Well.... you know.... dropdown?

It depends. Normally, they start at 11 am on day 2. There are some cases that drop.earlier.

And will continue to drop to day after signings (probably all the way through end of recruiting). But there is a big drop on the 8 am and 11 am cycles the day after signings.

Pulling down is a better strategy I think.

When does that normally start happening?

If I'm not mistaken pulling down can happen whenever. I remember last season looking at a DI drop down who was considering a conference member of mine after like the first cycle. With the guy I ended up pulling down that season, he dropped down maybe 2 cycles before signing started and I was the lead and only considering when that happened. I don't know if it would be possible to steal someone from a user coach who pulled a guy down, I would think the other guy would have a huge lead by being the team to initially pull him down, but I guess if the prestige gap is large enough it could happen. 

Would be interesting to hear some other views on that.

pulldowns can happen at any point in the recruiting process. the timeframes described for dropdowns here are generally correct.

I've pulled down a guy second cycle.(probably could have done it first, but I wanted the phone call first to make sure money wasn't being thrown away attempting it. Drop downs ... Again, what is being described here is about right.

I would say 2nd cycle for pulldowns is fairly common.  e.g. send phone call 1st cycle, then pull down after a backup response.

I have tried to pull down in the very first cycle, but that's like doubling down on an already risky maneuver.  I can remember that both working and not working.

I have stolen recruits from other teams that I had to pulldown. If you do it I would make sure it is a battle you can win, and that you are not going to lose another recruit because of it.

It's actually easier to steal players that people pulled down.   If team A has pulled down a player that drops down to team B, team b doesn't have to "waste" the money involved in pulling down the guy.

The same effort team A put in can be duplicated by team B with roughly a HV and scholarship.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 2/21/2014 12:44:00 PM (view original):
It's actually easier to steal players that people pulled down.   If team A has pulled down a player that drops down to team B, team b doesn't have to "waste" the money involved in pulling down the guy.

The same effort team A put in can be duplicated by team B with roughly a HV and scholarship.

Yeah I agree with this.  You get some value by being first on the player, which dissuades many people from jumping in.  Part of the cost is the scenario you described.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 2/21/2014 12:44:00 PM (view original):
It's actually easier to steal players that people pulled down.   If team A has pulled down a player that drops down to team B, team b doesn't have to "waste" the money involved in pulling down the guy.

The same effort team A put in can be duplicated by team B with roughly a HV and scholarship.

This is why I'm reluctant to do it as a lower-prestige program. My resources are thin as it is without doing someone else's work for them.

Can you sign a guy without him "falling down"? Like he just commits to you off the higher list?