Can someone please help me? This is my first season in HD and I am doing terrible! Should I make any changes to my depth chart? To my game plan? Practice plan? I would really appreciate any help that i get. Thanks

well sir, simply put you have a young team and 3 walk-ons. Its gonna be tough to win with that many Fr. on the team. My best advice would be stick it out and come back next season. Your team should be much improved next year and you'll only have to replace those walkons.

don't worry about this season.........you actually recruited really well for your first time..........cut mcmann and thomason they are god awful..........and focus on ath/spd/def ratings

You have a team that has six freshmen recruits and three more walk-ons -- that's not a recipe for success any way you slice it. If its any solace, this was going to be a rough year regardless of what you did. 

That said,  two things that jump out at me right away (admittedly, I haven't looked horridly deep...):

1. Absolutely, positively, not under any circumstances would I be playing uptempo with this team, as it appears you've been doing with consistency. Between your walk-ons and your one academic ineligible, you're basically playing with an eight-man lineup when it comes to capable bodies, and five of those eight are frosh...you're going to be at a depth and experience disadvantage pretty much every time you hit the floor. Your athleticism is decent, but your speed is well below that of an average D3 team. The more possessions in the game (which is what uptempo does) the more that youth, lack of speed and lack of depth is going to come into play and from where I'm sitting that just helps your opponent. 

2. IQ-wise, your defense looks like it might not be getting enough practice minutes. Even if all your freshmen started at F, being 19 games into the season I would think the bulk of the IQ's would be at least a half-grade higher than where they are. I'm guessing you're probably allocating 12-15 minutes there right now? I'd bump it to 20 in the future. 

Beyond that, recognize this for what it is...a rebuilding year for your program. Feel free to play around with different lineups and stuff -- its the ideal experimentation situation to play with the +/- settings, different lineups, etc. and see how they affect the game and the stats. That way when your team comes of age in a couple seasons you'll have a fuller body of knowledge to command when making game decisions. 

Mattie, I was in your position for a couple of seasons.  I know going 1-18 feels bad;  I was 2-25 and 4-23 in my first two seasons.  At times I had doubts about whether I wanted to keep trying, but it gradually got better.

What the others say about youth cannot be overstated - it takes more than one season to get a feel for the game (I'm still working on that part myself) and to 'grow' your recruits into useful players.

You have a decent foundation of freshmen - Werner's a good prospect, as are Hoffman, McDade and Stephens. By the time they're juniors they're going to win you a lot of games.  What I did in your situation was to read and re-read the FAQs, read this board and search for topics that interest you, and above all, ask questions.  You're safe because I've already asked a lot of dumb questions and nobody's run me out of town.  Yet :)

Next recruiting class I would be looking for a heavy rebounder and a true guard with good passing and BH skills.

Posted by arssanguinus on 2/19/2011 11:47:00 PM (view original):
Next recruiting class I would be looking for a heavy rebounder and a true guard with good passing and BH skills.

I totally agree with this. Be sure to purchase Future Stars for your state, and maybe a state or two next to you. Try to find a PG that has 40 + BH and Passing and High potential for improvement. And the statement about the tempo is right on too. When you recruit try to stay close to home, and also try to get some Division 2 players if possible.

Before you purchase FSS, do a recruiting search for 300 miles and less. The states that dominate the search results - FSS these states

You also need to give study hall to Freshmen, especially those with HS GPA below 3.0. The guy that is academically ineligible needs probably 10-12 minutes this semester to get his Cum over 2.0.