Here are some thoughts I share with folks new to the game or coming back from a long absence.
Recruiting is probably the biggest aspect of GD in getting a team competitive asap.
In my initial recruiting season at a school, I try to make the roster as close to my desired setup as possible. So, if you already know what off/def you'll be using just try to fill any shortcomings in those positions. The easiest way to do that is to get those undecideds. However, there may not be many if the team doesn't have super good "vision". The upper echelon recruits within your division search won't be visible to the mid and lower tier schools (and most sims school fall into this area).
Also, recommend staying within you 360, especially your 180, even if there are solid recruits with sims on them. The other thing to know is how many other human coaches are in your 360/180. Eb's GD Analyst tool (more info on his tool later in msg) is great for seeing that very easily.
Be careful about over-extending yourself financially since other upper echelon teams can see a lot of those same undecideds and will like send them AC scouts. If they’re far outside your 360 you'll likely find yourself in a battle.
Recruiting it's all about who puts forth the most EFFORT. Folks constantly mistake $$$ spent as a gauge for "how much it takes to land a recruit". While it can be a so-so indicator there are too many variables to let yourself get tunnel vision focusing on $$$. Again, it's NOT about how much money gets spent, it's about how much EFFORT the recruit "senses". Let’s imagine our records, rep, loyalty, etc. are all equal and we're the same distance from a recruit: I spend 100K on AC Scouts and you spread the same 100K on scouts, home visits, campus visits, playing time, & starts. The recruit "senses" that you have put more effort into recruiting him than I have. You've invited him to campus, you and the AC have visited his home, you've called and sent letters....all I've done is send my stupid AC to watch him play. Heck, it's likely I could spend 100K in AC Scouts and you could spend 70K over a variety of recruiting options and he'd still "sense" you've put more effort into recruiting him than I have. Now let's say you were 800 miles from a recruit and I was 15 miles from that same recruit. I could put forth 10% more effort (scouts, calls, letters, home visits, campus visits, etc.) than you but spend less $$$ in the process than you because my recruiting rates are cheaper since I'm closer. Even though you dumped more $$$ into him he'd very likely sign with me since I showed him more love. And when those reports come in that say the recruit "...sounds ready to sign" does NOT mean the recruit is ready to sign with YOUR team....even if the report says the recruit is "....eager to come on board". It simply means he’s getting closer to making his decision. And SIM AI teams continue to recruit every recruiting cycle, they have unlimited bank. That's why it's imperative to knock ‘em off ASAP!!!
YEARS ago I was told these approximate percentages compared to a Campus visit and they seem to ring true (i.e., the recruit perceives an AC Scout to carry about 16% as much EFFORT as a Campus Visit, so he'd have to get about 6.5 AC Scouts to match one Campus Visit:
16% AC Scout
28% HC Scout
50% AC Home Visit
63% HC Home Visit
I received no info on the percentages/values of phone calls & letters but experience shows these barely resonate with a recruit when it comes to recruiting effort recognized by that recruit. Next would be playing time, starts, & scholarships but the exact order of perceived effort when using this is not known to me, yet.
Finding upper echelon guys is based on that almighty vision. I definitely schedule sims for non-conf to get the win total up as high as possible so that my vision will improve. You can grab the best guys you can see in your recruiting search but if there are dozens better that you can't see, you're just treading water. Increase those wins to open up the top tier vision.
Your vision, which is based on your team's recent success (usually current three years), determines the number and quality of recruits you'll see in your recruit search for your level, i.e. DIII, DII, etc. Let's say we're both in DII and I've won 40+ games total over the past three years and you've won about 22 games in those three years. I will "see" and be able to recruit and sign a lot more players than you will.
You can recruit any recruit in the database but only those recruits that show up in your level recruit search results are the ones you can sign. So don't waste your time or budget on recruits that don't show up in your level recruit search results. Of course, you can recruit and sign any recruits that is at any level below yours. i.e., if you're at DIAA you can recruit and sign any players that show up in the DII or DIII search...but would you want to sign them? Hmmm.
A great recruiting tool was created by ebzimny. You can download the GD Recruiting Assistant from here:
https://github.com/ebzimny01/gd-recruit
He has a brief demo video and info on how to setup and use the tool on that website. Once you get the recruits to download via this tool there is an in-tool option to dump out an excel spreadsheet.
His tool allows for recruits to be grabbed anytime. The caution though is to ensure rollover has occurred before you grab recruits as you start identifying which recruits you wish to target. You'll know rollover has occurred when your recruiting page shows your available scholarships and the recruiting budget.
When using zimny’s recruiting tool it pulls the "mid-line" quality recruits from the particular division you're searching. For instance, if you're a really poor history team and look at zimny's tool you'll see players that DO NOT show up in the WIS GD recruiting search for your division. And inversely, if you're a really good team zimny's tool WILL NOT show all the players you can recruit for your level. You'll have to compensate for both these issues by making sure the guys you're looking at in zimny's tool show up in the search results for your level in WIS GD search. I realize this is a bit convoluted but zimny's tool has no way to search for individual vision; i.e., if I have a poor team and you have a great team, we'll still see the same recruits for our division pull using zimny's tool.
What I do is ALWAYS pull recruits from the next higher level (an option on the zimny tool) and then just eliminate those players that do not show up in my WIS GD recruit search results.
Another one of his useful tools is the Recruit Analyzer:
https://gdanalyst.herokuapp.com/
This tool is helpful in seeing where schools are located and which school are human coached and which aren't. It also has a 180 ring and a 360-ring depicted when you click the school's map icon. And within this tool is also a Game Analyzer. If you have any questions about these tools, he'll gladly answer them.
He came on S2 E18 of TTATO to discuss the tools:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ym3GMNGE2U
As far as attributes for recruits/players I recommend finding a very successful team that uses the same off/def that you use and see what he emphasis on cores for each position. You can even sitemail many of those coaches and they'll share to some degree. The GD Reports are widely considered a solid source for category core values but everyone tweaks those to their likely. And DO NOT try to recruit the #1 class each year, try to recruit the class that will be #1 by the time those recruits are Seniors. Try to land as many H and VH players as possible. These are generally the guys who will be your Sr studs. Especially if they have high work ethic. I'll target H and VH guys even if they have so-so work ethic IF my squad has quality guys ahead of those. That gives the new recruits a chance to grow into their H and VH potential before they need to start. And in the meantime, they'll likely make good backups.
Speaking of backups, it's critical to be able to rest your studs without costing your team wins. Again, this is where those H or VH guys can help you down the road. But if you team really needs the help now then grabbing an Average potential guy can tide you over until the next recruiting season where you may be lucky enough to grab a H or VH player.
There's a ton of info on work ethic and potential on the boards
https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=530861
Quite a few TTATO episodes get pretty deep into the weeds on the potential/WE correlation. And there are tutorials pinned at the top of the WIS GD Forum that provide some insight to various aspects of the game.
Don't try to be jack of all trades. Stick with an offense and recruit for that offense. Ditto for defense. Too often folks try to be too complex and end up not getting enough formation practice to get their formation IQ high. IMO high formation IQ not only helps players execute their assignments but it also deceases penalties and turn overs.
Don't be afraid to try new things. I've taken a team for the sole purpose of experimenting - different game plan, different depth chart, varying the substitution rate, different plays, etc.
Save yourself a roster spot by using a punter to do both punting and kicking. This will provide you with one more player to help with a position where you need depth.
Definitely recommend watching as many of the TTATO episodes as you can stomach! I've had tons of great coaches come on and provide tid bits of wisdom and insight on a variety of strategies in recruiting, roster makeup, game planning, playbooks, depth charts, etc. I bet you'll find answers to questions you didn't even know you had! You can join the show live - about every other Thurs at 8 PM ET. No apps, no signups, no special software, etc. Info on how to come on is in the first post of the pinned TTATO thread at the top of the GD Forums, look forward to having you popping by!