I just redshirted a freshman I recruited and his WE immediately dropped 5 points... his WE was only 33, now it's 27. Should I expect it to drop more? Will he gain these points back next season? Should I take the redshirt off? He's not that great of a recruit, I just didn't really think he'd get much playing time as the 11th guy on my roster.

Thanks in advance.

Also-- is there an easier way to use the search function? I find that when I search, then click on a result, I have to go all the way back to the search screen and search again to find more results-- is there a quicker way that I am overlooking?

I don't know what search function you are talking about. For recruits, for forums, for something else?

To go through your questions:

1) " Should I expect it to drop more?"

It's possible. You cna take it off and try again. It may drop 15 points, it may drop to a WE of 1 or it may stay right at 33. A drop of 5, not a big deal as far as redshirting goes.

2) "Will he gain these points back next season?"

Possibly. Depends on minutes and starts. Get him a bunch of starts, 15-20 minutes, yeah he'd probably gain them back.

3) "Should I take the redshirt off?"

I'd leave it on. IMHO, not much of a difference between a 33 and a 27. I usually try to recruit over 40 in the first place. Since he isn't that good in your words, I'd leave the redshirt on, take his gains this year and try to get him 10-15 minutes as a FR/SO and starts against teams where you are heavily favoured.

you should be happy - the WE drop is modest.  If you take it off and put it back on, the odds are it will get worse

My search question is regarding the forum search.

Thanks for the help.. I totally overlooked his WE, the 4 other guys I recruited this year all have WE above 50. 

Is redshirting a common practice in DII or higher? If there is almost always a plummet in WE, do they usually compensate during that extra year of eligibility? Is it even worth it to redshirt?

I always try to redshirt guys as much as possible depending on class sizes. At DII/III, guys will stay all four years, so getting them one extra year to dveelop can really be huge. I redshirt guys that won't play that much (position logjam) or have high potentials but low starting ratings and need that year to develop so he doesn't hurt me on the court (think really low DEF, ATH/SPD, STA).  I see a lot of redshirts in D3.

There isn't always a plummet in WE. If its a big drop, like WE 65 to 20, i will take it off and keep trying until it is a smaller drop, say 65 to 45-55. I have had good luck so far with my redshirts.

As for compensating in their extra year of elgibility, I'd say it depends. Depends on how many starts the kid gets and how many minutes he plays. Play him big minutes the WE will increase and he will gain quicker. .

thanks for your help salag. I'm going to keep the RS on him, he's got decent starting core ratings and high potential in 5 categories, but he won't see much PT this year with my current roster.

The search issue you mentioned has to do with the way the search page is coded. I find the easiest way to get around that is to right-click on the links in the search result and open them in a new tab rather than just clicking them which will open in the same tab. Doing it that way avoids having to go back to the search page, which is causing your problem.