Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what is this supposed to mean?
" He's made good strides towards reaching his potential over the past couple years.
This kid has the attitude we're looking for, Coach.
He's got the speed, but guys seem to get away from him a lot.
We might be able to use him on our special teams units."
I suppose "attitude" means WE, but what is the rest supposed to mean?

It means his WE is good, but his Growth potential is not going to be a lot. The rest of it doesn't matter at all. Just meaningless fluff.

The first line in that response is the only one to pay attention to. The rest is complete garbage. Read below to decipher that first line. You want players with good to great potential.

Scouting Report Messages:

Great potential
1. Sky's the limit (in the AC scouting rreport)
2. Incredible upside potential (in the AC scouting rreport)
3. A truly gifted athlete (in the HC scouting report)

Good potential
1. Above average potential (in the HC scouting report)
2. He's got the potential to improve his game a lot over 4 years with us. (in the AC scouting report)
3. I'm sure that your guys took some good notes about my game, and recognized that I have an amazing upside to my game. (message from recruit)
4. Upside is my middle name (message from recruit)
5. "improve a lot" (from AC scouting report)
6. "room to grow".
7. "With a little work, he could be a very good player" (from HC scouting report)
8. "Good potential for improvement" (from the HC scouting report)
9. "He's not the most gifted athlete . . . but not bad at all." (from the HC scouting report).

Average potential:
1. Looks like he has a hard time making adjustments. (from the HC scouting report)
2. He's made good strides towards reaching his potential over the past couple years. (from the AC scouting report)
3. I think his growth potential is pretty average - nothing special. (from the AC scouting report)
4. My motor never stops running (message from recruit)
5. I give 110% out there (message from recruit)
6. I'm sure that your guys took some good notes about my game, and recognized that I've worked really hard and lived up to my potential. (message from recruit) - This should actually be low potential.
7. "Some room for improvement, but not much." (from HC scouting report)
8. "Probably won't see huge improvements." (from HC scouting report)
9. "He seems slow to pick things up in practice." (from HC scouting report)

Low potential
1. "he's worked really hard in high school and has about reached his potential (from AC scouting report)
2. "tapped out" (from AC or HC scouting report, I forget which -- it's been a while since I've seen this message).

Thanks, guys..I'm just coming over from HD, and the recruiting messages in GD seem sort of vague.

Another question: there seems to be a pattern to the quotes in the Head Coach home visit (I think, or maybe the Head Coach scouting report) about the teammates car or the training table or blatantly unhealthy diet, etc ... but I can't figure out what it applies to.

It doesn't. The first line of the scouting report reveals that prospects potential and that is the only line that matters.

Posted by spcbuzzard on 11/28/2016 6:22:00 PM (view original):
It doesn't. The first line of the scouting report reveals that prospects potential and that is the only line that matters.

While this is dumb, it's true. The scouting report is completely meaningless EXCEPT for potential, which is a big deal. Unlike Hoops, potential is applicable to all attributes, so if a guy is high potential it isn't just in one category.

Cool, thanks.

Another question: if I promise a certain percentage of plays, and later I need to up the ante, can I do it or am I locked in?

You'll be locked in however I don't have any definite proof that a high % sways the player anymore than a low %. One would assume it does but I haven't found a good way to test it.

Born again newbie here . like rodney, im going back to school. been a long, long time. any big changes i should be aware of ?

I need a refresher.......recruiting in Stagg opens at noon today. When will the first cycle process? Quickly realizing I'm way too old to be able to do this on my phone......

The first recruiting cycle is 24 hours. Every cycle after that is 3 hours (3 p.m. ET, 6 p.m., 9 p.m., etc.). The biggest changes have been the dumbing down of D3 and the newest version of the game engine, which seems to favor a balanced offensive attack more than the previous two versions.