I feel jnardone's pain.  I realize that the update "is a level playing field" and all that, but it has set me back at least one, maybe two, seasons in acclimating to the new rules.  My D3 team has pulled down players in the 450-range in the past, but this last season I went broke trying to do that and had to settle for mediocre recruits 20+ points lower.  My D2 team with a C prestige used to be able to recruit guys rated 500-520 depending on distance, and this past cycle every single recruit over 500 was either recruited by D1 sim teams or refused to talk to me at all. 

Say what you want, but there has been a decided shift in the recruiting parameters.  Jnardone would be wise to start pulling down more players, but the fact is that competition for the lower-tier pulldowns is now fiercer than ever.  If you don't have much cash, you either have to get lucky (and early) on a player or you're screwed.


 

I've taken a different approach.  I rarely, if ever, try to pull down players for my DIII team, and we have had A+ prestige 5 years in a row and 12 of the last 15.  A big reason is that our conference is has lots of human coaches with good prestige, so competition for DII pull down players is fierce in our recruiting region (Pacific Northwest).

Instead, I wait for the drop downs on the 2nd day and signing day, and attack.  I spend way more on FSS than most coaches, but I'm not spending the money on evals pulling down players.  I don't sign a player in DIII without using FSS, and I rarely recruit players with less than 6 "high" potential categories.

And even if you don't have elite prestige, you can still get plenty of good players through scouting.  In DII, I took a D prestige team (in Alaska, no less) to A+ in 9 seasons and won an NT a few seasons later.  Bear in mind I'm not getting pull downs or drop downs in Alaska since there are no DI teams.

Bottom line - you can succeed anywhere in DII and DIII in HD, but sometimes it takes revamping your approach and thinking outside of the box.     

The game has changed.  What worked for 15 seasons doesn't necessarily work now, especially if you're on the bottom rungs of the ladder trying to work your way up.

It's going to take a new strategy and I'm still figuring out what that is.

Posted by ethan66 on 5/17/2011 6:24:00 PM (view original):
The game has changed.  What worked for 15 seasons doesn't necessarily work now, especially if you're on the bottom rungs of the ladder trying to work your way up.

It's going to take a new strategy and I'm still figuring out what that is.

I'm glad to know it's not just me.  Thanks for your input everyone.

Posted by tianyi7886 on 5/17/2011 12:40:00 AM (view original):
Ath is very important, so I wouldn't disregard it. I rate the key categories as ath-spd-def, so I would not disregard ath like you are doing.

And you need to pulldown. A+ v. C in D3 means around 15% of effort (possibly less). I have said this before in other threads, the lower your prestige, the more aggressively you need to pull down. You cannot wait for dropdowns with C prestige because the recruits will drop down to A+, then A, then A-, etc. If you wait for dropdown, you are left with the guys that no one else want.

+1 and your PER is also low.

For the guys who say that they recruit about half and half DII and DIII, I would venture a guess (and that is all it is, a guess0 and say that you probably have higher Prestige and therefore see some of the players others see on their DII list on your DIII list. Again this is just a guess. Also various parts of the country have "better/more" DIII recruits, because there is a greater density of DIII teams in the area. Way too much goes into finding good DIII recruits so you don't have to go after pulldowns or dropdowns.

That being said I agree with the people who say it is essential to at least look and try to recruit from DII. Without it you could be missing out on some even better players. If you are not going after thos players your opponents are and that if nothing else may be giving them an advantage over you.