A few questions regarding assistants:

1. If I handle all of the recruiting activity does it matter what my assistants have for recruiting ratings?

2. Is my scouting rating used when watching film on recruits, what about when I "scout live"? Or does it use my assistants?

The sum (not sure if it is a straight addition) of your rating and your recruiting assistant's rating is used for all the recruiting 'die rolls'. That is, how much they like you at the start, will they commit to you each 'turn'. there is no reason to think 'film watching, etc.' does not work the same way.

Gary has said that the assistant's rating is a factor but the Head Coach's ratings are a much larger factor, and the Reputation rating is more important than the individual category ratings for both HC and assistants.

I think that's what makes this game so interesting...there are many intricacies affecting the results and we don't really know exactly how they all interact which (in my opinion) is good. I don't want to know how the sausage is made. I like a little mystery in my life (and my games).

I agree, but the assistant coach hiring process is pretty bad and it has led me to have an utterly terrible staff this year - hence the question. I wish we could make multiple offers to assistants, by the time I miss out on one or two with such a big salary range it ruins any chance of getting someone decent.

Also, read the Assignment Key on the Coaching Assignment Screen. This tells you who does what.