First, I should note that I'm not a complete dolt. I know what the different colored numbers mean in principle. (Blue=High; Black=Medium; Red=low) Over the time I spent in D-3 and D-2, I noticed that not all Blues are created equal. Sometimes a blue number turns black very quickly, and blacks turn red equally quickly, while other times, the high potential stays there through even 3 seasons. Also, I've seen blue numbers give as little as a 10-15 point improvement, and as much as a 45-50 point improvement, while I've seen numbers showing red improve by as much as 10 points over a couple of seasons. Is there a general rule of thumb as to what to expect from recruits whose numbers are blue, black, and red? Or is it better to just think of it as a principle, and not as an actual "they could improve by about this much" number?     

Posted by wildcat98 on 8/2/2012 5:37:00 PM (view original):
First, I should note that I'm not a complete dolt. I know what the different colored numbers mean in principle. (Blue=High; Black=Medium; Red=low) Over the time I spent in D-3 and D-2, I noticed that not all Blues are created equal. Sometimes a blue number turns black very quickly, and blacks turn red equally quickly, while other times, the high potential stays there through even 3 seasons. Also, I've seen blue numbers give as little as a 10-15 point improvement, and as much as a 45-50 point improvement, while I've seen numbers showing red improve by as much as 10 points over a couple of seasons. Is there a general rule of thumb as to what to expect from recruits whose numbers are blue, black, and red? Or is it better to just think of it as a principle, and not as an actual "they could improve by about this much" number?     

Run a search here for high-high in the subject text, with timeframe to all. You'll find a lot of discussion.

For quick reference purposes, I use 21 as the Blue/Black line and 7 as the Red/Black line. And it is a (relatively) hard number, in both instances.

What's really important to long-term success though is recognizing and recruiting based on the high-high ratings (27/28+).

yeah, there is a general rule. low = 0-5 points, medium = 6-20, high = 21+. you can send evals to break high potential (and low, technically) into 2 categories - high/high and low/high. low/high is 21-27 points of improvement, and high/high is 28+, you can usually tell from the eval its high/high if it has things like MASSIVE or *tremendous* improvement mentioned. i had a list of all the high/high messages vs low/high, and dacj published it somewhere convenient. so maybe he will come along and post it, i don't know where to find it anymore. 

im not sure where you would have seen blue numbers give 10-15, are you sure they capped out? low work ethic guys won't hit their caps. keep in mind potential just signifies what the maximum is, not how fast they get there (that is a combination of potential, work ethic, practice time, playing time). i dont think red numbers can go up by more than 5, or maybe more than 6. the player will turn red after hes gained some points off a black (medium) number though, so are you sure that player in question didn't start black, and end red?

Posted by coach_billyg on 8/2/2012 6:07:00 PM (view original):
yeah, there is a general rule. low = 0-5 points, medium = 6-20, high = 21+. you can send evals to break high potential (and low, technically) into 2 categories - high/high and low/high. low/high is 21-27 points of improvement, and high/high is 28+, you can usually tell from the eval its high/high if it has things like MASSIVE or *tremendous* improvement mentioned. i had a list of all the high/high messages vs low/high, and dacj published it somewhere convenient. so maybe he will come along and post it, i don't know where to find it anymore. 

im not sure where you would have seen blue numbers give 10-15, are you sure they capped out? low work ethic guys won't hit their caps. keep in mind potential just signifies what the maximum is, not how fast they get there (that is a combination of potential, work ethic, practice time, playing time). i dont think red numbers can go up by more than 5, or maybe more than 6. the player will turn red after hes gained some points off a black (medium) number though, so are you sure that player in question didn't start black, and end red?

One thread (of many) is here. The google doc I use (from dacj501) is at tinyurl.com/loworhigh.

Thanks so much, guys! In all my seasons at the lower levels, I never understood how people found out if something was a "high/high" and all that. I think that such info will be of paramount importance if I'm to succeed in rebuilding Campbell from its current shambles. I really appreciate the information!