Hey all,

First season of GD-- really enjoyed myself with Coast Guard in Wilkinson. Wanted to kind of chronicle the season and maybe see if any of the vets here have some input for me.

One thing I wish I'd have known before I selected Coast Guard was how badly stacked my non-conference schedule was going to be, especially since I was taking over a team with only 27 returning players. I did a little bit of research before I picked Coast Guard (mostly looking at their WIS rank and the number of recruiting spots since I wanted to try to build a team from scratch), but I neglected to look at schedule before signing up-- might have picked a different school in retrospect. Another thing I  also badly under-estimated at the start of this seasons campaign was how much of a disadvantage I had in trying to install the Wishbone as my offense without any team awareness of the system. That combined with an absolutely brutal non-conference schedule had my team at 1-4 before conference play even started. Tack on my first two conference games being my hardest, and a inexplicable loss to one of the worst teams in the entire game (St. John Fisher), and my team was sitting at 1-7 and 0-3 in conference play.

At that point I thought that maybe I was just doing something fundamentally wrong with my scheme. Frankly, I thought about just waking away from the game. Defensively I cut down on my blitizing, realizing I just didnt have the talent to play with anything other than a bend-but-dont-break mentality. I also just had the fortune of getting a generally easier schedule for the second half of conference play, and my team (and especially my freshman running back) began to respond. We finished the season very strong, pulling out 5 wins with consistently more impressive performances week after week. Going into my game against Western Connecticut, I suddenly realized I had a chance of winning the division. Somehow, my team murdered them 53-6, even though they were the better team and finished with more total yards (their QB throwing 39 Ints to 9 TD's on the season might have had something to do with it). 

As a result, I finished the season 6-7, and yet I was in the Conference Championship against  11-2 Utica and gabby1234. Now, every game I played in conference was against the AI, and my losses in conference play were all against players, so I assumed I would get murdered. Notwithstanding, I set my team to play pass heavy, and rolled the dice. We ended up losing to Utica in 4 overtimes by a score of 42-34. My reason for going pass heavy was simply because I saw some weakness in Utica there, and because my QB was getting some very good competion numbers. Now I'm wondering if going pass first all season might have led to some more wins, but in any event I'm very happy with the season all things considered. 

I signed up last night for 5 more seasons. I know a lot of people seem to be kind of down on the game, but I loved every minute. I was literally one score from a trip to the playoffs even with my freshmen-laden losing team, and it was a wild ride. Cant wait for next season to start. 

best,
udmlaw

Awesome. Congrats on your first season. Very successful. You may have already read though this, but if not, read this manifesto on recruiting:

http://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=444561&Page=1

The 3 keys to getting to the point to where you can compete with most other human owners:

1 Learn how to recruit.
2. Build up your wins to improve recruiting vision. (more than 25 total wins over the past 3 seasons. The more, the better)
3. Learn how to build custom formations, playbooks, and game plans.

Also, learn about the GUESS ratings. It is a more accurate way to evaluate player talent. Two independent websites (both run by bhazlewood):

www. gdreports.com
www.guess.gdreports.com

I did use guessreports and yatzr's tool, which were great. I had 4 4 star recruits, which I thought was decent, although I do now see in retrospect that a couple of the players I heavily pursued were not exactly awesome guys. In particular, the cb's I signed were a joke, and unfortunately some of them will probably be starting for me next year. I'm gonna use the ratings formulas from bhazlewood next season when I put my recruiting plan together, and hopefully that helps me correct some of my miscues from this season. 

I was toying with custom formations a little bit. In recruiting I tried to find a scrambling qb to be able to do some wishbone, but nobody that I had a chance with was any good. One thing I was curious about was how to get the most out of my freshman rb. The one thing about him that impressed me was his speed-- he was a 72 speed when I recruited him. I assumed that the general rule is that you want power for inside running and speed for outside running, but he was getting stuffed a LOT when playing human teams. I assume this is probably a function of not having enough formation awareness and a low elusiveness rating? Is this the case or am I just flat out mistaken about the difference between inside and outside game?

For RBs, speed to catch passes, and strength to run. GI, ELU, and ATH help both. You can tweak Bob's GUESS ratings a bit to fit your style.

It also depends on your offensive line. You need to have high STR and BLK to get good yardage.

Sounds pretty good!!  Now....don't get frustrated.  I have not looked at your team to see how good or bad it may be, but there is great possibility that you could have a few seasons of bad and worse, before it gets better.  When I first started, I could not recruit worth a crap and almost destroyed my team...then the light came on and I've been here for 3 or 4 years.

As mentioned above...recruiting is the heart of the game...read that "manifesto" and it will help you tremendously.  If you can't recruit, you can't compete, and losing makes us all want to quit.

Lastly, GL with the bone.  There are a few of us who used to run it a lot, but have abandoned it in this current engine.  The game does not seem to like running from the bone, but there are a few who have learned to use it as an excellent passing formation (the engine LOVES passing to the RBs).

So my advice.

1) Get to DII. I know you loved your one season at Coast Guard, but they gutted DIII, so you won't get to use the whole game there. The sooner you get to DII, the less attached you will be to your team at DIII that really doesn't get to play the whole game.
2) Read the aforementioned data
3) Get a mentor to help you walk through. I would be more than happy to exchange sitemails and help walk you through things, but I honestly won't be as much help until you go up from DIII

Thanks so much guys,

Yeah, I went to a D2 school so my plan is to move on in the offseason if the right opportunity presents itself (although my alma mater looks like a 3-4 year project so I probably wont be going there). Plus, as you said dublin, I want to get to a higher division so I can experement with some of the mechanics of the game. In my first season I had the 35th best recruiting class according to GUESS. I got a lot of things right but I was also impatient and got attached to some sub-par prospects. I only saved about $6000, so clearly I overspent pursuing some players (honestly, the best players I ended up recruiting were some of the cheapest) Another thing I learned also is to not fall too far in love with players with high work ethic, because a lot of them were really lowly ranked. 

I do love the idea of running the bone, but the more I read, the less confident I am in being able to run a one-look offense. It really looks like you need to run at least two, with one being Pro or I to maximize your success to me so far. I think next season I'm gonna try something alone that line and maybe try to work in a passing wishbone set or two. 

One or two of you have offered to help me out going forward. Once I figure out where I'm going to be coaching next season I'll be sure to send you all messages. Hopefully I can secure a decent d2 position, but coming back to Coast Guard for one more season is always a possibility. 

Just remember that all the tools of the game are available at every level past DIII (with the exception of DIA not having playoffs). What's your alma mater?

Grand Valley St.

Based upon your screen name, I thought you were a Titan.  But, then again, they don't have a football team

Also, grabbing a second team will accelerate the learning process.  

Did think about adding in a second team but for the present my finances are a little bit tight so I'm gonna stick to one for now. And yeah, Titans don't play football. 

Posted by udmlaw on 12/14/2014 2:25:00 PM (view original):
Did think about adding in a second team but for the present my finances are a little bit tight so I'm gonna stick to one for now. And yeah, Titans don't play football. 

Neither does Walsh College