What’s your preference:

1). A large recruiting population, with a decent amount of competing schools (human coaches).

2). A small recruiting population, with few or no competing schools (human coaches).

There is no right answer to this question, I get it. I’m just curious to see what other coaches out there instinctively lean towards
from a quick generalized assessment instead of delving into the deeper components of recruiting preferences such as playing time, distance from home, prestige, success, playing styles or coaching tenure.

I have usually gone the route of #2. Most of my seasons are in isolated locations like Hawaii, Alaska, DIII Palm Beach Atlantic, etc. Carve out a little piece of real estate and rule it.

I like #1 because I like competition. I think #2 is more likely the optimal situation for getting better players.

I like #2 because I dont like competition....I typically stay away from trying to compete on recruits unless I feel I have a legit shot at winning...even then I still lose when I am "in the lead". Like trenton mentions, I think #2 is optimal for getting the better players since you have no competing schools...and better piece of mind during recruiting.

I think #2 is better if you're attempting to build up a program quickly -- when I started at BYU a lot of the surrounding schools were Sim and I was able to pull in top 50 classes quickly and get them to the level of NT/Second Round in fairly quick order. Once you've established your program with a decent prestige, I think scenario #1 becomes preferable because you then have a competitive edge in recruiting over many of your counterparts and you want the higher population of recruits nearer to you in order to selectively target and utilize your advantages in the pursuit of them.

If you get the right local recruits around you in a #2 situation, it's a monstrous advantage. I coach a PR team in a world because I saw the success some were having, and I promptly had three straight awful crops of PR talent, so my team still sucks...but, if the right guys show up, you have a giant advantage for sure. ANd, as evidenced by some of the PR teams out there, you can create teams that are virtually unstoppable.

The #1 situation is tough to hit the peaks that #2 situations CAN hit. And, in D3 for instance, I think #1 is just a bad situation to get into. My most successful team ever was Montclair St. in Tark where I won 3 Championships. But, with the new game, I didn't feel like it was possible for me to compete there. First, the recruiting budget was just too small at D3 to really recruit the states around, when you have PA and NY so close, along with all the other Northeastern states it's just so tough to get any real coverage scouting. Then, you have dozens of D2 and D1 teams within a couple hundred miles jumping on your recruits late, and the D3 budget makes it impossible to fend them off. At D2 it's a little better, and at D1 it might be fine, I don't have enough experience there to say. But, at D2 and D3 you definitely have an advantage in the right location.

Colorado and PBAU at D3 shouldn't even count as a #2 situation though. Those two schools are basically free passes to the top 25 every season unless you just completely screw up. I have Colorado in Knight and haven't won a title in 30 seasons. Honestly, it feels like that proves I'm not very good at this game, because any decent coach should have at least one title if they've got 30 seasons at either of these schools. I don't usually get absolute superstars at Colorado...but I don't think I've ever had just a flat out bad class there.

Thought deeply about this and considered responding several times but couldn't quite crystallze my thoughts until now. Narrowed it down to.....

The Strong Conference preference.

With it heavily populated areas are more fun. Without it I want some easy prey and enjoy searching for the rest.

I enjoy trying to recruit the lonesome areas, mostly for two reasons:
1) I love the idea of 7'0" athletic baller beasts just growing up on ranches in Wyoming or the mean streets of Seoul SK.
2) I still have the dream that one day I will find a D1/High D2 player in Alaska with a starting athleticism rating over 40. I see some great players in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, but the air is just different up north for producing press defense players.

The next Trajan Langdon will be yours for sure

Posted by FW_Kekionga on 4/7/2018 6:43:00 PM (view original):
I enjoy trying to recruit the lonesome areas, mostly for two reasons:
1) I love the idea of 7'0" athletic baller beasts just growing up on ranches in Wyoming or the mean streets of Seoul SK.
2) I still have the dream that one day I will find a D1/High D2 player in Alaska with a starting athleticism rating over 40. I see some great players in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, but the air is just different up north for producing press defense players.

Before I came to Hawai'i I lived in northwestern Wyoming -- when I first moved there, the community (population approx. 2,400) about 18 miles to the east of us had a kid playing high school ball who was 7'3" as a junior. His older brother who had just graduated the previous year was 6'11" and his younger brother was 6'7" and in the eighth grade.

Needless to say, the local high school didn't win many games in that rivalry for a few years...

That's awesome rednu, gives me hope that I will find a true Big Country from the big country. And while I haven't found a Trajan Langdon yet, I did recruit a Richard Richard to my Chico St. team, which is practically the next best thing.