**Sorry this turned out long**
Personally, I think 1AA recruiting in Wilk is the most challenging recruiting situation in all of WIS. I love recruiting so I find this challenge enjoyable on many levels. Regardless of the outcome of a recruiting season, I always feel challenged and entertained which means (at least for me) I received entertainment value for my money. I thought I would list out some of my reflections below for no other reason than some of you may enjoy reading them.
All of the comments below are from the 1AA perspective. All of my comments should be qualified by (i) I personally do not like 1A mainly because it does not have a playoff and (ii) there are many good coaches out there that will have different opinions.
It should also be noted that these Wilk reflections come from my experiences at Texas Southern. 1AA teams in CA or the NE will probably have different experiences.
1. Good 1A Coaches Make for Good Neighbors.
I absolutely love having good 1A coaches around me (flippen, devo, ebel). Why? I know that these coaches are targetting 1A talent, are selective in their battles and have set systems in place at their respective schools. In short, they are all predictable from a recruiting standpoint. I can guess with a decent level of certainty what they need each year and the level with which they will recruit their need. Frankly, this allows me to stay out of their way unless I go looking for a fight.
This might be polly-anna, but I think they probably view me as a decent coach and they probably know where I will target and whether I am inclined to battle or not as well for a particular player. All of this is done without collusion, communication or any other method. This is a situation where you have good coaches that can guess how best to allocate their dollars.
2. I Totally Understand a New 1A Coach Needs to Rebuild
When ebel first came to Houston (TSU and Houston are both in...guess it..Houston), I knew the first two seasons Houston was going to be recruiting upper-tier 1AA talent. Hey, we get it...no worries. That just means that I had to drop down a tier or two or look outside a bit of my 360. Or, with a select few recruits, battle it out. The good news (and the key) is that I can live with this situation because I know it will change very quickly. I know ebel is a good coach and after a season or two he would set his sights higher on the food chain.
3. Appreciation for Unsung Decisions
flippen and devo and arcade come to mind here. I am not sure I have ever communicated with these coaches that much, but they have all been at their respective Texas 1A schools a long time and where there prior to me taking over TSU (I think). All of them have taken green recruits from me and I have battled a bit probably with all three. I appreciate three things in particular about being around these coaches:
(i) if there is a SIM recruit at the same level, they knock off the Sim recruit first.
(ii) none of them have ever taken a pure 1AA level recruit from me on the last cycle and if they had to take that level of a recruit, they either took a SIM or dropped even a rung below to take a similar 1AA recruit that was not green for someone.
(iii) every battle I have ever had with those coaches was during the first couple of days...never had one drop on a 1AA recruit at the very end.
Obviously these are good coaches that are going to improve their teams and I would have no anger if they violated the above points I am making. I just want other coaches to know that I (and other 1AA coaches) appreciate those decisions where you don't blow up our teams.
4. Unpredictable Coaches Make for Bad Neighbors
The worst 1A coach to be around is one that is not predictable IMO from a recruiting standpoint. A good example is waking up to find you are in a battle on a 73 rated DL in your 360 with a 1A coach that does not have a glaring need at DL and there are 5 similar DL with Sims on them. That is just silly and disruptive IMO. The idea I am guessing is that the 1A coach thinks he will spend less knocking off a 1AA team than knocking off a Sim. I suppose many times this is true. I think you run the risk of two things in this situation as a 1A coach: (i) I remember that you are jacking me around and (ii) I tend to be efficient with my recruiting money...I might just make you pay for that odd decision.
Here is the good news as a 1A coach. If you are predictable and make (what I would consider) obvious recruiting decisions, most 1AA teams will just stay out of your way. It is not to my personal benefit to battle 1A teams for average 1AA talent.
5. Signal Your Intent
One of the things I love about awags in recruiting is that he will always try to signal his intent. For example, he might turn a WR rated 69 yellow on you, but you can tell from his targets that he turned him yellow as a back up for the WR rated 75 he is in a battle on with another 1A school. In short, there is a method to what he is doing. That allows me to make a guess on whether he will win that battle or not, then I can plan accordingly.
I am not talking collusion or communication outside the game. Signal your intent by your actions. Turning a WR yellow on me when you are in a WR battle let's me know what you are doing and allows me to plan.
6. Don't Lock Up Every 1AA Talent with your Rebuild
I sang ebel's praises earlier, now I will use him as an example of something that is frustrating. By the way, I am a huge ebel fan, so I am using him as an example because I know he will not take anything personally.
When you are in your first season of a rebuild, don't lock down all the QB's [insert other positions] in the entire region. Grab one or two that you like, or better yet target the 1AA talent you need for that particular year. Locking down all the talent at one position leaves a ton of guessing on the 1AA coach and a huge waste of money either battling you (if I guess wrong) or sitting waiting on your to make your decision on which 1AA guy you want to sign.
I think ebel turned 6 QB's green in my 360 his first year. Blah.
Conclusions:
1. First, the purpose of this post was not to offend anyone. I would say 90% of all of our coaches are top notch.
2. Second, major props to ebel. I used him in a few examples because I think he is a top notch coach and will not get offended.
3. Third, my comments are just my personal reflections. Every year and every situation is unique and there exceptions to every rule or idea.
Finally, thanks coaches for making this the most enjoyable world. I am having more fun right now than ever before in this game.
nitros