I recently had two players take a hit on their work ethic. I never received any sort of message from either one of them. Being proactive, I took minutes away from freshmen and gave it to the two players. One player got his work ethic rating back and the other hasn't. I am not to concerned about the rating, more that the player will be unhappy and transfer. I have plans for him to be a big part of the rotation next season, so I don't want that happening. Problem is, I don't know what the heck he wants. I really don't want to put him in the starting lineup without knowing what is going on. Any experience with this issue?

What do you mean by work ethic hit? Are you talking just one point or several? Players will lose a point at a time, if they aren't getting adequate playing time. If you've promised them minutes and starts and don't deliver, then the work ethic hit is much more severe.

It's one point at a time, it appears.  It just means they're not getting quite the minutes they want.  They lost WE gradually, and eventually it showed up as a full-point loss.  I wouldn't worry too terribly.  You'll get an email if it continues, but it's not going to impact the players' development in a serious way.

If you can find an easy way to get them an extra minute or two per game (which is probably about all it would take), they'll recover and be all smiles.

It would be great to be able to communicate to the player that they should chill out because they are going to be starting the next season. Usually, the player is worth mollifying. Sometimes, if the nagging becomes bothersome I won't try to accommodate him and once I cut a player who nagged too much. But I also disliked his face. It was a cruel-looking face, the face of a villain.

You're on a roll.

I would love the ability to make promises like - you will start next season, you will get 15 mins next season.

I would also love a dropdown that let me encouarage a transfer

- You are asking for more minutes, what is your name again?
- You are asking for more minutes, sure spend some time washing the uniforms
- You are asking for more minutes, I have an idea run 150 suicides and then talk with me about minutes.

I really like the idea of next-season promises too.  Makes perfect sense and doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to implement.

What do you do when the coach then leaves the school?

Fair question, it opens a possible exploit.  I'd err on the side of overall gameplay improvement, wiping the promises or weakening them to the types of expectations players at that class level normally have.  I don't guess it would be a big deal, or come into play frequently.

Posted by mullycj on 2/25/2014 1:27:00 PM (view original):
What do you do when the coach then leaves the school?

That's a good question. They have the "next season start" option in Gridiron Dynasty. I imagine that promises are personal to the coach and are not inherited, but that is just a guess. 

When I was playing GD, it allowed for promising a sophomore start to recruits. The nice thing about that is that you could actually redshirt a kid you promised a sophomore start to. This meant that you'd have to start him as a RS Freshman, but it also kept his eligibility "clock" from starting, and let you have him as your starter for 4 years.