Being that this Sunday is the 10 year anniversary of the first GD dev chat, I thought I would post some of my memories from playing GD.   Feel free to do the same and since I was part of the mass coaches exodus.   Those of us veterans that stayed can try to convince me to come back (I might) has gotten better since I left.   So her goes:

I remember.....

My first season, I jumped in and recruited the day after I signed up.  Chose a horrible team, and did them no favors.  Made several rookie mistakes like not understanding how player attributes work.  I did fill all my scholarships.  Was particularly proud of my recruit with a great overall rating, not realizing that a LB with 14 speed and 16 game instinct was not going to be all conference.  Lost every game the first season

I remember moving up to D 1-AA and see my Gannon team win its first 14 games as a sim and wonder if I should have stayed in DII

I remember renaming a player Chicken McNugget

I remember in Stagg rebuilding Olivet,but could only beat mjdato's Colorado College once.   

I remember the last time I started a D III team, a 2nd season coach thought I was new and was stunned that a 1st year coach would out recruit him for 2 stud DL.   

I remember co-coaching with awags, and not losing a game for 4 seasons

I remember having great success co-coaching with hookemhorns7 and nyaggie as well.

I remember forums that were very active.  Coaches were helping coaches.  Coaches discussed various football or current event topics.    Forums had some characters like snakep and jeffkaleb.   They could rub some people the wrong way, but were entertaining.

I remember finishing 3rd place in survivor and outwitting columbusbuck into playing his idol when he did note receive a vote.  Voted him out the next time.    He had no idea I knew he had the idol

Most of all, some have been mentioned, but I remember most all the friends I have that I would otherwise never knew.

I remember my first GD experiences as well. My first team was Nebraska Wesleyan (I am from Nebraska). I remember two players I picked up in my first ever recruiting class, Anthony Trotter (QB) and Jeffrey Hale (WR). I remember being really excited for Hale because he was right in Lincoln, NE and I thought size mattered and he was 6'5" or 6'6". I remember trying to gameplan for them during my second season on a vacation in Hawaii

I remember moving up through the ranks in Leahy and never really being successful at Mesa State and then moving to my first DIAA job in Morgan State. I struggled for a while at Morgan State but then I asked some coaches I started in DIII with for some help (cosmicblob, jptrainwreck and tribewriter are the three I remember) and I got to my first every playoff appearance.

I remember I used to have to sneak my dad's credit card to pay for GD since I was too young to have my own.

I remember my first ever DIA job at Bowling Green, I was so ecstatic when I got hired. This is also where I won my first CC

I remember getting fired (the only time in my career) in my first attempt at a BCS school, I was at Kansas State.

I remember when I got hired at Nebraska, my alma mater, I was in chem lab in college. This was in a world that I really hadn't been overly successful prior to this job.

I remember when worlds had waiting lists

I remember several co-coaches... bfkfraser, bubba06, dupa220, huskerfan26... I am sure there were more but I cant remember right now

I agree with bfk I have met some pretty cool people while playing this game. Some are still around and some aren't, some are legendary coaches and others never made it past DII

Worlds had waiting lists? This game could be so good if the right development went into it. Some gambling site should buy it and have it for all the gambling degenerates. This thing could make money and be the ultimate if it had the right developers and backers.

Posted by hogdaddy on 4/9/2015 9:00:00 AM (view original):
Worlds had waiting lists? This game could be so good if the right development went into it. Some gambling site should buy it and have it for all the gambling degenerates. This thing could make money and be the ultimate if it had the right developers and backers.

Agreed. Anyone know how to write code for something like this? I'd put in a few bucks if we could get our own game going.

I remember Steinerat helping me get started and mentoring me on the game.  He was a good guy and lost too soon. RIP.

I remember struggling and not understanding the game for months because I  didn't read what little Wis had on the correct attributes for positions and wouldn't reach out to another coach; I was too proud.  Finally, I did reach out and several other  coaches gave me tidbits of good advice.            
          Believe it or not , Snake was one . Akua, another. Probably others I can't remember.
             I finally learned the game and turned Beloit d3 (Stagg) into a powerhouse for many seasons.
                 Many old Wis Friends. One, 7Yankees7 became a Real Life friend. He has since passed away. It still saddens me when I think about him.
                        Thankful I now have a great group of guys in PSAC conf of d2 Warner I play with.
                              I have had many great games in playoffs vs Many of the past and current top coaches in the lower divisions.  I tried the upper 2 and didn't enjoy them.

I remember playing in a full conference was not a rarity
I remember a conference mate being amazed by a RB recruit only to bve more amazed by the LB I was switching to play RB ahead of him

Posted by reedbaize on 4/9/2015 9:09:00 AM (view original):
I remember Steinerat helping me get started and mentoring me on the game.  He was a good guy and lost too soon. RIP.

agreed

Brian I wouldn't call it co-coaching, it was more like you running the show and me being a cheerleader, especially the run with Western New Mexico to the national championship game.

I remember my first season at St. John Fisher and not knowing a thing. I tried to recruit D-I players to a D-III school, don't think I signed a single guy that first season. I also remember moving to the WIAC in Dobie during the WIAC-SCAC wars, there were so many good coaches in those two leagues like Owen, slider, jasonfreeman, rudyrude, ricemt, cgreenemax that I had no chance in hell of winning but it was a blast.

The best thing about 1.0 was "maddiesdad" spreadsheet.  That spreadsheet taught me so much about excel. Because of it I got a huge raise at work when I designed a huge spreadsheet to track data.

Buffalo Rob(recruiting) and Slid64er(his game planning) taught me everything I needed to know. This is  why it's such a privilege to compete against slid64er in Leahy 3.0.

My 1st national title I was down by 10 at the half and had a walk off field goal victory.
This past season I actually hung with cebrake in the national champ game.
Yatzre Recruit tool saved my marriage<--Dramatization but seriously the tool is flippin awesome.
I had a national championship game bar b que party once.  Everyone was excited...the beer was flowing, the sausage dogs were awesome....and then 2:37 ET came around and I fired up my laptop...quieted everyone down so I could start reading them the 2nd half  of my pbp.  I think everyone thought I was crazy and were all gone by the time I was done reading.  :)  Oh and I won!

I remember when you used to be able to win Amazon gift cards fairly regularly before anyone even knew what Amazon was!

I remember when we were able to carryover all our remaining recruiting funds from one season to the next.........meaning some of us would have $700,000 to $1,000,000 in our recruiting budget and spending over $300,000 on a recruit was possible (all of this at D-1 of course). Why do we not have this anymore? A few of the guys who couldn't compete in recruiting and on the field decided recruiting dollars was the problem and championed it on the forum until change was made.

I remember snake ( We all thought that he was dead ) He could pick an argument with some one or several some ones and not let up on it. Just pushed and pushed a subject till every one wanted to shoot him. He would cuss and swear like a drunken Sailor. Telling every one how stupid they were. Now that is what I call a GD Coach. Too bad that he is gone. He kinda  made the day as long as you where not under the snake attack. 

Oh yea! The game. Hmmmm.  I remember when RBs ruled the roost and a very rear Passing team would do well. Now it is almost even.

If you had $$$$$ left over 
you could carry all  of it over to next season. Now you can only carry over 1/4 of what you save. BECAUSE the better teams spend less money and save more $$$$$ along with getting almost all of the BEST players. Now they get the best but can be fought off if you do it right.

There is more parity in the players only because, except for a few, their #s stink. What we see now in IA is what we use to see when playing IIA. Really good IIA players thought. Not sure about DII or DIII players. A good example is the QBs. Even the #1 ranked QB is not as good as he use to be. The QBs I get now do not hold water to several QBs that I have had in the past and they were record book QBs.

I remember getting up in the middle of the night to check my score and make any changes needed. I don't do that now. I don't need to.

I remember way back when my wife would say, get off that *$#% %*^% com. and git you #$$ to bed you &$$ )(&%#. LOL We bought her a slate and a Com. not she dosn't even notice me any more. LOL Not sure if that is a good thing. :-)

Two season ago I almost quit this game. Again. It is a good thing that I did not. After 9 years of playing this game I wone my first NCC last season. Now I walk arround the house saying. Is that all there is? Is that all there is?