Looking for a low D1 recruiting/coaching guide Topic

I think one of the key questions when addressing this post is to understand what your goal is.  Are you looking to build the low level team?  Move up to a mid major quickly?  Or jump to a Big 6 program?

While in general most of the advice will stay the same, there would be some nuances that would change depending on the ultimate goal.
1/8/2013 1:43 PM
One thing that I haven't seen posted is the location of your school in relation to the power structure of the world. If you notice the Big 12 is rather weak, or there is a state that is empty (such as if both Colorado and Colorado State are empty), then it's possible to get much better recruits than you normally would if you were to coach say Air Force simply because less human coaches are searching for players to sign in that area. Obviously you won't be able to sign 4/5*, but those 30th-60th positionally ranked players with great FSS may become a little easier to grab. Try to find a geographical weakness in your world and exploit it. 

What tkimble said about recruiting "imperfect" players is absolutely spot on. It's much better to a high ath/def guy and sacrifice elsewhere than to take a guy who is merely "well-rounded". If he was really well-rounded, you, in all likelihood, wouldn't have been able to sign him. One exception to this is a lower ranked SF with good FSS and a solid work ethic. lots of BCS coaches overlook anyone who starts under 70 in athleticism, for good reason. They won't be able to play for quite some time in their conferences without being a serious liability. But for you, in a midmajor conference, these guys merely are average for their first few years until they grow, and then they become dominant. 

Scheduling is another huge part of being a midmajor. Right after recruiting starts, go through all the midmajor conferences by "Team Ratings" and filter by Jr's. The sims with the most juniors will be the teams that have the nice RPI's the next year. They almost ALWAYS beat up on the other sims with such an IQ advantage. I've way too often seen coaches schedule a midmajor with 20+ wins during that season only to see that team drop a 200+ rpi the next season because they just lost 8 seniors. It can be tedious, but it's worth it to get that free win on the road vs a relatively bad team that somehow drops a sub 60 RPI

1/8/2013 3:32 PM
Posted by cburton23 on 1/8/2013 1:43:00 PM (view original):
I think one of the key questions when addressing this post is to understand what your goal is.  Are you looking to build the low level team?  Move up to a mid major quickly?  Or jump to a Big 6 program?

While in general most of the advice will stay the same, there would be some nuances that would change depending on the ultimate goal.
For me personally it would to build this team and jump to a Big 6 program down the road.  I am a D1 rookie and figured it would take 6+ seasons of experience to figure out how to battle/recruit on this level.  
1/9/2013 10:42 AM
D1 is about building prestige in increments by having a season every 2-3 seasons where you do significantly better than where you should be. All you need is one season where you win 28-30 games, go to the S16 to boost your prestige from D/D+ to C/C+, while it would take you multiple sub .500 seasons to drop back down to D. For this reason, I'm a big fan of filling all the scholarships when you have a big class (playing the superclass structure) and then go to the 2nd/S16 in your superclasses JR/SR year, get a boost in prestige, and reload. 
1/9/2013 10:46 AM
"All you need is one season where you win 28-30 games, go to the S16 to boost your prestige"

Yeah, that's easy to do.....



1/9/2013 11:26 AM
"All you need is one season where you win 28-30 games, go to the S16 to boost your prestige"

Yeah, that's easy to do.....



1/9/2013 11:26 AM
Extremely easy when you are in low end D1 and your conf is all sims. 

And that is the point of the superclass, to put you so far above the competition in your conf that your chance of winning each game against a simai is 99%. 
1/9/2013 11:38 AM (edited)
For a low end DI school that would mean going not loosing a game until the NT.  Don't pretend that's easy, even in an all SIM conference
1/9/2013 11:46 AM
Posted by cburton23 on 1/9/2013 11:46:00 AM (view original):
For a low end DI school that would mean going not loosing a game until the NT.  Don't pretend that's easy, even in an all SIM conference
It happens with quite a few teams every season. If you schedule correctly and have a senior loaded team, it's not hard at all. Your path to the NT is winning the CT; no real point in scheduling a hard nonconf and lose a bunch of games. I'm too lazy to list a bunch of teams in D1 teams in D baseline conf, but if you just look around, there alot of 0 loss, 1 loss, and 2 loss teams, where the 1/2 loss teams lost to good/great teams in nonconf. 

Edit: And 28 wins = 1 loss before the NT. 

1/9/2013 12:04 PM (edited)
My UNI team a few seasons back went 27-3 and lost in the first round of the NT.  28-30 is damn difficult
1/9/2013 12:06 PM
Knight D1 by win total:

Rank School Prestige Coach Conference Record Strength of
Schedule
SOS
Rank
RPI
44. UNC, Asheville C jaycee55 Big South 23-1 .4699 206 .5963
72. Florida A&M C gymshoe6640 MEAC 22-1 .4303 288 .5661
79. Alabama A&M C bobdog1 Big South 22-1 .4209 304 .5591
19. Mississippi A kevin_w64 SEC 22-1 .5355 89 .6389
3. Providence A+ ARomano Big East 22-2 .5972 17 .6783
38. W. Illinois B tianyi7886 SL 22-2 .5042 138 .6080


Rupp D1:
Rank School Prestige Coach Conference Record Strength of
Schedule
SOS
Rank
RPI
2. UCLA A+ oldman_sons PAC 10 23-0 .5904 25 .6926
72. Norfolk St. C+ night_train MEAC 23-0 .4220 314 .5668
1. Florida A+ johnsensing SEC 22-0 .6081 5 .7059
20. Dartmouth B+ dnicholas Ivy 22-1 .5326 84 .6427
10. Tennessee A+ jpmills3 SEC 22-2 .5735 35 .6671
14. Indiana B- survivor45 Big 10 22-2 .5580 57 .6564
7. Texas A+ jdno2 Big 12 22-2 .5959 15 .6779
6. Marshall A girt25 CUSA 21-1 .5981 10 .6831
18. St. Johns A+ jake_marley Big East 21-1 .5457 67 .6434
4. Maryland A+ mamxet ACC 21-2 .5969 14 .6852
11. Connecticut A+ slyman9 Big East 21-3 .5914 23 .6653
25. Georgia Southern B knappj Southern 20-2 .5301 87 .6262
77. American U. B- usvtheman Patriot 20-2 .4462 284 .5621
15. Mississippi St. A+ bludluciano SEC 20-2 .5523 62 .6501


Rank School Prestige Coach Conference Record Strength of
Schedule
SOS
Rank
RPI
18. St. Johns A gchuck Big East 29-1 .5368 93 .6447
13. BYU B+   MWC 29-2 .5502 72 .6527
17. Santa Clara C jesseerdmann WCC 28-3 .5537 67 .6465
9. Duke A+ utahjazz88 ACC 28-3 .5731 46 .6564
6. Louisiana St. A+ namshub SEC 28-3 .5795 36 .6641


There are 3 low end D1 teams in Knight on pace for 28+ wins, 3 in Rupp (not counting Dartmouth, 1 in Naismith. Phelan just rolled over but 2 D baseline teams hit 28 wins, 1 hit 27, with a handful at the 25 win mark. I have a strong suspicion those 25 win teams all lost multiple games in nonconf to human opponents. 
1/9/2013 12:13 PM
Posted by cburton23 on 1/9/2013 12:06:00 PM (view original):
My UNI team a few seasons back went 27-3 and lost in the first round of the NT.  28-30 is damn difficult
And looking at you 27 win UNI season, you were undefeated in conf, so 2 of those losses were from nonconf. As I said in my earlier post, I can't help it if you don't schedule for wins to boost your win total, when you know the CT is a lock. # of wins play a pretty significant role in prestige. 
1/9/2013 12:15 PM
So because 2 teams in a world can do it, that makes it easy?  That is just stupid tianyi.  Sure it can be done.  I was one bounce of the ball from doing it.  And that is exactly why it isn't "easy."  One bad night here, one scheduling misstep there and you are at 25 wins.  Not to mention most of the coaches on that list are already top tier coaches with team prestige above a C already.  So to say you should win 28-30 games is fine, but don't say its easy, especially for a guy who came on asking for our help as a coach new to low level DI.
1/9/2013 12:21 PM
Posted by tianyi7886 on 1/9/2013 12:15:00 PM (view original):
Posted by cburton23 on 1/9/2013 12:06:00 PM (view original):
My UNI team a few seasons back went 27-3 and lost in the first round of the NT.  28-30 is damn difficult
And looking at you 27 win UNI season, you were undefeated in conf, so 2 of those losses were from nonconf. As I said in my earlier post, I can't help it if you don't schedule for wins to boost your win total, when you know the CT is a lock. # of wins play a pretty significant role in prestige. 
The CT is never a lock.  There are other good coaches in the conference and you never know what may happen night to night.  Teams stub their toe from time to time.
1/9/2013 12:22 PM
Posted by cburton23 on 1/9/2013 12:21:00 PM (view original):
So because 2 teams in a world can do it, that makes it easy?  That is just stupid tianyi.  Sure it can be done.  I was one bounce of the ball from doing it.  And that is exactly why it isn't "easy."  One bad night here, one scheduling misstep there and you are at 25 wins.  Not to mention most of the coaches on that list are already top tier coaches with team prestige above a C already.  So to say you should win 28-30 games is fine, but don't say its easy, especially for a guy who came on asking for our help as a coach new to low level DI.
There are 3 in Knight, 3 in Rupp, 1 in Naismith, and 2 that did it last season in Phelan, with a bunch more if the teams at the 25-27 range scheduled properly. That's alot of teams doing it. If you want to argue semantics about the word "easy," then whatever. 

I'm just providing coaches at low end D1 an easy way to boost prestige. If you are in an empty conf, load up on a super class, schedule nonconf soft, and watch those 28-30 win seasons roll in by the 3rd/4th year.

The ability of superclasses to win out in conf against easy competition is something alot of top coaches know but don't quite talk about openly. Think about why the same 10 A+ teams all schedule a specific simai, where the simai goes 0-10 in nonconf but then finishes the season around 16-12 or 15-13. 

1/9/2013 12:31 PM (edited)
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