Let me start by saying i've been playing gridiron a few years and took for granted things like recruiting would work the same.  I've redshirted players there every year with little affect, but just redshirted a SG and seen today his WE went to -25...If I take his redshirt off will he get back what he lost in numbers there. I'd rather have him one less year then be useless or have to drop him. Also, if I intend to redshirt a player do I have to mention it in recruiting before he signs or risk this every time...Thanks in advance...

Drox, if you take off the RS yes he will gain the WE back. You can try and put it back on him as well and he may take it the second time or 3rd or later with no WE drop.
As far as mentioning a RS during recruiting some people do it and some people don't. Just keep in mind that when you do it you will have to, during the same cycle I believe, send the player several (I don't know the exact number) HV's to counteract the effects of using the inform of redshirt.

Hopefully some people a little more knowledgeable than me will verify or correct what I said.

I have yet to inform a recruit of my plans to redshirt.  But then again, I'm probably doing it wrong :)

So far, the players I've redshirted took it well even if I had to remove the 'shirt and reapply a couple of times.

This morning I redshirted a PF I had pulled down without knowing whether it was easier or harder than a non-pulldown.  To my surprise, he accepted it graciously. 

Does the personality test thing actually help determine this, or is it better to just inform the recruit you want to RS during recruiting itself?     

I've had a freshman accept my RS 14 seasons in a row without a WE drop, and I've never used the RS button. Here are what I see as the keys to getting accepted:

- Don't play your target RS at all in the first exhibition game. Leave him off your depth chart altogether, and set his fatigue / mins target to the minimum.
- It's much easier to get a target to accept the RS if he's one of 3 or more at his listed position. So for example, if you already have a soph and a junior listed as PG's (even if you don't play them at PG), getting an incoming freshman who's listed as a PG to accept becomes very easy. Players are much more likely to fight it if they're the only one at their listed position, or only have one other player.
- Put the RS on them after the first game. 90% of the time, I get an easy accept right then. A couple of times, I've seen a modest WE drop (always less than 10 pts). In that case, I usually remove the RS, sit them again for the 2nd game, and then re-apply. In the last 14 seasons at D3, I've never had the player reject it the 2nd time.

That is great info. I went through 4 players before 1 accepted. Figured it was due to depth at position. Will wait till season starts next time.

Great advice and help guys...Thanks...

It worked. Took off the redshirt then re-applied it a few hours later. His response was positive and so far have lost no WE...Thanks guys...