This season I agree with Alek. If you can't plant your flag on a recruit in Morgantown when you are at WVU then you will not survive in our league. That's a fact. It was a 6 person class for him, he made a statement and it's inconsequential to his teams success long term.

That DB was a good player and I didn't target him despite being 70 miles from Pitt. Any coach worth their salt would of planted their flag on that kid. I had to do the same with Pitt and Pitt suburb players against PSU in the past.

We will see what Aleks long term success is in the BEAST, but him catching chit for this move is weak and just trolling.

Posted by ricemt28 on 12/9/2023 1:31:00 PM (view original):
This season I agree with Alek. If you can't plant your flag on a recruit in Morgantown when you are at WVU then you will not survive in our league. That's a fact. It was a 6 person class for him, he made a statement and it's inconsequential to his teams success long term.

That DB was a good player and I didn't target him despite being 70 miles from Pitt. Any coach worth their salt would of planted their flag on that kid. I had to do the same with Pitt and Pitt suburb players against PSU in the past.

We will see what Aleks long term success is in the BEAST, but him catching chit for this move is weak and just trolling.

Unfortunately, and as a WVU fan I hate this, but Morgantown is inside PSU and OSU's 180, so in regards to this game it is virtually their territory every bit as much as WVU's. Again, I hate it, but the coach at WVU on GD needs to understand this and the idea of flag planting means nothing. It's a numbers game in game planning AND recruiting. With that 180k he could have signed 6 quality players from anywhere in his 360. Maybe not the star power of whoever he was wanting, but collectively the team would have been better if he wasn't so stubborn.

In a regular world I would agree with you ddollison. In Wilk PSU and OSU do not own anything.

The BEAST has 150-160k playoff money every year to their 60-75k. It's an even fight for BEAST East teams vs OSU and PSU.

They aren't top 10 teams in our world because of the dominance of the BEAST. Planting his flag was the move.

Alek, I don’t disagree with planting your flag on a hometown recruit, but as others said, I would have locked up my 5 other guys and had a backup plan on the target recruit. You wouldn’t have the 180 so spend, but you probably would have had 150. And even if you lost, you would have improved your talent.

We all do what we need to do in order to protect our turfs, but at some point, you need to fill classes.

You are a very good coach, and I don’t doubt that you will figure out the right balance.

My philosophy going into that battle was most likely having to spend $100k on the DB and having $80k to land 2 more recruits after signing period, which would be cheaper to land players after the big East signs who they want and some quality leftovers would be available for me. I’ve never spent $180,000 on a player so didn’t think it could reach that high. When I reached $150,000 invested I thought about stopping and signing 2 players with $30,000 left. But at that point I made a decision to let Penn State bleed more, with the possibility that I win the recruit. If the recruit was somewhere else in West Virginia I would have let it go. But my motto has always been to be fierce, Morgantown player or die. I died. But with underlying “rule” that if you come anywhere near Morgantown prepare to sink a lot of $$ into that player. OSU and PSU will have to be more conservative bc everyone knows if they’re in a battle with WV, other big money teams will attack.

Posted by AlekTX2020 on 12/10/2023 2:02:00 PM (view original):
My philosophy going into that battle was most likely having to spend $100k on the DB and having $80k to land 2 more recruits after signing period, which would be cheaper to land players after the big East signs who they want and some quality leftovers would be available for me. I’ve never spent $180,000 on a player so didn’t think it could reach that high. When I reached $150,000 invested I thought about stopping and signing 2 players with $30,000 left. But at that point I made a decision to let Penn State bleed more, with the possibility that I win the recruit. If the recruit was somewhere else in West Virginia I would have let it go. But my motto has always been to be fierce, Morgantown player or die. I died. But with underlying “rule” that if you come anywhere near Morgantown prepare to sink a lot of $$ into that player. OSU and PSU will have to be more conservative bc everyone knows if they’re in a battle with WV, other big money teams will attack.

I don't coach at D1, don't fully know how recruiting functions there, and have no dog in this hunt.

That said i have a question for you Alek(or any other D1 coaches):

Shouldn't your primary goal in recruiting always be getting the best possible classes possible to build your own program? Why are you so focused on making PSU bleed more, or making OSU/PSU more conservative? Those things seem like secondary considerations at best only after you have secured the best class possible to build your own program. It seems like you have your priorities backwards and have made decisions that sabotage your own program's well-being in order to send a "message" to other coaches.

From the outside, that does not seem like a winning tradeoff.

I may move to D1 at some point so I'm genuinely interested in the thoughts of D1 coaches on this: Why would it be ever worth sacrificing your own class and your own program's well-being to send a "message" (of dubious value?) to another coach?

You are correct that you want to sign the best team that you can, but in Alex's defense there are definitely times when you need to let other coaches know that they are going to be forced to spend a premium amount of money to get a recruit. You may or may not win that particular recruit, but it does plant a seed in the other coaches mind for future reference as to you being a coach that just doesn't roll over and let a quality recruit go easily. It's hard to find the fine line between getting the best recruits and knowing who and how to battle another coach.

I know it's pointless to 'debate' alex, since he has all the answers. A couple of things to note.

1. I assume you are role-playing? I don't see what town a recruit is from. Like most coaches, all I see are 180, 360 and 1400.
2. You didn't recruit that DB until the 2nd round. If it was so important for you to have a 'local' player, then put money on him and turn him yellow/green. First round ended and he was all sims in my 180. So I put money on him.
3. You didn't set the tone or send a message. I can do math. You have a **** ton more recruiting money than I do. It more than overcomes any elite advantage.
4. Take a deep breath. Do some yoga or something. Relax.

Soupy, he was yellow. You were on two yellows same players as me. I chose to defend him that’s 0 mile away. I don’t understand what you’re talking about in regards to role playing. I don’t look at miles like you do as just numbers especially in the northeast. A recruit 150 miles away for me might be somewhere in northern Tennessee/south West Virginia or in between PSU and Temple. That’s a big difference. And yes there is a math formula to this, to answer everyone’s assumptions I don’t go after anyone. But I’m not going to let OSU and PSU get a recruit 0 miles away without a fight. That was a big need. We have no DB’s. When I have 6 to sign there is no choice to stay close.

I’m fine, relaxed. It just ****** me off when you have sheep coaches who think they know the correct away and try to tutor me when they have no idea how it works to begin with. Or maybe they do but they sit at 0 titles. Or just assume that I’m some unhinged coach. I strategically battled for a guy 0 miles away and because you soupyjoe who doesn’t look to see where that recruit is, I spent $180,000. And that’s ok, but don’t tell me to relax or think I’m playing it wrong. The tone is set, bc otherwise you wouldn’t acknowledge this forum or acknowledge you had to keep sending CV’s and wondered why WV was still hanging on.

If Alek wants to believe a $22 difference in CV cost per visit is some insurmountable competitive advantage, let him.

Posted by Jborm on 12/11/2023 5:14:00 PM (view original):
If Alek wants to believe a $22 difference in CV cost per visit is some insurmountable competitive advantage, let him.

who tf are you

Posted by AlekTX2020 on 12/11/2023 5:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Jborm on 12/11/2023 5:14:00 PM (view original):
If Alek wants to believe a $22 difference in CV cost per visit is some insurmountable competitive advantage, let him.

who tf are you

Nobody that you need to concern yourself with.

Posted by Jborm on 12/11/2023 6:03:00 PM (view original):

Posted by AlekTX2020 on 12/11/2023 5:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Jborm on 12/11/2023 5:14:00 PM (view original):
If Alek wants to believe a $22 difference in CV cost per visit is some insurmountable competitive advantage, let him.

who tf are you

Nobody that you need to concern yourself with.

Then get lost flea

Posted by AlekTX2020 on 12/12/2023 1:26:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Jborm on 12/11/2023 6:03:00 PM (view original):

Posted by AlekTX2020 on 12/11/2023 5:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Jborm on 12/11/2023 5:14:00 PM (view original):
If Alek wants to believe a $22 difference in CV cost per visit is some insurmountable competitive advantage, let him.

who tf are you

Nobody that you need to concern yourself with.

Then get lost flea

Gladly. I wasn’t talking to you anyway. I’m trying to tell the others that trying to tell you what to do is useless because you always think you’re the smartest person in the room.

Watching you implode at West Virginia is comical.

Bye.

Your opinion is pointless, you never post. You will never take on this challenge, you will never do anything. That’s the comical thing. You’re just a little rat laughing behind bigger rats.