looking for advice for mid level D1 - C+ prestige

how many guys to target on first wave?
what range of attention points do you use for 1st wave?

thank you in advance
tim

Way too many variables involved here to give a one size fits all answer. How many openings do you have, geographic considerations, are you willing to carry walk-ons, etc.

3 opening
looking at 500 mile radius and international
prefer no walk one but not totally opposed

For 3 openings, I’m typically looking to target 2-3 guys I am willing to spend big resources on (normally 3 local and regional guys, but if I’m going for a distance guy, only 2). I try to make smart decisions about who I chase, so I’m not in 3 battles over my head, but I might punch up a bit on one of them. I generally devote ~60 APs per cycle on those 3 main targets, and spread the other 20 among some projects and some late signing backups. I adjust a bit after the first couple cycles, and cull my current attention list, but I’m generally on about 3-5 guys per scholarship I intend to fill from the opening, and pare down to 2 by about the 4th cycle.

Posted by flemingtime on 7/8/2019 12:20:00 PM (view original):
3 opening
looking at 500 mile radius and international
prefer no walk one but not totally opposed

Dude you run zone! That's the biggest advantage of zone, you can run a short lineup. You should plan on taking walkons every season.

Posted by Benis on 7/8/2019 6:38:00 PM (view original):

Posted by flemingtime on 7/8/2019 12:20:00 PM (view original):
3 opening
looking at 500 mile radius and international
prefer no walk one but not totally opposed

Dude you run zone! That's the biggest advantage of zone, you can run a short lineup. You should plan on taking walkons every season.

If this is true about you running zone, he's right.

With 3 openings, you should target the best absolute 4 year player you can get your hands on and devote all your resources towards him. And take 2 walk ons. Swing for the fences.

And if you lose the roll to someone, no big deal. You'll still survive with 9 players

Posted by topdogggbm on 7/8/2019 8:01:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Benis on 7/8/2019 6:38:00 PM (view original):

Posted by flemingtime on 7/8/2019 12:20:00 PM (view original):
3 opening
looking at 500 mile radius and international
prefer no walk one but not totally opposed

Dude you run zone! That's the biggest advantage of zone, you can run a short lineup. You should plan on taking walkons every season.

If this is true about you running zone, he's right.

With 3 openings, you should target the best absolute 4 year player you can get your hands on and devote all your resources towards him. And take 2 walk ons. Swing for the fences.

And if you lose the roll to someone, no big deal. You'll still survive with 9 players

This is terrible advice, no offense doggg. One, you can’t “devote all your resources” on a single player within 500 miles. You could spend it all on an international, of course; but for players within 500 miles, you can do max visits on 2, and a lot of visits on a 3rd. You’re wasting resources if you’re not working on unlocking at least one other good target. Waiting until you’ve lost a battle for your top guy to think about a replacement is too late to get good value. You’ll be crossing your fingers and shooting from way down; most decent players will have a team or 3 planted on them.

Second, playing with walkons is not a strength. That’s a really silly notion. Walkons don’t add value. You can use the scholarship resources again next year, but if you’re taking walkons every year, you’re never letting that value materialize. When people say things like this, what they mean is that roster flexibility is a strength in zone, and that much is true, as far as it goes. But it isn’t the full scope of flexibility. Sure, you can survive a trio of walkons in a pinch; but you can also survive taking a high potential guy with low starting cores, redshirt him, hide him for a season or two, then get excellent value out of a high IQ upperclassman. Or you can take multiple ineligible players; or you can scout for good jucos that can fly under the radar (good value there in the D2 pool of CA and TX, for example).

Third, putting all your eggs in one basket is a good way to create a lot of disappointment and dissatisfaction for yourself. It’s a valid gameplay choice, and you can make it work; but just be aware of what you’re doing. Don’t come back to the forums complaining about a “random” roll going against you and ruining your class. It’s a choice, and they have consequences. You’ll survive it for a season, but now pressure’s on for next year.

Do what’s fun for you.

Posted by shoe3 on 7/9/2019 12:06:00 AM (view original):

Posted by topdogggbm on 7/8/2019 8:01:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Benis on 7/8/2019 6:38:00 PM (view original):

Posted by flemingtime on 7/8/2019 12:20:00 PM (view original):
3 opening
looking at 500 mile radius and international
prefer no walk one but not totally opposed

Dude you run zone! That's the biggest advantage of zone, you can run a short lineup. You should plan on taking walkons every season.

If this is true about you running zone, he's right.

With 3 openings, you should target the best absolute 4 year player you can get your hands on and devote all your resources towards him. And take 2 walk ons. Swing for the fences.

And if you lose the roll to someone, no big deal. You'll still survive with 9 players

This is terrible advice, no offense doggg. One, you can’t “devote all your resources” on a single player within 500 miles. You could spend it all on an international, of course; but for players within 500 miles, you can do max visits on 2, and a lot of visits on a 3rd. You’re wasting resources if you’re not working on unlocking at least one other good target. Waiting until you’ve lost a battle for your top guy to think about a replacement is too late to get good value. You’ll be crossing your fingers and shooting from way down; most decent players will have a team or 3 planted on them.

Second, playing with walkons is not a strength. That’s a really silly notion. Walkons don’t add value. You can use the scholarship resources again next year, but if you’re taking walkons every year, you’re never letting that value materialize. When people say things like this, what they mean is that roster flexibility is a strength in zone, and that much is true, as far as it goes. But it isn’t the full scope of flexibility. Sure, you can survive a trio of walkons in a pinch; but you can also survive taking a high potential guy with low starting cores, redshirt him, hide him for a season or two, then get excellent value out of a high IQ upperclassman. Or you can take multiple ineligible players; or you can scout for good jucos that can fly under the radar (good value there in the D2 pool of CA and TX, for example).

Third, putting all your eggs in one basket is a good way to create a lot of disappointment and dissatisfaction for yourself. It’s a valid gameplay choice, and you can make it work; but just be aware of what you’re doing. Don’t come back to the forums complaining about a “random” roll going against you and ruining your class. It’s a choice, and they have consequences. You’ll survive it for a season, but now pressure’s on for next year.

Do what’s fun for you.

It's not terrible advice. But as always, I'm just not as politically correct as you are. So I'll clarify.

One of the strengths of zone ALONG with roster flexibility, as you mentioned, is you don't need as many players as you do in other sets. You don't deal with fatigue as much as you would, say a press team. When i say put all your resources into a player, of course i don't mean ALL. At D1, you can go all in on a player and still have plenty money left over! So what I'm saying is.... you can aim higher. Take a shot at better players. And if you take a walk on or two, guess what, you can do it again next season too. Because you'll have more money to spend on less players than a press team would.

You don't have to use 12 players in a zone. When i ran zone, all my players complained because there weren't enough minutes to go around when I'd carry 12 (using fatigue settings). Sure you can find yourself a mediocre player and fill your roster. But why? At C prestige, you're trying to move up the ladder. You're not likely to get EE talent with every recruit. So why not aim as high as you can, for those guys that are just outside of big board status. I guarantee you'll increase your prestige better and faster that way. Than if you find "12 nice role players while spreading your budget out equally".

Sometimes we like to argue just to argue. I get it. But this time, this isn't bad advice. It's an effective strategy, and I'll swear by it. Just as you mentioned, we all do what's fun for us. If you don't like it, that's fine. But it's not bad advice. It's another strategy

“With 3 openings, you should target the best absolute 4 year player you can get your hands on and devote all your resources towards him. And take 2 walk ons. Swing for the fences.

And if you lose the roll to someone, no big deal. You'll still survive with 9 players”

This is absolutely terrible advice. You’ve walked back the ridiculous parts and that’s good, so your last post isn’t bad. But I’m not arguing for arguments sake. If a new player sees what you and Benis wrote initially, they’re thinking “oh, I guess I should just put all my AP on one guy, looks like that’s how you play zone.” That’s not how you play zone. It’s a way to play (and you can do it with M2M too, as long as you’re paying attention to stamina), but not necessarily a very good one, especially at D1 where the guys he should be targeting could be early entry caliber.

Yes, you have the flexibility to take walkons if there are no available projects, ANQs, or jucos you like in a given year. But walkons never add value to your team. There are a lot of guys who can add value down the road, which you can often get for little investment. It’s not good advice to suggest that D1 coaches should just ignore them.

A new player isn't going to be at D1. This post isn't directed toward a new player. It's directed at a coach that has a C prestige range D1 school. This coach would have played a decent amount of time now. And understand the basics of "not wasting everything on one recruit specifically" type of deal

This is how I've played it, i am successful. I admittedly have no titles with zone. But that's more because of my lack of interest playing it. I've played zone probably 5% of my seasons. AND did well. If i dedicated the same time to zone that i do with the other sets, I'd be successful with it too. I have done well enough to understand that this strategy was THE reason that i was successful with it.

So don't tell me it's terrible. Tell me you don't like it. That's fine. But it works. Just not your way.

Also, no one here is saying walk ons add value! Where'd you get that at? I'm also not saying "don't take players that will add value down the road".

“Also, no one here is saying walk ons add value! Where'd you get that at?”

It’s not a direct response to anything you or anyone said. I’m encouraging folks to think in terms of what adds value to their team. Many are stuck in 2.0 mode, where the scholarship resources were more valuable; having lots of open scholarships scared rivals away. When people say things like you should be taking 2+ walkons every year whenever you play zone, it’s reasonable to presume they are not considering the long and short-term value that even “mediocre” players bring over a walk on.

Hey Shoe it is confirmed a -10 +10 Integer based with a decimal system goes up and down and is random.

Posted by WardoYT on 7/9/2019 12:07:00 PM (view original):
Hey Shoe it is confirmed a -10 +10 Integer based with a decimal system goes up and down and is random.

I’ll have PB&J, toasted please. Thanks.

Posted by shoe3 on 7/9/2019 12:11:00 PM (view original):

Posted by WardoYT on 7/9/2019 12:07:00 PM (view original):
Hey Shoe it is confirmed a -10 +10 Integer based with a decimal system goes up and down and is random.

I’ll have PB&J, toasted please. Thanks.

2 role players is added to your wishes.