Some interesting tidbits:

1. Season 79 Ferrum team is the sum total of four consecutive No. 1 recruiting classes, according to Guess.
2. Last year's champion, Greenville, was made up of recruit classes 12, 3, 4, and 10.
3. The previous champion, Merchant Marine, was made up of recruit classes 27, 31, 26, and 104.
4. The only schools with a current roster made up entirely of Top 10 recruiting classes are Ferrum, Greenville, and Cal Lutheran (Curry was No. 11 in Season 78).

My first post ever so sorry if it's a bit long!

A few thoughts on your post tribewriter. Ferrum and Curry are there every season since I've been at Greenville. I've never noticed until now, but both coaches came around the same time I did , Curry season 65 and Ferrum like Greenville season 67. Both great teams and recruiters. The GUESS reports are great and in my opinion one of the best parts of this game. As I think we all know recruiting is the heart and soul of this game. The only way to get the best recruits is to win games. I don't always get the best players but they fit the system I'm using so it's worked well for me. It took me 12 long and sometimes very frustrating seasons to finally win one with a team I thought was a year away so you never know. If I had to rank importance at least for me I put them in the following order:

1. Recruiting-stud players=wins
2. Redshirts-perhaps one of the most important parts of this game that may not be utilized by some coaches.
3. Schedule-you can set your non-conference schedule to meet your needs, lots of freshman go easy on the schedule. Many upper classman then up the ante to give yourself a better strength of schedule (SOS). I see many teams with a very tough SOS and a 1-4 record. Does you absolutely no good. Your season is shot at this point.
4. Game plan-If you don't have a solid game plan you simply will not win against the top competition. 
5. Practice plan-set it to what offense and defense you want to run. Make sure to get the most out of your positional plan as well.

Believe it or not I still feel like I'm learning this game.

Great post as I love the stats!  JJ

Interesting discussion..... Got a sitemail, and I'd be happy to give some general ramblings--some about GUESS, others, well, free-association?? 

First, the #104 recruiting class for MMA comes with an asterisk as it was skewed by (I think) 3 Sim AIs that did not play at all.  Without these, it probably would have been in the 20s as well.  ...and evidence that depth is not essential (running a balanced attack, I wasn't overly dependent on any position).

I actually feel like I'm just starting to understand successful recruiting strategies.  I usually agree with the GUESS ratings but most of the time don't use them in the recruiting process per se.  For me, it's more about *fit* (except maybe on the OL & DL).  Generally, I agree with the points made above, and would just add:

1. For recruiting, studs are always better, but you have to pick your targets according to your system: for instance, if you run conservatively, find a high Str back that might be mediocre on other attributes.  The point is that the value of your recruit exceeds the value perceived by other coaches (and sometimes even GUESS), and you'll be less likely to battle. 

2. I think you gotta RS 3 players each season.  STL no matter what position (except KorP I guess).  Choose the high potential/high WE guys otherwise.  By the time they see the field as a JR or SR, their value will very likely far exceed their initial GUESS ratings as a recruit.

3. For scheduling, I see no reason to have more than a max of 3 human/tough teams in the NC schedule.  For recruiting vision, you're rewarded for sheer # of wins, not ranking.  Find the right fit. If you're a passing team, try to schedule good teams with weak secondaries so they have a shot at beating other teams, but not you. Etc.

4. Who knows what a solid game plan is???  This is frankly a serious weakness of the game.  Formation IQ at this point counts for very little, so don't feel limited here.  Scout your opponents.  One coach I know was using 4-4 against Pro-set.  For the 3 games prior to our game, I ran exclusively a few plays a game from Pro-Set, and then always-passed aggressively in our game.  Another was playing 3-4 against (I think) trips--ran conservatively, and made some good yards.  Etc.  This sort of thing can be effective, but it's always a gamble.  Play to your strengths--if you have a stud RB, make sure he sees the ball.  If you have a good defense, be aggressive.  Etc.  

5. Practice plan--at this point, the play outcomes are determined much more by player ratings (+ mystery) than formation IQ.  Give at least 20min to core attributes you want to grow.  I put minutes into Form IQ, some coaches don't....

FWIW, I was shocked that MMA made it, and won the title game a couple seasons ago--I actually thought last year's team that got bumped in the 2nd round was better, but had an injury knock out one of my best DBs in the 2nd half of that game, and couldn't stop his passing attack.  Probably would have lost anyway though.  So, take everything with a fistful of salt.  Hopefully, I can keep these guys contenders as I'd like to stick around for a while... 

Hope this helps--I'd be happy to add more, and would be very interested to hear others' thoughts, especially if I'm full of crap on something. ;)

I'd like to add my two cents to the table, not that my opinion is worth too much.

Anyways, I completely agree with jj. Recruiting isn't everything, as Merchant Marine won the championship without any stellar GUESS recruiting classes, and I think there a few other teams with a shot at winning it all this year despite NOT having a single top 10 recruiting class on their current roster. However, I think recruiting well IS the primary factor to consistently making the post-season.

As for the 5 points mentioned, I have a slightly different take:

1. I agree 100%. The better team wins most of the time. However, when teams are relatively evenly matched, gameplanning can be the key to a W.

2. This is my first season to have any guys that I've redshirted as redshirt Seniors. Its also my first season in the GUESS top 10. I don't think that's any accident. Its possible to field a good team without redshirts, but I think redshirts alone can take any team to the next level.

3. I think the most important cycle to understand in GD is wins -> greater recruiting vision -> better recruits -> more wins and so on. Don't schedule any games you don't have a chance at winning. If you're in a tough conference, there isn't even a need to schedule tough NC games to help your SOS. Schedule 5 games you CAN win and at least 3 games you WILL win to help improve your vision and your post-season chances.

4. I think I take a unique approach to gameplanning. I don't try to fit my players into a system, I try to recruit the best local talent to reduce recruiting costs and prevent the local talent from playing elsewhere and develop a strategy around what I end up with. Occasionally, I will go across the country to recruit position needs, but I avoid that when possible. I can look at my Fresh/Soph classes and decide the personnel fits nicely into a ND Box scheme and start putting practice minutes there. Because formation IQ doesn't have a huge impact on performance, I don't mind playing a with a low IQ, but I still try to get players to 40+ by the time they are seniors. As for gameplanning, I'll look through a few of my opponents games and note trends in their styles of offense and defense and make minor adjustments accordingly. If I notice a team runs out of Trips, I'll maybe switch my defense from Nickel to 3-4 or something simple like that.

5. I think player development is more important than just having a practice plan. This starts by recruiting players with good potential. Get them in some games their Fr/So year when you're winning big at half and you they'll be ready to play when they are Jr/Srs. And the extra year of development from a redshirt helps immensely.

I love discussing different ways to be successful at this game (as well as HD, I've recently picked that up as well) although I realize a lot of what I say is probably biased on my experience and opinion and may not be 100% accurate. Heck, it may not be accurate at all. But I think there are some things that are necessary to be successful, probably everything mentioned by jj earlier. But one thing I love about GD is that beyond that you can play with it quite a bit as well. I've seen coaches that have been very successful out of every offensive and defensive formation, as well as running, passing, and simply playing great defense to get the upper hand. 

key is winning your league   though know many of the very best only play sims nonleague  we have toned it down a bit but have had plenty of slow starts - only thing that matters s playoffs and have been tot title games multiple times as 8 seed   but the best teams  esp dominant ones sometimes lose in playoffs to a team that you would think would not beat them - in WILK we always try and play the very best -- and don't worry about record though this differs greatly with most  if you do okay/well in playoffs recr vision is fine -we have not done much in bryant - so hoping to change that immediately    general gameplan is critical with this engine  oh  and yu bettter be able to stop pass as some guys throw it every play -  hope we have all of ya on our sched  gl   hungry as hell in this world

Posted by jjl58 on 4/29/2012 10:19:00 AM (view original):
My first post ever so sorry if it's a bit long!

A few thoughts on your post tribewriter. Ferrum and Curry are there every season since I've been at Greenville. I've never noticed until now, but both coaches came around the same time I did , Curry season 65 and Ferrum like Greenville season 67. Both great teams and recruiters. The GUESS reports are great and in my opinion one of the best parts of this game. As I think we all know recruiting is the heart and soul of this game. The only way to get the best recruits is to win games. I don't always get the best players but they fit the system I'm using so it's worked well for me. It took me 12 long and sometimes very frustrating seasons to finally win one with a team I thought was a year away so you never know. If I had to rank importance at least for me I put them in the following order:

1. Recruiting-stud players=wins
2. Redshirts-perhaps one of the most important parts of this game that may not be utilized by some coaches.
3. Schedule-you can set your non-conference schedule to meet your needs, lots of freshman go easy on the schedule. Many upper classman then up the ante to give yourself a better strength of schedule (SOS). I see many teams with a very tough SOS and a 1-4 record. Does you absolutely no good. Your season is shot at this point.
4. Game plan-If you don't have a solid game plan you simply will not win against the top competition. 
5. Practice plan-set it to what offense and defense you want to run. Make sure to get the most out of your positional plan as well.

Believe it or not I still feel like I'm learning this game.

Great post as I love the stats!  JJ

#1 - Absolutely. Whoever recruits the best players will win 90% of the time. HOWEVER, the best players in the game aren't necessarily the best players in recruiting. WE and potential are HUGE when your recruits aren't going to see the field for two years, and if they're starting as FR/SO, it's even more important.
#2 - This is one of the things I hate the most about rebuilds; it takes four years to develop a RS player to the point that he's superior to a regular recruit. If it wasn't free, it wouldn't be worth it.
#3 - Below DIA, the goal is to get into the playoffs. As long as you beat the bubble, it doesn't matter what your SOS is. Trust me, if you win the NC, you'll have a pretty good SOS at the end.
#4 - THIS is where your SOS helps you. Because you can't actually see what your players are (or aren't) doing, game planning involves a lot of educated guesses, and the only way to learn is by actually building a plan. If you build plans to beat weak teams, you'll have problems beating the good ones in the playoffs. Remember, you can drop a non-conference game or two, and still make the playoffs, but lose one game in the playoffs and you're through. Better to learn your lessons when you have some wiggle room.
#5 - As long as you're not actually wasting practice time, this is pretty much a gimmee. Use all your minutes on whatever combination works best for you. Formation practice still doesn't seem to count for much, but who really knows? Any reasonable allocation of minutes yields roughly a 3% swing in some of your stats. Why throw away player growth for that, unless your player has already maxxed his stats? To tell the truth, I haven't seen one single instance where team practice made the difference in a play, not even on special teams.

If there was ever a question that good depth was meaningful, the most recent D3 champion had 10 SimAI freshmen on the roster.  Just some food for thought....

stamina has disppeared in a way with this new engine  not sure why  guys get tired in sports  you see a lot of rotating dls in real life