D3/D2 Recruiting Strategy:

1. Do not over scout. The commonly known advice to send 2 AC Scouts and 2 HC scouts to turn an undecided green is awful. Probably the worst advice ever spoken into the game. It takes one scout to determine a recruits potential, after that point they are useless recruiting actions.

2. Use discipline on any AC Scouting efforts outside your 180 during the initial 24 hour period. Only exceptions may be QB’s as each team generally only takes 1 during a recruiting cycle. If you are scouting QB’s outside your 180 make sure you have a grasp for how many QB’s your competition are going to need that fall inside their 180 but outside yours.

3. During the 24 hour cycle it's time to light up national (>180 mile distance) UNDECIDED recruits like a Xmas tree. Determine your positional needs in advance of recruiting. Example: 9 open scholarships. Needs QB-1 RB-1 WR-1 OL-2 DL-1 LB-1 DB-2. Extend efforts towards recruits national 2-3 times the number you need.

4. For initial national recruiting efforts send minimum 1 AC Phone Call, 1 HC Phone Call, 1 Letter & 1 SOPH ($140) start if the plan is to redshirt that position group or 1 AC Call and 1 FR Start ($260) if you want to make a bigger impact and will not be redshirting. Did you know when you have high prestige you can flip a undecided green for simply 1 AC Phone call occasionally? Make sure you're calls/letters are the first action the recruit will receive. Check your recruits history on their player card after you submit your promises. If your calls/letters aren't on the bottom of your actions pull back the promises and resend them. You want your calls/letters to be the first thing the recruit sees as it ups the chances of them accepting your promises the first time.

5. All the kids that turn green or yellow will need an in person effort to sign them. In person efforts on this game are AC/HC Scouts, AC/HC Home Visits, Campus Visits. DO NOT send them yet. With green recruits after the 24 hour cycle, you are still going to need to weather the storm.

6. Fun Fact, at the end of recruiting If you get a 1400+ mile recruit green and he doesn't flip to a local team you can sign that recruit potentially for $940 (potentially $910 if you only offered 1 AC Letter & Soph Start) if soph start offered or $960 if fresh start. That's pretty good, less than ? of your per scholarship budget if D3 or ? if D2.

7. If a recruit rejects your initial promised start just re-send it the next cycle. Keep plugging away each cycle until he turns Green (Great for you) Yellow (Could be good for you), Red (probably bad but maybe not. If he turns Red to a local coach just move on from that recruit. If he turns Red to another distance coach, STAY AWARE, you may want to battle down the road. You will have money if you follow this recruiting style.

8. As you start to fill up on your needs, (needed 9 recruits) have 15-20 Green/Yellow start to be more selective of who you are offering additional starts to but keep all those undecided recruits on your watch list. You will be amazed how many red players that are great recruits will go unsigned at D3 and sometimes D2. Last time I was in D3, by signing cycle I would typically have 2-3 times as many players as I needed (green/yellow at signings). Every year I'd cut loose some really good players at the end that were NC caliber kids after I filled up. Every year some of those players never went signed. When you're rebuilding you need these players. BE PATIENT.

9. Once you get to late night day 1, to day 2 it's time to start scouting your national greens and yellows but don't do them all at once. If you only need 1 QB and you have 3-4 Green/Yellow only scout your top target. If his potential comes back H or better that's your guy. Stop scouting the rest unless you have $$ at the end. Same for the rest of your positional needs. Need 2 DL, scout your top two green targets only. If their potential is H or better stop scouting.

10. Once they are green and scouted DO NOT invest anymore money in a recruit until you are ready to offer a scholarship. I don't usually offer my scholarships until signing cycle unless I'm being lazy.

11. What about SIM recruits? They better be exceptional and at D3 local <360 miles preferably 180. Remember I told you to scout your 180 targets during the 24 hour cycle. Couple things on that. 1) Only scout recruits locally with SIMS that are better than what you can find on the undecided national market. 2) Only knock off SIMS of those players that have H or better potential and only if you need them.

12. When do I battle SIMS? It's best to get busy early. You can quickly knock off SIMS if you have good prestige (Sustained winning success) for about 2/3's of your per scholarship allotment. If you have poor prestige (Losing program/rebuild) it will take more. Promised starts help heavily in knocking off SIMS in D2/D3 and so does promised playing time. These are the two most powerful actions you have as a recruiter at these levels. Only offer Starts and PT once you have a recruit yellow. The best way to get a SIM recruit yellow is to bomb them with CV’s. Send them one at a time. If you send 4 CV’s a pretty safe expectation when a recruit is red with SIMS is that only 1-2 will land. 1-2 landing will get you Yellow most times. Now it's time to offer starts and PT to your recruit. If those efforts green them, STOP SPENDING. If they don't continue offering CV’s one at a time until green.

13. General Advice: If you are taking over a rebuild don't worry about knock off SIMS at D3 or D2 years 1 and two. If you simply fill your first two classes with top ½ GUESS core rating prospects by position with H or better potential and strong WE you will be an elite 8 team by year 4 in D3/D2. Growth is the entire game at D3/D2. If I drop into any world in D3/D2 I can win a NC by year 6 (Usually year 4 or 5) at the latest with a complete rebuild by focusing on growth and using my strategy. I cannot emphasize enough how important Potential and WE is at the lower levels.

14. Back to Recruiting. Make sure you understand what makes a player good at their position. It is not their overall rating. GUESS is a good tool to get you on track for what makes a player good at each position. It's not the best rating system out there but it'll get you on the right track.

15. As you start winning your schools prestige and your coaching prestige rise. It gets much easier to recruit once your program is consistently winning 15+ games per year, and it's shooting fish in a barrel at D3/D2 once you're winning 17+ games per year. Be patient when rebuilding, you do not need the best players today to be a top 10 program, you need players that will develop into top 10 level players by their Senior year.

16. I'm running low on cash (<25% of your starting budget) what do I do? The answer to this is always wait. Wait until the board gets clearer for you. Watch what the people you're yellow on kids with are doing with their class. Is their class full and the guy your yellow on is an extra for them. Wait, don’t spend. Odds are if that's the case you will get that player without spending another dollar on them. Don't have enough guys green and are low on cash? WAIT, you already sourced the undecided list once you started playing the national game. Some of those red are going to become available, wait for them to become available post signings.

17. When do I battle in D3/D2? The answer is generally never when you're first starting a rebuild but there will be a point in your career to battle. When I was at West Georgia in Warner D2 bigpoppa had won like 10 NC’s in a row before I got there. West Georgia was a complete rebuild. I signed like a GUESS 100 class year 1 that got me into the final 4 year 4 because of the extreme value I put on WE & Potential. After year 4 it was time to start pealing down bigpoppa, I literally battled nobody but him for the next two years. My goal was anytime he overextended into my area and I had an advantage I was going to take a pound of flesh. These 1-2 battles per year didn't make me better but they made him worse (I could of signed similarly skilled players without the battle). Bigpoppa wasn't a problem soon and we went on a run at WGA running an offense I never ran before. Battles are strategic in this game and I only engage in them at D3/D2 when I have high confidence (90+%) that I'm going to win.

18. Find a way to play your FR & SO’s and play them a lot. In D2 this is easy with advanced settings. In D3 you have to get creative. The good news in D3 90% of your schedule is SIMS now, you can find a way to get them PT. FR & SO’s WE gains early in their career are most important to fast growth and sustain player growth through their SR.years.

19. That's a lot for now, I will add more when I have time. Hope the knowledge of how to recruit nationally using promises in D3/D2 helps some new coaches have more immediate success and eventually work their way up to 1A. Also hope it levels the playing field enough that some old heads move up to 1A or move on because they don't hold all the cards now.

1. Year 1 & 2 of a rebuild is awesome. During this time you can offer 75% PT. Do it in any battle you might find yourself in. Especially if you want to flip yellow undecided recruits you landed on nationally. It only costs $150 and it's the strongest promise you can make on the game. Huge advantage and you want to be playing those guys anyway.?
2. Beyond year 2 and 3 I usually offered between 30-40% playing time at D3/D2. I'm going to get them the playing time anyway. Another big advantage in getting yellows to green.

1. Do not break your promises. It will kill your future growth with players when their WE tanks. If you do break them, be sure to recover them by starting them immediately after you get the angry email.
2. For D3, I always played my freshman in every 1st half until at least the final four. By played I meant started. I put them in the top of my depth chart for the 1st half and would adjust if it was a close game at half. If I'm winning by two scores I let my freshman play the entire 2nd half as starters too in D3. D3 is all about growth.
3. Set their substitution percentage at 95%. When they gas out your upper classman will come in and dominate. Set your upper classman at 90%.
4. To get a start you have to play your players somewhere between 30-37%. I don't know why it changes but it does. You ideally want every player on your roster to get a start every game for growth at D3 & D2.
5. I would rather lose games than not get growth and starts. Especially during a rebuild. This will pay off in years 3, 4, 5, 6. If you're in a good situation you should have a team good enough to beat any SIM with 10-15 freshman starting a first half in D3.
6. In rebuild mode (First 3 years taking over an all SIM roster) only schedule bad SIMS, wins are important for your vision improvements. Going 5-0 in non-conference gets you a lot farther than going 3-2 or 4-1.
7. To keep a player happy they are usually looking for 2 of 3 starts in the first 3 games, 3 of 4 starts in the first 4 games, 4 of 5 starts in the first 5, and 4/6 starts in the first 6. I wouldn't play around with it though because them getting ****** isn't worth it. Regular season is all about growth. Try and get everyone on your team starts.
8. Emphasizing again, DO NOT CARE about your regular season record year 1 in a rebuild. Get your freshman maximum playing time. In year 1 of an all SIM rebuild I'd set my freshman at 60% sub patterns because all I cared about was growing their WE and maximizing their growth.
   
   

• Quarterbacks—1 of the top 100 was undecided
• Offensive line—13 of the top 150 were undecided, 2 in the top 68
• Defensive line—18 of the top 150 were undecided, 1 in the top 59
• Defensive back—12 of the top 150 were undecided, 2 in the top 97

Posted by mfnmyers on 7/12/2024 1:53:00 AM (view original):
A huge thing left out is the player's records
not 40 yard dash or vertical jump

acutal records

I love my DL's to have several convictions and MUST have a gang affiliation
plus all my lbs must have had serious conduct issues in school
anyone with a 3 point Grade average is frowned upon

any player named Snake gets a look - our current water boy is named IcePick

Posted by tribewriter on 7/11/2024 9:18:00 PM (view original):
I followed this guide when I started a Dobie/D3 rebuild this season. I thought the strategy was generally pretty sound, certainly in allocation of recruiting dollars. The problem I found is that, especially with low vision, there were very few "undecideds," and many were far, far down the list.

• Quarterbacks—1 of the top 100 was undecided
• Offensive line—13 of the top 150 were undecided, 2 in the top 68
• Defensive line—18 of the top 150 were undecided, 1 in the top 59
• Defensive back—12 of the top 150 were undecided, 2 in the top 97

My point is, there are so few "undecideds," I don't know that I can create a dynasty with such a small selection, even if the guys I sign are all high potential. Tell me if my premise is flawed.

Posted by tribewriter on 7/11/2024 9:18:00 PM (view original):
I followed this guide when I started a Dobie/D3 rebuild this season. I thought the strategy was generally pretty sound, certainly in allocation of recruiting dollars. The problem I found is that, especially with low vision, there were very few "undecideds," and many were far, far down the list.

• Quarterbacks—1 of the top 100 was undecided
• Offensive line—13 of the top 150 were undecided, 2 in the top 68
• Defensive line—18 of the top 150 were undecided, 1 in the top 59
• Defensive back—12 of the top 150 were undecided, 2 in the top 97

My point is, there are so few "undecideds," I don't know that I can create a dynasty with such a small selection, even if the guys I sign are all high potential. Tell me if my premise is flawed.