs with other universities (or pros for that matter). There is a feature with the BB version of this game i was reading about involving watching your asst coaches progress through the ranks with the skills they learned from you. You are able to track their progress like any player in college, but also you may take over them as your own player when it comes time for your current coach to retire. I am not sure how other players feel about this feature in the BB version, and since I am not a BB fan, I will not know based on that game. I do, however, find this a feature that could add a little more depth to the game play, along with increasing the importance of the asst coaches in the game. This idea does not stop here. There are so many other aspects of coaching a college FB team that people havent even begun to touch on, either here or anywhere else. As these games progress, I would love to see the importance of coaches increased. I would to see this happen with this game instead of waiting another five years, but you can never tell until it happens. Any thoughts?