I've been gone for a couple of years and coming back. Does gameplanning matter? It seems by the posting that recruiting is king and if you have the best players you are going to win as long as your game plan doesn't suck.

I think it matters.

I actually feel that it is similar to real life. Having the Best Players "IS" the most important . But when you get to the playoffs you will meet other teams with similar or even better players. And that is where better gameplanning can make the biggest difference.

Unless you have the best vision, you will not get the best players, so game planning helps. It also counts when you face equally matched teams.

The age old GD question. There are so few options available when setting up a game plan. I just can't wrap my head around it making a big impact. At least nowhere near as big of impact as good players. Especially players that fit what you are trying to do.

Likely I need a mentor or something to explain what I am missing when it comes to game planning.

To me, some of what makes game planning matter is just simple football logic - I still see a surprising number of coaches who will run on too often on 3rd & long. I get that running on 3rd & long can be a viable strategy *some* of the time, but not most of the time. And in real life it's usually in the form of a draw play, which I don't think you can really replicate via GD.
So it's good to use game planning to implement basic gridiron smarts at least, and avoid running for 4 yards on a 3rd & 9 play.

Yes. You have to game plan to NOT get your potential game-winning chip shot field goal at the gun to win the Conference Championship blocked.

https://www.whatifsports.com/gd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=6216371

Game planned myself out of this one.

Posted by beebster32 on 2/28/2017 12:09:00 PM (view original):
I've been gone for a couple of years and coming back. Does gameplanning matter? It seems by the posting that recruiting is king and if you have the best players you are going to win as long as your game plan doesn't suck.

I would say yes, I just took the #35 GUESS roster to quarterfinals in Wilkinson. I had to gameplan like crazy

Gameplanning makes a difference.. having a great roster is always useful.. and if you can put both of them together like Pete_61 you can be almost unstoppable.

Can you get by with just a good roster? Probably, for the most part, yes.. but actually winning championships is going to be difficult.

My take: Talent is the most important factor in GD. I would haphazard 50% or more of the equation. The other aspects are game planning, setting your depth charts, distribution of the ball and practice planning. But in a match-up of evenly talented teams talent becomes irrelevant since talent is even. Practice becomes so as well. If you have done even a basic job of setting a sensible GP it comes down to the other two. I have heard game planning as being touted as the difference maker many times on here over the years. But when I hear someone boast about their GP don't they think the other guy GPed? Imo after talent it comes down to whether you had your players in the right positions to make a play and if you were able to get the ball into your best players hands. I recognize that this is where I most lack in this game. This is from what I can tell sets the guys like pete, slid64er, mcBeth and bkdries and a few others apart from everyone else.

Yea jibe I agree with that.

When I say gameplan I dont mean just the "gameplan" but also formations, depth charts, stamina settings, ect. I know many of the best toy with these in order to get the best players into the best opportunities in order to win the game.

It matters. If you want to stop or at least slowdown a better team, you have to do it. You can't go vanilla. Even at DIII.

Talent will get you to the playoffs, but you're not going to go deep or win NCs without strong gameplans.

As others have said, at some point, you're going to face a team with equal talent. Gameplanning and formation IQ are the difference makers, IMO.

Thanks, Is there anybody out there that would like to give me some mentoring on GP's, formations and playbooks?