Recruiting Question

[Ragin Cajun]

So, can anyone point me to any references for Recruiting? I can figure out the basics but are there any determined "best options" on how to do it? When to offer a scholarship, how to build interest, etc? Also, does watching game film multiple times help or should I keep spreading that out over all the players on my call/watch lists?

Can you change recruiting to AI after you buy your report and set up initial calls and stuff? If you do, how much change do you expect? I thought I read you could do this but don't see the settings to change it during the recruiting window.

[PointGuard]

In my opinion the beauty of DDSCB recruiting is that it's not a "here's the way to do it best". Rather than being a science or a do step 1, step 2, step 3, etc and voila you are successful, it's an art.

And by art, I mean that how specifically you do it depends on a lot of variables...for example: the ratings of your head and assistant coaches, your recruiting budget, the prestige of your college, the location of your college, the past success of your college, the academic rating and facilities rating for your college, the number and quality of players on your roster at the positions you are recruiting for, the number of recruits you need each year, your head coach's attributes (academics, discipline, temper, integrity), the quality of the recruits at various positions in your state and region each season, how aggressively you want to approach recruiting, how you want to focus your recruiting each season, what scouting reports you purchase and camps you attend, if you prefer high school or jc that season, if you prefer in-state, in -region, national, or international players that season, do you want to risk going after exceptionally high ranked recruits or go after recruits you have a good chance of landing, do you want to find players who fit into your game strategies best, are you willing to accept a very good player who many have attitude problems or doesn't work that hard or a lesser quality player who is a leader and works his ass off, do you want to take a chance at going after a very good player who may be a risk that he won't make a qualifying SAT score, do you put more faith in recruit's specific skills or overall ratings or rankings, etc.

Because of that different game players recruit differently and recruiting success can be achieved with many different approaches...and you own recruiting approach will likely differ each season as well.

With respect to your specific questions:
1. When to offer scholarship: some like to offer scholarships before the end of August since a very small percentage of recruits (usually VERY high ranked ones) will accept scholarships before Sept 11, others prefer to keep evaluating and gauging recruit interest until Sept 11 when home visits start since if you offer a scholarship.
2. How to build interest: call them, determine their interests, have them visit your campus, if a recruit's parents control his decision find out what their interests are, conduct home visits focusing on their interests that are important to the recruit (or parents)...and of course if you want, you can offer them a bribe.
3. watching game film: its a great way to get an immediate evaluation of a recruit's ratings...but beyond that, doesn't do much unless you and your staff evaluation his skills differently on a subsequent watching of film. (if yoiu have a player on your watch list and he attends a camp you are attending, you will get recruit ratings that way also).
4. changing to AI recruiting: Go to the menu icon in the upper left corner, go to Game Options, then check mark "CPU Manage Offseason/Recruiting". And yes, if you you let the AI do the recruiting, it will do what IT likes to do, not necessarily how YOU would have done it. My opinion is that the AI does a reasonably good job of recruiting but usually not as good as a game player who aggressively performs the recruiting actions each week. But I LOVE the recruiting portion of DDSCB (because it is an "art" and is different for me every season)...plus it really is one of the biggest components of a college coach's job.

[Ragin Cajun]

Thanks for the reply.

[sesurb]

Another item I have noticed is make sure you add them to the call list. What I assume happens is that when they are on the call list, your assistant, assigned to recruiting, will call them as well. I have noticed that guys on my call list have parent pitch areas unlocked and I have not scouted them live. Again, this is an assumption.

[PointGuard]

Another item I have noticed is make sure you add them to the call list. What I assume happens is that when they are on the call list, your assistant, assigned to recruiting, will call them as well. I have noticed that guys on my call list have parent pitch areas unlocked and I have not scouted them live. Again, this is an assumption.

Good point. I always click "B" to put them on both lists.