How much does WE effect Potential? I have a recruit with High potential in the 3 key categories but only has a 9 work ethic. Is he even worth pursuing? His stats are pretty good for D3, imo.

His work ethic may prevent him from ever reaching his potential. I have recent experience with a couple of guys that started out in the teens for WE and it appears they will not end up maxing out.

NEVER mess with below 14 WE players.. you will be sorrowful.. about 22-25 is the lowest I will go..

Thanks for the tips, guys.

I have had some success with recruits down around 17-18 WE ( I doubt a 9 has much hope of maxing out). If you start them as a freshman that work ethic can kick up to the 23 or so area by end of freshman season. I would not recruit a guy like that unless you intend to start him as a freshman or redshirt him. You cannot put him on your bench to play mopup minutes his first season as he cannot afford no growth or especially a loss in WE if you have any hopes of him reaching potential. Generally sticking to players with WE above 25 or so is best. But there are steals to be had on lower WE guys as some of those players people avoid are higher day 1 than players with high potential and high WE but low starting points. One last note you will probably have to sacrifice a couple of categories with little to no practice time to get the extra minutes into his high potential categories for them to max out.

It all depends. If the guy's ratings are good enough to help you now, then it doesn't really matter what his WE is.

I completely disagree with not recruiting a 14 WE guy at D3. For example. I recruited this guy:

http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=1466801

15 WE. At the halfway point and he's up 16 points. As his WE climbs towards 20, he'll be fine.

Here's another guy whose WE started out under 20:

http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=1426372

In fact, here's a guy who started with 1 WE who has been decent (although I wouldn't recommend this unless his ratings are good enough when you recruit him:

http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=1347660

Exactly. If you are willing to take what he has to offer NOW for the rest of his career, and accept any improvement that may come as a bonus, it can be useful. And once in a while you will come across that guy whose WE will improve significantly from being in the teens and those can turn out nice.

I think people overreact to WE, the only point I won't go after guys is single digit guys. Anything over that in my experience they will max out if they get enough playing time.

Here's a D2 7 WE player that is above average.

He's not going to max out in any of the high potential categories and he's not a star. But he's pretty good (probably the best player on *my* team) and I have zero regrets signing him.