I am addressing this to D1 Coaches primarily who have experienced D1 recruiting. I consider myself experienced, and a pretty successful recruiter. But at the D1 level have never advanced beyond the sweet sixteen, and that only once. I have diagnosed the problem with how I recruit backup options when actually recruiting for a position of need.

I fail terribly bad when my top guy goes another direction, and the the cascade effect kicks in which is every single guy I turn to sins before I can get interest generated. I am then left with nothing to show for the cycle, when I needed that signee to be a contributor.

Any advice here on the forums, or sitemail as to how you all line up second and third options. My latest tragic story is my WVU team and my quest to find replacements for three four year starters and the rest of my squad is of only backup quality and role players. Especially PF and PG. I think I will be okay at SF.

This doesn't answer your question directly.. but you play M2M with WVU so you don't need to fill out your roster with 12 players. Shoot for 10 guys. This means that you don't HAVE to have backups if your top choices fall through.

Posted by Benis on 6/19/2018 9:10:00 AM (view original):
This doesn't answer your question directly.. but you play M2M with WVU so you don't need to fill out your roster with 12 players. Shoot for 10 guys. This means that you don't HAVE to have backups if your top choices fall through.

That is how I am set up now. The last two on my bench are either walk on or blind offer's on recruits from WV.

During scouting, I sort guys into 3 groups: Blue dots are potential top priorities I may be willing to max resources, offer promises, invest a lot of attention into, etc; green dots are lower priority, lower starting OVR guys with high potential, who I may end up visiting, but not likely to get a start or high AP investments; orange dots are backup options.

I aim to have 5-6 guys dotted for each scholarship I intend to fill. Before recruiting starts, if I have too many blue dots - for example, if I have 4 scholarships open, I’m not going to go all in on 6 guys - I move some guys from blue to red. This means they are basically guys I will watch, to see what battles shape up. I will often end up with one blue, 1-2 green, and 2-4 orange at each scholarship I intend to fill, with a couple extra red guys I keep an eye on.

It’s important to keep in mind here that secondary and backup options are not the 2-5 best players you can find. They are different types of players from your top priorities. Secondary guys are guys you may need to hide on your roster for a couple years, but you can project them to be good enough to contribute or even start a few years down the line, if needed. Likewise, backups are guys who may have flaws that will keep you from ever wanting to give them more than ~10 minutes per game, whose value is limited to being able to keep your top guys fresh. In other words, better than a walkon. Some folks think the resources you will get next season from a walkon are more valuable than having a guy in that spot for 1-5 seasons. I disagree, but that’s a gameplay preference, you decide that for yourself.

I use a much bigger chunk of initial AP on my top priority, especially if he wants to sign in the first session, and really double extra especially if he wants to play. Say I have 4 scholarships. I will probably blue dot 3 guys, plan to lose at least 1 in battle. So I will also want to try to get a couple green dot guys on the line. I chose my top top priority, usually a guy who will sign first session, and he’ll get somewhere around 55 AP that first session. Unless he’s not a good preference match (in which case, he is not likely to be a top priority), 55 is generally enough to get the scholarship unlocked first cycle. Of the remaining 45 AP, usually 10-15 will go to each of the other blue dots, and the rest will get spread out among secondary priorities and backups.

I adjust AP allocation as cycles go on, and battles develop, paying close attention to when guys want to sign. I do not subscribe to the theory that it is useful to ignore backup options, and invest those extra 5-10 AP on top priorities every cycle. It’s a strategy to use, but not the only, and not the best, IMO. 1-2 AP per cycle has a much bigger impact on secondary and backup options than they have on guys already getting lots of AP investment, and moving into visits and promises.

As a general rule, I keep about 10% of AP on backups through most of the recruiting session. I generally target lates and whenevers as backups.

As recruiting goes on, and the backups are recruited by schools I can't outspend I remove the AP's and shift them onto a different backup. By the end of the first session, I usually have 20-30 APs on half a dozen guys. If I need to, I will put enough APs into a guy at the end of the first session to open up other options for the quick strike in the second session.

To be honest, your question is the same everyone is asking when it comes to
D1 recruiting. It can be a difference maker. To me, it's about bluff and lies, hiding your decisions without compromising your effort. But sometimes, it's just impossible to do anything, resources are lacking, you are surrounded, your read on others efforts is wrong and so on. I do not draft the same ad I did before, I invest on a must top player or two, one second tier and one third tier if I have six schollies, and I open up on many other targets hoping they are neglected and I can make a steal or a late push bur I can't get into too many rolls in the southeast, it kills classes when you get unlucky.

Posted by wvufan76 on 6/19/2018 10:22:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Benis on 6/19/2018 9:10:00 AM (view original):
This doesn't answer your question directly.. but you play M2M with WVU so you don't need to fill out your roster with 12 players. Shoot for 10 guys. This means that you don't HAVE to have backups if your top choices fall through.

That is how I am set up now. The last two on my bench are either walk on or blind offer's on recruits from WV.

You don't have any walk ons right now. And what do you mean by "blind offers"? That seems like a bad idea.

Similar to previous comments:

I tend to leave backup options as players who will have a greater impact on my team later in their career, or players who be role players. Say a center who plays great defense and rebounds, but has limited offense.

I tend to put a few AP on my backup options in the middle of the first recruiting period. I usually put 5-10 AP on each backup that doesn't appear to have significant competition, that way if i do decide to go after them, I can usually get an idea of how much AP investment im looking at in order to unlock recruiting options.

As a side note:

I tend to have 2-4 blue dots per scholarship, those tend to be my main targets. Those are typically guys who will be stars within my lineup that year or starting in their SO year. I then will have 4 or so green dots who are guys to keep an eye on, like maybe guys I might have a chance to snipe before the signing period or are still great targets but not my main focus. Green dots serve as my first backup plan, as maybe i might put a few reach players in there or players across country that I'd like to keep an eye on to see how much competition im facing.

And then I tend to have 10 or so orange per scholarship who are solely as a backup option. Maybe players who will begin to impact in the last half of their career. Or the role players.

Wvu I sent you a sitemail but another thought to conserve AP is to drop 1-3 pts on tier 2 guys that meet your needs, potential etc, and are signing late. This puts more AP in your pocket to get that early offer in, scare off the pack, etc. As your early targets get picked off, you still have some leverage with reasonable targets in period 2.

bump

Posted by Benis on 6/19/2018 12:58:00 PM (view original):

Posted by wvufan76 on 6/19/2018 10:22:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Benis on 6/19/2018 9:10:00 AM (view original):
This doesn't answer your question directly.. but you play M2M with WVU so you don't need to fill out your roster with 12 players. Shoot for 10 guys. This means that you don't HAVE to have backups if your top choices fall through.

That is how I am set up now. The last two on my bench are either walk on or blind offer's on recruits from WV.

You don't have any walk ons right now. And what do you mean by "blind offers"? That seems like a bad idea.

Blind Offers at D1 Means Slightly different then it does at D2 and D3
A D1 "blind" only level two or three recruit ratings revealed. Do not have full recruit data.

At D2 and D3 I will even recruit a level one guy rather then a walk on.

I started doing this and taking whatever reputation hit I get because Sim walk on's will normally be a position you already are deep at. I hate that fact, and have suggested that you as a Coach get input as to what position needs depth. I was a Student Manager at D2 Concord when in College, and Coach always "picked" what walk on he allowed to sit the pines. By taking a blind or a player I am "information Blind" on, I at least pick the position he plays.

Posted by dirtycajun on 6/19/2018 1:48:00 PM (view original):
Wvu I sent you a sitemail but another thought to conserve AP is to drop 1-3 pts on tier 2 guys that meet your needs, potential etc, and are signing late. This puts more AP in your pocket to get that early offer in, scare off the pack, etc. As your early targets get picked off, you still have some leverage with reasonable targets in period 2.

Thank you. I have received several and have rethought my process a bit.