I once heard that work ethic only determines how quickly a player will reach their potential rather than how high the potential may be. I guess my question is if a player's potential is deemed HIGH-HIGH does work ethic allow it to reach a higher potential or is there simply a base potential for a rating and work ethic simply determines how quickly it reaches that potential? Sorry for the long winded question but I would love for experienced coaches to chime in. Thank you

the latter

FYI, the very low WE guys will struggle to even hit there potentials High/High.Have had guys graduate with 50-75pts.of growth left.

Recruits are generated with two numbers in each category:  Initial Rating and Potential Rating.   The Potential Rating does not change.  The recruiting messages (High, Low, High-High, etc.) are just PR - IR = X.  If X >= 28, then High-High.  If X < 7, then Low.  If X < 21, then average, etc.   The color-coded potential is just PR - current rating = X'.  Same thing.  WE is never taken into account.

Work Ethic determines pace of improvement.  If it's bad enough, then the recruit might need 15 seasons to max-out, but can only ever get 5.  Ain't gonna happen.   In the single digits, you better like them as they are when the sign.  In the teens, you can improve a couple categories by sacrificing others and feeding playing time.  Once you get to 20 or so, then it is possible to get good improvement in multiple categories with playing time early, but those guys will still fail to reach their potential (unless they started close in most categories).

Playing time and starts improves WE, but here's another problem with low WE.  The rate of WE improvement is slow at the low and high end and fast in the middle!  So, if you start and give 20 minutes to 2 players, one with a 15 WE and one with a 50 WE, then the 15 might improve to 18, but the 50 might improve to 60 (a guy beginning at 90 might only improve to 93, but you're not worried about that guy's improvement). 

The conundrum is that there are plenty of recruits that are worth signing, but which will never be able to max out in all categories.   

inside that conundrum lies the secret to successful recruiting...

I wish that a low WE didn't cause the WE rating itself to grow slower.  As the game currently is, I consider players with WE<10 unrecruitable.  If you could start a player with a WE of 1 as a freshman and have their WE go up around 8 points, like a normal player would, their WE would end up respectable by their senior year.  As the game currently stands you could start that player their entire freshman and sophomore seasons and have their WE only improve to 2, as TJ's thread demonstrated.

i think the WIS solution would be set minimum WE at 10

I get the idea of having certain players react to starts and playing time differently as far as work ethic goes but it should't in my opinion be on a bell curve for growth like the other ratings.

thanks rogelio! thats exactly what I was looking for