Hi All,

I took about 10 years off from playing this game. I’ve looked through the forums to help get some basic guidance, but I’m looking for some direction with this specific player. I probably over paid and promised (recruiting) to land him, but his stats are jumping pretty rapidly.
he’s already my second best RB across the board with the other being a Senior.

The question is is there anything I should be focusing on for the RB practice plan and should I being running this guy outside?

Andrade is an excellent speed back and he will fare much better running to the outside than inside. With somewhat lower STR, GI, Hands and F.IQ he will not fare as well inside and will likely cough up some fumbles when you play human opponents.

At D3 you cannot customize your practice plan. You need to reduce your minutes spent on formations and focus on position practice (player growth). Most coaches here would advise to practice only 1 offensive formation, 1 defensive formation and then special teams - with 15 minutes spent on each. I strongly agree with practicing just one defensive formation. However, you can have lots of success practicing two offensive formations, as long as you don't spend too many minutes on formations. Allocating 48 minutes to formations (2 offense, 1 defense, special teams - all at 12 minutes each) worked well for me when I was at D3.

Posted by Armchair on 1/7/2024 4:00:00 PM (view original):
Andrade is an excellent speed back and he will fare much better outside than inside. With somewhat lower STR, GI, Hands and F.IQ he will not fare as well inside and will likely cough up some fumbles when you play human opponents. At D3 you cannot customize your practice plan. You need to reduce your minutes spent on formations and focus on position practice (player growth). Most coaches here would advise to practice only 1 offensive formation, 1 defensive formation and then special teams - with 15 minutes spent on each. I strongly agree with practicing just one defensive formation. However, you can have lots of success practicing two offensive formations, as long as you don't spend too many minutes on formations. Allocating 48 minutes to formations (2 offense, 1 defense, special teams - all at 12 minutes each) worked well for me when I was at D3.

Appreciate it!

So, is it recommended to build game plans that only run those same formations or at least focus on them?

Yes, create game plans that utilize the formations that you have practiced enough to get your average FIQ above 40. Right now your FIQs are Pro-set 46, Trips 37, I (Eye) 36, NDBox 19, Shotgun 19, Wishbone 18. So you could utilize Pro, I and Trips (close enough to 40, given your circumstances). If you are in the process of changing to another formation, don't play that other formation until you get your team average FIQ over 40.

With your roster composition, I would recommend sticking with Trips exclusively, especially if you are not going to stay at D3 long term.

Most human coaches that you face will have average FIQs in the 60s and above. That's really the level you want to get to, and you cannot get there if you spread your formation practice time too thin across too many different formations.

Posted by Armchair on 1/7/2024 4:25:00 PM (view original):
Yes, create game plans that utilize the formations that you have practiced enough to get your average FIQ above 40. Right now your FIQs are Pro-set 46, Trips 37, I (Eye) 36, NDBox 19, Shotgun 19, Wishbone 18. So you could utilize Pro, I and Trips (close enough to 40, given your circumstances). If you are in the process of changing to another formation, don't play that other formation until you get your team average FIQ over 40.

With your roster composition, I would recommend sticking with Trips exclusively, especially if you are not going to stay at D3 long term.

Again, thank you for taking the time to go over this! You mentioned my teams formation IQ that Pro is hiring than Trips, so how come I should focus more on Trips? Sorry if i'm not understanding correctly.

Your Trips FIQ is close enough. If you start practicing Trips exclusively, Trips will move ahead in a few games.

The current game engine favors passing over running. You have a redshirt senior QB who is ranked QB#29 in Rockne D3. You have acceptable receivers and decent depth at receiver. And you've got 2 good RB targets and a good TE target. You can have success passing from Trips.

Your primary RB is also your only really good fullback, so you won't benefit as much from running from Pro as if you had a great fullback to lead block for your tailback. You can run from Trips.

That makes sense. The next question, and I apologize for blowing you up. Where did you go to see where my QB was ranked?

https://www.thenextguess.com/ROCKNE/201/D-III/team/49129

The GUESS rankings were rankings of every team in every division in every world. The rating formulas were created by a roundtable of coaches led by Bob Hazlewood. Bob retired the GUESS rankings a few months ago and Ed Zimny picked it up and even made some improvements to the layout.

Here is the link to The Next GUESS main page.

https://www.thenextguess.com/

This reminds me that it's time for me to send another donation to Ed. I use The Next GUESS data in game planning for every game that I play against another human coach.

Posted by Armchair on 1/7/2024 6:29:00 PM (view original):
https://www.thenextguess.com/ROCKNE/201/D-III/team/49129

The GUESS rankings were rankings of every team in every division in every world. The rating formulas were created by a roundtable of coaches led by Bob Hazelwood. Bob retired the GUESS rankings a few months ago and Ed Zimny picked it up and even made some improvements to the layout.

Here is the link to The Next GUESS main page.

https://www.thenextguess.com/

Oh nice! I feel like I remember this page. I think that's where I used to see recruiting class rankings too.