I'm hoping to have 12 legit players for the first time ever on one of my teams, and want to redshirt one of my 6 incoming freshmen. The guy I'd most like to redshirt based on his awesome potential and poor current ratings has a 22 current WE.

Will he develop enough during the redshirt season *AND* keep the ratings gains in his first offseason for the redshirt year to be worthwhile, or should I play him & try to get him some starts as a freshman to get the WE bump?

You're not going to get much out of a RS, but it should be a slight overall positive gain. The real benefit would be an extra season of IQ gain for him, which would keep him closer to the rest of your team in the following seasons.

I think the biggest benefit of the redshirt here would be to maximize playing time. If you are three deep in the position you intend to play him at, the redshirt will pay dividends in four years (or however many years until the depth in front of him clears up). If he is going to slot in as a starter or significant minute back-up, then you will not get as much out of the redshirt.

For example, with my Tranny squad in Smith, I redshirted my frosh center, Sullivan because I have two other centers on the roster and this will give me more seasons that he will actually contribute to the team, instead of the 2-10 minutes an 11th or 12th guy gets a game. If you play press, this is a different story and the depth is significantly more valuable so there is little to be gained from the redshirt besides the IQ that mlitney mentioned.

Tranny squad...?

The better option is just don't recruit 22 WE guy. I put my min at 35.

IF you could afford to do it this season, I'd try to start and play him as much as possible as a freshman. Get that WE up to 28 or 29, then try and R/S him as a sophomore. It's not a guarantee he'll take the R/S as a sophomore, so it's a gamble, but he'll be less likely to lose those gains with a 28 WE compared to a WE of 22.

Like some have said before, simply the IQ boost from the redshirt is nice, even if his ratings won't change a ton. You could start him all season then try to redshirt him as a sophomore.

Posted by bigham23 on 5/5/2021 1:55:00 PM (view original):
Tranny squad...?

Transylvania.

Posted by CoachSpud on 5/5/2021 5:56:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bigham23 on 5/5/2021 1:55:00 PM (view original):
Tranny squad...?

Transylvania.

spud back?

Unless you can start him all season - the truest of rebuilds - I back mlitney's opinion.

Mind blown, topdoggg. I tend to not even investigate players under C in WE when doing a general recruit search unless other rating letters are outstanding. When searching the recruit pool I tend to set search filters for 2-3 categories at minimum (no sh*tty D or ATH for bigs, for example). Without filters I don't know how I'd have the time to narrow the recruiting pool down. How do you narrow the field to focus on players you want without spending untold hours sifting through cr*p? Of course I'm a D2 coach with medium prestige so maybe I'm not your audience for this advice? I'm clearly not being open-minded enough based on your thoughts, I guess I should be at least considering players with D WE...

Posted by cubcub113 on 5/5/2021 6:55:00 PM (view original):

Posted by CoachSpud on 5/5/2021 5:56:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bigham23 on 5/5/2021 1:55:00 PM (view original):
Tranny squad...?

Transylvania.

spud back?

I've been playing GD pretty much all along, until a week or two ago. And I'll be back in the fall after Adam has cleaned up the game and/or they have the new GD replacement game out.

Posted by CoachSpud on 5/9/2021 12:22:00 PM (view original):

Posted by cubcub113 on 5/5/2021 6:55:00 PM (view original):

Posted by CoachSpud on 5/5/2021 5:56:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bigham23 on 5/5/2021 1:55:00 PM (view original):
Tranny squad...?

Transylvania.

spud back?

I've been playing GD pretty much all along, until a week or two ago. And I'll be back in the fall after Adam has cleaned up the game and/or they have the new GD replacement game out.

GD replacement game?!

Posted by fletch1313 on 5/9/2021 12:29:00 AM (view original):
Mind blown, topdoggg. I tend to not even investigate players under C in WE when doing a general recruit search unless other rating letters are outstanding. When searching the recruit pool I tend to set search filters for 2-3 categories at minimum (no sh*tty D or ATH for bigs, for example). Without filters I don't know how I'd have the time to narrow the recruiting pool down. How do you narrow the field to focus on players you want without spending untold hours sifting through cr*p? Of course I'm a D2 coach with medium prestige so maybe I'm not your audience for this advice? I'm clearly not being open-minded enough based on your thoughts, I guess I should be at least considering players with D WE...

Ummmm, honestly, on the day recruiting starts, I spend lots of time on it. I've mentioned here that (at D2) I don't even glance at my scouting pool for two seconds during the season. And I don't start paying attention until I can actually spread my AP out.

But when RS1 opens, I only have my pool at L3. And I'm not "narrowing" down anything. In fact I'm doing the opposite. If I have 80 AP, I'm usually putting 3 AP on 20 players that most interest me at L3, and 1 AP on 20 players that I have some interest in. This stage I'm basically just for any talent that is decent. Takes maybe 20 to 30 min as a guess?

Then after the first cycle processes, I work hard. As much as an hour if I'm indecisive. But I'm looking for my top candidate of the 40 players I gave AP to. Judging by 1) the most important resource there is... the considering list. In other words, the players availability to me. 2) the preferences. 3) talent. 4) the scholarship % that came about from my 3 AP (or 1 AP if I choose to target one these guys first instead)...... and in that order of importance. So with that, I have to remove all AP from 38 or 39 of those players. And load it all up on 1 or 2 players I'm going for quickly. That also means I'm checking 40 players considering list to see if I like what I see. So it CAN take time. But I've got it down pretty good so it doesn't take forever. I understand what I'm looking for in a situation these days.