OK this is my first season and I have already decided I am not promising playing time in the future.  what a pain.    I would rather sub players by fatigue than planned minutes.

If a player is promised 20 min, is that an average?   will he be happy with 28-18-22?   or will the 18 make him cranky and hurt my rep, even though the average is >20?

Also, I guess we are limited to one redshirt?   I wanted to do two but after one the option disappeared.

Yes, 1 redshirt.

And yes, it's an average of minutes over the season.

Playing time promises are a key element of recruiting, so I wouldn't swear them off completely. 

You can manipulate a player's minutes while using fatigue settings and your depth chart as well. It takes some practice to get it just right, but absolutely can be done. Also, keep in mind that players don't need their full promise. Most are content getting 80-85 percent (some are pickier and need up around 90 percent)...the player will lose a point in WE if he feels he's not getting enough of his promised time and then a couple days later will email you and complain (and drop another point or two of WE), so you'll have plenty of opportunity to make adjustments as needed. 

especially when rebuilding a sim team its easy and beneficial to offer a start, or minutes as it makes more sense to me at least to start your freshmen with much better potential than some poop recruit that would get beat by the 60 year old at the Y.