Game Plans...How do I make good ones? Topic

I'm new to GD and I've been trying to make some good game plans, but they never seem to work out very good.  Could anyone give me some tips or advice on how to make really good game plans?

Do coaches research their next opponent and cater their next game plan to that team?  Or do they find out what formations their players are really good at and form their plans around their players' strengths?  

joshiedarko
10/22/2012 1:10 AM
How is your team built ?  Lots of WR but few rb's  you figure to be passing team. Turn it around and you figure to run lots more. Other things to consider are is qb decent (dont want him throwing a lot if he sucks ; too many interceptions)
    Once you kind of know How you want to get there, realize you are just planning a journey from wherever you get the ball to the end zone .
Familiarize yourself with game plan charts and fill em in accordingly.
          There is no right or wrong - If it works.  So I recommend creating your gameplan according to the strength of your team.

10/22/2012 4:44 AM
With one full season under your belt and a conference championship to show for it, you are not doing too bad.

I took a quick look at your team and you appear to have pretty good talent.  Not top 10, but certainly competitive.  TE, OL, and DL are the areas most lacking.

Now to your question....if you don't have proper talent, nothing else matters....thats why I mentioned talent first. 

1.  Pick 2 or 3 offensive formations and 2 or 3 defensive formations and focus on them.  I only practice 2 O formations and 3 D formations.  You can still use the others, but its tough to have proper talent to run both the Shotgun and the Wishbone (for example).

2.  On offense....don't try to be too fancy.  Set up a "normal", a "losing by a few", a "losing by a bunch", and a winning gameplan.  Run those for several games before making any "tweaks".  One game will NOT tell you anything.  You might also want to have a mostly run or a mostly pass version of your "normal" plan.

3.  On defense, decide if you want to focus on stopping the run or stopping the pass as your first priority.  Then you can decide what to use as your "base" defense (4-3 and Nickel seem to be most common).  If you choose run 4-3 and Nickel for example, you can still run the 5-2 or Dime under certain circumstances, but you probably won't have the proper personnel or the Formation IQ to run either of those extremes well on a consistent basis.

4.  On offense, I just run my offense, pretty much without regard to the opponent.  I try to mix it up a little, but I don't make any wholesale changes based on a specfic game.  On Defense, I do look at tendencies and make a FEW tweaks based on that.  However, I've found (over times) that my base defensive setup works well and is a mix of 4-3, 4-4, Nickel and Dime.

There are some formations/coaches that I still have trouble defending against (gantincbus you know who you are!!!)

You have to experiment a great deal and certainly have to recruit the players that fit in your system.  Lastly, look at your competition in your conference.  It does not do you any good to decide to focus on run stopping with a base 5-2 and some monster DLs if all of your competitors are running the Shotgun full time and throwing it deep to speedy WRs. 
10/22/2012 8:40 AM
How much of the 180 units of practice time do you guys devote to offensive and defensive formations compared to player skill development?
11/4/2012 2:26 PM
Posted by brianmullins on 11/4/2012 2:26:00 PM (view original):
How much of the 180 units of practice time do you guys devote to offensive and defensive formations compared to player skill development?
I usually run about 10 mins per for every set practiced.............
11/4/2012 4:41 PM
I run 12-15 minutes for each formation (2 offense, 2 defense).  If I'm only using one formation (like Wishbone), I'll put around 20-25 into that one formation.

In some other posts, there are good discussions about "diminishing returns".  So putting all of your time into formations or into player development, is not necessarily the best way to go.  You should find the balance that you are comfortable with.  

Player development is more important than formation practice, but you cannot totally ignore formations (including special teams).
11/4/2012 5:19 PM
Thanks harriswb3 for the info.  It's helped a lot.  

I went after some better OL and DL, and I got some better OL.  I don't think I got any better DL guys.  But my RB got Offensive Player of the Year in D3, so I must've done something right with my OL.
11/27/2012 7:23 PM
How do you set individual practices
2/1/2017 7:30 PM
Posted by heelboy on 2/1/2017 7:30:00 PM (view original):
How do you set individual practices
You can't do it in DIII; only in DII or above. And still, you can only do it by position, not by each individual player.
2/1/2017 8:00 PM
IF you are going to stay at Division III, a good place to start is to look at what bugeaters11 and mfnmyers are doing. Replicate as best you can and adjust from there.

The game is much different at Division II and above. For example, on 3rd and 15, no on has to run a minimum of 20% of the time. The amount of control one has above Division III is very different as is the strategy and the gameplanning involved.
2/1/2017 9:23 PM
Ok thanks guy another ?,in amlma college in rockne heelboy what the hell is wrong with my rosters
2/2/2017 6:11 PM
Ok thanks guy another ?,in amlma college in rockne heelboy what the hell is wrong with my rosters
2/2/2017 6:12 PM
Way too many sim recruits.
Which makes me believe you are engaging in too many recruiting battles.
2/3/2017 3:53 PM
Ok aegsm76 what do i do man i just lost a game 80-3 smh..
2/4/2017 3:12 PM
When you recruit next and for the next couple of seasons, Go after High/Good Potential recruits within your 360 mile radius from your school. Don't recruit in North Carolina when your school is in Michigan. You need to get the best bang for your buck and NEVER let the Sim take walk ons for you. That's Goal number one. After you've done that for a couple of seasons come back on here and give us a status update. Dont worry about getting the "Highest Rated Guy" Go after potential.....cheap(er) potential which is found in your 360. Scout them first before making any CV's because they could be tapped out or average potential and DONT BATTLE it's D3. They're plenty of recruits out there and only about 5 per year MIGHT be worth a battle.

Cheers

My two cents.
2/5/2017 9:27 AM
12 Next ▸
Game Plans...How do I make good ones? Topic

Search Criteria

Terms of Use Customer Support Privacy Statement

© 1999-2024 WhatIfSports.com, Inc. All rights reserved. WhatIfSports is a trademark of WhatIfSports.com, Inc. SimLeague, SimMatchup and iSimNow are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts, Inc. Used under license. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.