In an effort to keep some of my interest in this game, I'll do a build thread for my Wisky Platte team in the Challenge.  Here's the inaugural class:

Pos	Name	A	SPD	D	WE	ST	STR	BLK	TKL	H	GI	E	T	TOT	Miles
QB	James Frazier	37	36	57	47	47	14	11	27	37	31	16	51	411	341
RB	Patrick Sargent	31	45	47	51	39	51	10	13	26	28	48	44	433	828
WR	Michael Stone	42	51	50	56	51	1	25	24	33	6	58	37	434	10
OL	Luis Potts	31	6	61	40	51	73	39	28	1	39	25	15	409	143
OL	Timothy Stanton	16	18	39	46	45	54	55	11	16	31	32	26	389	119
DL	Mark Hull	22	8	70	58	46	59	44	56	13	45	27	3	451	850
DL	Gregory Rosa	30	11	45	62	44	61	1	48	30	23	21	14	390	765
LB	Arnold Martin	23	36	39	67	38	53	13	38	1	42	30	21	401	741
LB	Mike Foreman	44	44	46	57	38	42	25	54	15	26	40	21	452	75
DB	Michael Jimenez	35	56	51	63	51	22	24	32	33	44	48	18	477	218
DB	Edward Rose	36	58	35	45	32	22	12	28	35	51	33	30	417	170

Overall, I'm happy with my class and they'll be pretty good when they are upperclassmen.  I also have a lot of cash left.  I basically ran out of recruits who were worth spending on and I had zero battles or drama during the process.  Recruiting in empty worlds is BORING.  I need to check out my returnees, but I don't think I've left any position gaps with this class.  If there is a gap or two, I'll have it covered as my future recruiting classes start filling in my roster. 

The one negative I had was that I wanted to cut three players and open up schollies before the season.  Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention so it didn't happen.  As a result, RSing won't start til next season which could prove costly in the Challenge.

So now that my recruiting is done, here's the logic.   I plan to run the Pro Set, 44 and Nickel.  I want as many JRs and SRs starting as possible and I want my classes balanced so there's no dropoff from season to season.  So my target roster will look like this:  

	TARGET
QB	2	1/2 RS
RB	4	RS
WR	4	RS
TE	2	1/2 RS
OL	9
DL	8
LB	8
DB	8
K	1
P	1
	47

Starting next season, I'll start my RS rotation (late, as mentioned above): RB and WR every season, QB and TE every other season.  Going forward, I'll recruit 2 OL, DL, LB and DB every season (with one cycle of 3 OL to get to 9) along with my RS rotation for offensive skill players.  K and P will get filled as I need them, but it's more important to me to get my recruiting classes straightened out for long term consistency.

I also took some time to look at my returning roster.  It looks like i'll be thin at LB and DB for a couple of seasons as I get my rotation in order.  On one hand, it'll hurt because of a lack of depth, but on the other hand it makes recruiting much easier for those position.  My hope is that with the thin ranks I can hold my own (.500 or so) in the Challenge for the first couple of seasons and start winning consistently starting in season 3 when a majority of the roster (and probably all of the starters) will be my own recruits.

Full Roster from GUESS:

Name	Class	Primary Position	Rating	Secondary Position	Rating	Overall Rank	Position Rank	Class Rank Overall	Class Rank Position
Roberto Coffey	Sr.	QB	44.13			4452	QB69	1967	QB22
Richard Ramirez	Sr.	QB	42.47			5572	QB116	2115	QB54
Leslie Malone	So.	QB	36.58			9129	QB416	2155	QB32
Darryl Vela	So.	QB	33.35			10206	QB619	2327	QB137
James Frazier	Fr.	QB	32.66			10335	QB660	2376	QB62
Douglas Gonzalez	Sr.	RB	55.49	FB	45.22	215	RB53	92	RB18
Kenneth Garcia	So.	RB	47.56	FB	44.35	2438	RB326	114	RB18
Patrick Sargent	Fr.	RB	43.09	FB	31.90	5134	RB562	167	RB40
Brian Jones	Sr.	RB	37.94	FB	32.21	8428	RB777	2351	RB186
Jerry Barnett	So.	RB	29.94	FB	25.50	10711	RB872	2467	RB180
Ernest Collier	Jr.	WR	49.65			1429	WR218	249	WR36
Vincent Jenkins	Sr.	WR	48.10			2110	WR321	1238	WR186
John Thornton	Jr.	WR	46.40			3052	WR456	780	WR123
Edward Kemp	So.	WR	43.89			4616	WR674	614	WR106
George Parsons	So.	WR	43.23			5051	WR738	783	WR136
Michael Stone	Fr.	WR	36.78			9037	WR1206	1658	WR277
Russell Thomas	So.	TE	42.67			5434	TE285	944	TE50
Eric Moore	Sr.	TE	32.12			10443	TE640	2605	TE170
Ronald Herrera	Sr.	OL	50.46			1130	OL158	673	OL98
Michael Estes	Sr.	OL	47.84			2284	OL349	1329	OL229
Paul Stafford	Jr.	OL	45.87			3359	OL538	911	OL118
Joseph Colvin	Jr.	OL	44.78			4012	OL662	1198	OL170
Justin Perry	So.	OL	41.87			5964	OL1033	1157	OL150
Larry Charles	So.	OL	41.80			6008	OL1040	1183	OL157
Luis Potts	Fr.	OL	37.92			8441	OL1521	1302	OL163
Timothy Stanton	Fr.	OL	37.89			8459	OL1524	1318	OL166
Alex Burt	So.	OL	37.27			8774	OL1592	2097	OL407
Joshua Garcia	Sr.	DT	49.24	DE	43.39	1583	DT308	944	DT187
Jared Fisher	Sr.	DT	48.75	DE	43.93	1789	DT345	1053	DT202
Joe Watkins	Sr.	DT	48.03	DE	43.34	2166	DT419	1267	DT244
Rick Phillips	Jr.	DT	45.40	DE	41.01	3632	DT687	1034	DT205
Charles Moore	So.	DT	44.12	DE	39.74	4460	DT835	562	DT114
Harold Miller	So.	DT	42.16	DE	36.26	5767	DT1062	1087	DT215
Charlie Bowman	Fr.	DT	39.50	DE	33.18	7470	DT1350	813	DT173
Mark Hull	Fr.	DT	38.28	DE	31.13	8218	DT1464	1186	DT241
Michael Butler	So.	ILB	44.39	OLB	42.93	4286	ILB418	507	ILB79
Mike Foreman	Fr.	ILB	38.89	OLB	38.15	7847	ILB688	997	ILB133
Arnold Martin	Fr.	ILB	35.92	OLB	35.18	9403	ILB801	1871	ILB175
Jonathan Lee	Jr.	OLB	40.78	ILB	40.60	6677	OLB188	1993	OLB70
Charles Varner	Jr.	OLB	35.80	ILB	35.22	9453	OLB313	2272	OLB82
Dennis Leblanc	Sr.	CB	46.97	S	42.40	2740	CB150	1533	CB94
Joel Holmes	Jr.	S	45.22	CB	43.16	3738	S314	1093	S96
Charles Newman	So.	S	41.86	CB	41.41	5968	S517	1161	S111
William Grove	So.	S	40.83	CB	38.78	6637	S572	1430	S138
Edward Rose	Fr.	S	40.16	CB	39.71	7074	S604	646	S40
Michael Jimenez	Fr.	S	38.42	CB	35.83	8136	S691	1142	S87
Edward Wood	Sr.	K	49.60			1446	K40	864	K28
Bobby Murphy	Sr.	K	44.50			4217	K106	1924	K59
David Burnett	So.	P	44.70			4072	P74	446	P8
Philip Jacobson	Jr.	P	40.55			6842	P122	2022	P38

Tracking:

			Challenge	Challenge	Challenge	Overall	Overall
Season	Full Roster	Recruit Class	Season	W	L	W	L
79	158	59
80	160	171
81	109	136
82	150	91
83	82	52	1
84			2
85			3
86			4
87			5
88			6
89			7

Depth charts are set and they won't be changed barring an injury.  Gameplans are set and I doubt I'll change these at all for the course of the Challenge.  I may mix them up if I feel I can press an advantage, but I won't change the actual gameplans.  Even mixing them up may be more time than I am willing to spend, but who knows.

I've got one exhibition with FR then the regular season starts.  

If the recruit class ranking that caesari posted are accurate, I feel very good about my chances.  I should have a talent advantage by season 3 or 4 giving me a good springboard til the end of the Challenge in season 7.  I expect to start winning consistently when this talent advantage happens and would only expect to lose in the Challenge by being out coached (whatever that means under engine 2.0) or by having bad luck (maybe the same thing as being out coached with 2.0).  We'll all see if my predictions come true in a very public way as the seasons unfold.

They should be correct. Good thread.

Won my first game.  Against a long time human coached team.  That went to the playoffs last season.  Unbelievable.  

It's obviously not talent since I have a roster full of SIMs ex-FR class.  It's not coaching since I haven't a clue about this new engine.  Which leaves us with the engine giving me the W.

I'm sure this is going to come back and bite me when I actually have more talent than my opponent and I lose, probably around season 3 or 4.  I'm sure I'll ***** about it then.  But for right now, I'm just going to laugh and take the W.

I have another game against a playoff team tomorrow and expect to get throttled.  But with this engine . . . 

Good to have one of the greats back in the game.  I hope you get no luck against my Huntingdon team tomorrow...lol.  GL in the challange and GL tomorrow. 

gg superv97.  

For a half, I thought I was a genius.  Then the engine did what it was supposed to do and I got rolled up.  1-1 against human playoff teams.  Still better than I thought I would fare.  

I also just realized that i have 4 humans in conference and i play all of them.  When I signed up, there was only 1 coach in my division and 2 in the other.  Another coach signed up after I did in my division, so there are now 2 other coaches in my division and I play both coaches from the other division.  Hopefully the schedule flips next season and I don't get either coach in the other division for the next 2 seasons.  That should give me a better shot to bring my win total up for recruiting.

We finished OOC at 4-1 and ranked #12.  With 3 wins against SIMs, I dont' know how this happened.  I guess the world is so empty that humans don't play each other.  The hope going forward is that we win against the SIMs and split against the humans which would bring us to 10-3.  If we get lucky in this barren world it may lead to a playoff appearance in season 1.  The fact that I'm even thinking this is a possibility is a testament to how far this game has fallen.

			Challenge	Challenge	Challenge	Overall	Overall
Season	Full Roster	Recruit Class	Season	W	L	W	L
79	158	59
80	160	171
81	109	136
82	150	91
83	82	52	1	0	0	4	1
84			2
85			3
86			4
87			5
88			6
89			7

			Challenge	Challenge	Challenge	Overall	Overall
Season	Full Roster	Recruit Class	Season	W	L	W	L
79	158	59
80	160	171
81	109	136
82	150	91
83	82	52	1	0	0	10	3
84			2
85			3
86			4
87			5
88			6
89			7

Finished the season at 10-3, pretty much what I expected at the OOC break.  Unfortunately, I didn't make the CC and I finished at #34, a few spots out of the playoffs.  No extra games for practice, which is what building teams need.  Next season I expect to recruit at about the same Recruit Class Rank and start the improvement on my Full Class Rank.

Formation growth was right on expectations.  Nothing out of the ordinary here.

For the most part, attribute growth was what I expected.  There were two exceptions.  I expected QB James Frazier to grow one more point in cores.  He did RS, so that is part of it.  Hopefully he got the growth but just got bad rounding.  The other exception was OL TImothy Stanton who missed 3 games due to injury and then was limited in the last three games when he came back.  Otherwise, I'm happy with what I got and am confident I'm on the right track in the development portion of this team.

One thing to note is that it's quite easy to see the difference in my recruits vs the SIM recruits in TOT.  The difference is evident even when you consider that my recruits are all FR, typically the slowest year of growth for a player.  The difference in player growth should be even more visible at the end of next season, their SO year, typically their largest season of growth.  The key to developing a talented team in D3 is to know the relationship between the variables which produce growth.  Without understanding those, you can only rely on vision to increase your talent level.  In empty worlds, wins are easy to come by so this may work to a point, but vision alone will never get you a team stacked with elite talent.