so i have been playing this game for years. this is the beginner guide to winning:

(people will disagree with my methods, but they work. if your goal is to win now then follow my instructions)

#1 pick a team somewhere in he southeast. they have the best recruits. period.

#2 once you have your team and recruiting is underway, spend half your recruiting budget on the first round. you will get a bunch of players green to you, plus the rest should be yellow. the way i do it is i find about 1 of each position that is a stud, and recruit hard*. you are probably asking yourself what is a can't lose guy. find someone who is a top 20 guess guy. the preferable options have high work ethic. in D3 this is especially important.as everybody sucks when you first start out. the trick is once you play for a few seasons, and your formation iq builds up your guys get better..

let's say you have a bunch of mediocre guys that only practice the pro set. once they are juniors and seniors they may not need the best stats if you are playing only the pro set. this gives them a huge advantage . an unfair advantage in my eyes and a lot of coaches may disagree.

think i should provide a footnote*

when i say recruit hard i mean send the appropriate amount of recruiting dollars to guarantee this fool chooses your school. when i find a stud in my 180 i send one of everything, letters, coach calls, guarantee's, the works!, 3 campus visits, and 1 coach and 1 ac home visit.

#3 Dont battle. there is a guy with similar stats somewhere in the country. when you are starting out just don't do it. you think this dude with a good ranking is worth battling over, but really grab the guy who is 10 guess points lower, and has a great work ethic (50+). by the time he is a senior and he has been practicing one formation all along he will will be badass. would you rather spend all your money battling, or get a guy that is comparable much cheaper and have more left over for next year? just find a guy later on and get him cheap. plenty of times i have very little recruiting budget left and i will wait until the day before recruiting ends and find someone for a few hundred bucks and hes way better than a sim. beats getting hosed i guess :)

#4 schedule teams you can beat. don't get crazy the better your record, the better your prestige. the better your prestige, the better your ranking. simple. do it.

#5 if you have a more specific question, most veterans wont give away that information. i will answer to the best of my ability any and all questions. many people will cut me down, but i have been playing for years and this method will help beginners win. now. more advanced strategies to follow :)

Thank you for the advice and pointers.

All of these are fine, but I'm going to vehemently disagree with #4.

Before you even bother reading the rest of my post...answer this: Why are you playing this game?

Now, before I rant...let me say that I do understand scheduling a couple of cupcakes when you first take over at a D3-D1AA program. You do need to raise your vision and that only happens with wins. However, after two seasons, there's no reason why you can't start scheduling real opponents.

With those two qualifiers out of the way, let's begin.

There are plenty of games that allow you to set the skill level to "rookie" or "freshman" and you can just beat up on the computer all day. The great thing about GD is that there are hundreds of other coaches. All have different philosophies, all have different backgrounds, all have different personalities. What's fun about playing 4 or 5 SIM's every season? If that's what you desire, just go play EA Sports.

Secondly, you aren't proving anything to anyone by scheduling crappy opponents. You went 12-1? Great. Any coach can go 12-1 if they rig the schedule correctly. That doesn't prove anything to me. I've never once been impressed with someone's winning percentage...it doesn't mean anything if they don't play anyone. Conversely, this is exactly why coaches like cebrake, ez37, Pete_61, orangepace, gt_deuce, awags, slid64er, mcbethbr, and others are so incredible. They have all won tons of NC's and they all do so while playing 4 to 5 really tough NON-CONFERENCE games each season. None of those coaches stray away from tough opponents...why? Because they are confident in their own abilities. Scheduling crap teams tells me what you think of your own abilities. And for the record, I won't ever consider myself a great coach until I start winning more of those tough games. But at least I'm trying.

Thirdly, you will never, ever, ever learn until you start scheduling tough coaches. You think your air-raid offense is unstoppable? Try it against a proven coach and find out. If you lose, go back to the drawing board. If you win, you're onto something. Tired of getting knocked out in the first round? Schedule a coach that continually makes it to semi-finals or further and take notes. Find out what they do well and how you can improve. After the game, send them a sitemail and gather their thoughts. Unless the SIM starts providing advice, you'll never find any value in not scheduling humans. The only thing you're gaining from these easy schedules is a false sense of entitlement.

Lastly, is anyone here truly just not competitive? Maybe it's just me but I came here to prove that I can hang with the best in the game (I can't yet). I didn't come here for a self-esteem boost, I didn't come here to get something handed to me. I'm here because something told me this game could provide the same intensity and competitiveness that sports provided me in high-school and college. Maybe that's just me though.

Go out and schedule tough teams...don't be afraid.

Here's a quote, that I know bhazlewood will appreciate, to end the rant: "To be the man, you've got to BEAT the man."

I'm sure some coaches prefer to play sims only. I think the majority would prefer to play humans. The problem is GD rules rewards them for playing sims. ( opposite of Div 1A) . You need wins to improve vision. You need vision to get top shelf players.

It sounds good in theory that playing the top teams makes you better. It doesn't, until you have somewhat similar talent. You will never know if your Air Raid offense actually works, or doesn't, until you have reasonably similar talent as your human opponent.

The day they make ranking > wins, is the day more coaches will start scheduling humans.

Posted by realist9900 on 11/7/2016 11:03:00 AM (view original):
I'm sure some coaches prefer to play sims only. I think the majority would prefer to play humans. The problem is GD rules rewards them for playing sims. ( opposite of Div 1A) . You need wins to improve vision. You need vision to get top shelf players.

It sounds good in theory that playing the top teams makes you better. It doesn't, until you have somewhat similar talent. You will never know if your Air Raid offense actually works, or doesn't, until you have reasonably similar talent as your human opponent.

The day they make ranking > wins, is the day more coaches will start scheduling humans.

As I said,

"Now, before I rant...let me say that I do understand scheduling a couple of cupcakes when you first take over at a D3-D1AA program. You do need to raise your vision and that only happens with wins. However, after two seasons, there's no reason why you can't start scheduling real opponents."

You also need those tough teams to accept that schedule request.

Posted by cjsweat on 11/7/2016 11:05:00 AM (view original):

Posted by realist9900 on 11/7/2016 11:03:00 AM (view original):
I'm sure some coaches prefer to play sims only. I think the majority would prefer to play humans. The problem is GD rules rewards them for playing sims. ( opposite of Div 1A) . You need wins to improve vision. You need vision to get top shelf players.

It sounds good in theory that playing the top teams makes you better. It doesn't, until you have somewhat similar talent. You will never know if your Air Raid offense actually works, or doesn't, until you have reasonably similar talent as your human opponent.

The day they make ranking > wins, is the day more coaches will start scheduling humans.

As I said,

"Now, before I rant...let me say that I do understand scheduling a couple of cupcakes when you first take over at a D3-D1AA program. You do need to raise your vision and that only happens with wins. However, after two seasons, there's no reason why you can't start scheduling real opponents."

... and if you lose, your vision drops....and someone has to lose, either you, or your human opponent. One of you is going to have their vision drop.

The way GD has set it up there is no upside for scheduling humans except at Div1A

Edit: and quite frankly it's a fools errand to "play for the challenge" against established teams with better talent and more coaching experience. Too many new players fall by the wayside that way. Even after a couple of seasons they will get roasted by the established teams. Then after a 60-0 loss they get the " good game" post on conference forums lol

Talent trumps all. Coaching only comes into effect when the talent is somewhat close. You will never ever learn the coaching mechanics until your talent is closer to your opponent.

Others can make their suggestions to new players. My advice to them ... win as many games as you can. Get 4 years of recruiting classes and redshirts before you even consider being fodder for the established teams. Get yatzrs for recruiting and post game analysis.

GL

Before you schedule real opponents , compare your roster to his . Closely look at the matchup of your game plan to his formations . There is no reason for you to accept an out of conference schedule if you don't have a chance of winning at least 3 of those games . Why would you schedule yourself against the top conference teams when your talent is inferior to theirs . There is no joy in going up against top talent teams and getting your butt whipped embarrassingly . Schedule what you feel comfortable with and enjoy the game . The seasons will come upon you when you know this could be your chance to shine . You'll know the talent you have and the game plan to make it work . Don't bother too much about WIS ranking , I have always found that your ranking will take care of itself . When you get an invite to NC , whether your the #1 seed or #8 seed in a region , its a whole new game and you have a chance to move to next round . Scout your opponent , see how you match up and adjust accordingly . I have taken a 9-4 conference team to the NC and won it.
What I am saying is , do what your feel comfortable with , schedule within your teams capabilities and talent , if that's 5 sims , so be it . Get comfortable with the feeling of winning games and continually improve your vision , not only the vision of recruiting talent , but your personal vision , enjoy the game .

The fascinating thing about GD is that it's really 4 different games. Sure, the basic trappings are the same for each division, but the way you play the game, at least in the more nuanced ways, is vastly different.

At D2 and D3 it makes zero sense to schedule humans OOC. The name of the game there is vision, and vision comes with wins. Of course, if you want real success, you'll have to beat humans.

Posted by bhazlewood on 11/7/2016 2:42:00 PM (view original):
The fascinating thing about GD is that it's really 4 different games. Sure, the basic trappings are the same for each division, but the way you play the game, at least in the more nuanced ways, is vastly different.

At D2 and D3 it makes zero sense to schedule humans OOC. The name of the game there is vision, and vision comes with wins. Of course, if you want real success, you'll have to beat humans.

Agree both points div1 is a completely different game

My experience at D3 and D2 has been this:

Schedule weaklings until you get some decent vision and can recruit talent that can compete with the big dogs. When that happens, schedule whomever you want. In D3 (Wilkinson) under version 2.0, we routinely had the top teams playing other top teams in OOC play. I'm gonna say that out of the top 15 regulars....about 10 of those had tough OOC schedules. A few guys would only schedule SIMs. But we all knew we were gonna make the playoffs. Might not have 5 top 10 opponents, but at least 2 once I got to that point.

I have observed the same at D2 in Heisman a while back. Top teams like to play top teams. You might lose a game, but its not a playoff game....so you get to see how you stack up without much negative impact.....your season still continues.

The key here is understanding when you can "compete" with the big dogs. Until you have top 10 talent....its pretty much useless to try to take on the perennial 17-1 team. And the only thing you learn when there is a talent mismatch....is that talent trumps playbook.

I had an 8-5 record a few seasons ago because of the relegation challenge we have in our non conference scheduling in Wilkinson D1-AA. I had the #1 SOS and made the playoffs because of that. It's a game for enjoyment, so do what you like. However, to me there's nothing like playing top level human opponents.