When you're sizing up your next opponent, what do you look for? What do you consider an exploitable weakness in a defense? Do you look at match-ups (his starters vs your starters), or do you look at his bench? How do you exploit a good match-up? How do you get to his bench? Feel free to rant if you want.

I use the Maddie's Dad spreadsheet to figure out if I have an advantage running or passing and pick the offensive game plan to match their weaknesses.

I also scan over their game film to see what they do with my favorite downs, distance and formation to see if I can take advantage of over-aggressiveness or other issues.

This has won me '0' National Championships.

I don't have Maddie's Dad. How does it compare offense to defense? OL vs DL? RB vs LB? WR vs DB? Some combination?

I've always prided myself on being a good gameplanner, since Lord knows I can't recruit. I like to think it helps me.

Without giving too much away, I use yatzr's game analyzer to sort play types (3rd and long, etc.) and then study what they run in the first/third quarters against what they run near the end of the half/game. It can be very telling, actually, and is a simple method.

If the sheet I have is the actual one, it equates the running, blocking factors and determines the match up.

Posted by caesari on 8/9/2013 3:30:00 PM (view original):
I've always prided myself on being a good gameplanner, since Lord knows I can't recruit. I like to think it helps me.

Without giving too much away, I use yatzr's game analyzer to sort play types (3rd and long, etc.) and then study what they run in the first/third quarters against what they run near the end of the half/game. It can be very telling, actually, and is a simple method.

I game plan a lot like this. One small difference is I look for chances to play very aggressive and count on turnovers/sacks a lot. I like a "big play" defense...

I don't really use any analyzers, just look at what the other coaches tendencies are. Usually takes me about 10 minutes a half. Most coaches don't change too much over time so I go back to their most recent games, if possible human games (some coaches have different sim and human game plans). First I look at in those previous games what their run/pass distro was. If in most games they run or pass more often it helps what general setting I will choose (balances, run, heavy run, etc.). After that I look at the actual play by play in those games. I am looking for two things, what formations they use and what are the tendencies are on those formations.

Most coaches are pretty simple (mostly pass with trips, mostly run with i-form, etc.). If that is the case you have your answer. Generally I spin my general setting towards run/aggressive to stop the run if the guy is fairly balanced. If I can stop the run I make him/her one dimensional and I like my chances.

If you have a coach who game plans a little more look what they do in "bigger" games versus games where they should win. They will save their "better" game plans versus their better opponents. 

Hope this helps. Most coaches are pretty easy to determine, just look at tendencies and adjust at half. Site mail me if you have anything more specific....hope that helps.

I use a combination of what the others are talking about. I have yatzr's game analyser but haven't used it much lately. I usually look at the quarters that my opponent has scored a lot vs other humas (except last like 5-6 min of the end of each half) to see tendencies. I usually do this for at least a couple games to determine if they change things up game to game, or keep things consistent for each opponent.

I also look to see how aggressive the plays are for my opponent (i.e. longer passes or running outside vs middle) and I change my defense aggressiveness accordingly to what I have found works vs that particular formation(s) and setting.

There's always the trial & error method...

Posted by ufdtorres on 8/10/2013 2:18:00 AM (view original):
I don't really use any analyzers, just look at what the other coaches tendencies are. Usually takes me about 10 minutes a half. Most coaches don't change too much over time so I go back to their most recent games, if possible human games (some coaches have different sim and human game plans). First I look at in those previous games what their run/pass distro was. If in most games they run or pass more often it helps what general setting I will choose (balances, run, heavy run, etc.). After that I look at the actual play by play in those games. I am looking for two things, what formations they use and what are the tendencies are on those formations.

Most coaches are pretty simple (mostly pass with trips, mostly run with i-form, etc.). If that is the case you have your answer. Generally I spin my general setting towards run/aggressive to stop the run if the guy is fairly balanced. If I can stop the run I make him/her one dimensional and I like my chances.

If you have a coach who game plans a little more look what they do in "bigger" games versus games where they should win. They will save their "better" game plans versus their better opponents. 

Hope this helps. Most coaches are pretty easy to determine, just look at tendencies and adjust at half. Site mail me if you have anything more specific....hope that helps.

Yes, I look at the 3-4 most recent human games if they have any. If not, I usually save boxscores from the previous season and hope to god those help me. LOL

The worst is trying to game plan with coaches who don't believe in practice times and they use all the formations depending on what strategy they want to attack you with. Best advice I ever got was game plan offensively to expose your opponent and cross your fingers the WIS's randomness/goofiness  takes care of your Defense plan.

I have a couple of different offensive gameplans that I use (I do not modify them).  I'll use one or both depending on the opponent and how they have played against those formations throughout the season.

On Defense, I have a standard defensive gameplan that usually gives pretty good results (made it to D1AA NC game two seasons ago and never changed the defense till the semifinal).  I will modify that based on what I think the opponent is going to do (run vs pass mix, score, etc)

The talent does somewhat dictate how you can play.

I pretty much do what uf does. I chart my upcoming opponent's tendencies according to down and distance, run or pass and what formation is used for that criteria. I usually don't mess with my offense. Only changes I make are with the defense both before the upcoming game and at half time. It usually takes me about an hour to get through 4 games a day.

we're supposed to gameplan?

LOL,bob...funny as that seems...I had a conference mate in one world that claimed he didn't game plan the whole season. He won an NC that year.