Couple New Player Questions

[Brason]

Hi all, I'm a completely new player and I always like to play the rags to riches type of career. So my questions are:
1. If I am playing as 8-16 rep school are 1 star targets the only real recruits I can land or should I be targeting 2-3 star guys?
2. If I start with the rookie coach template with a final template of elite how do my skills progress as I go? I just want to be sure that I will grow as a coach before I am too deep and need to restart.
3. Any other tips you can give that you wish you knew when you started out.

Thanks in advance,

[PointGuard]

Welcome to DDSCB and to the forum.

1. You can land some 2 star and 3 star players. The level of your success and ease by which you interest and land recruits, though, will be impacted by the Recruiting level (ranging from Easy to Brutal) you set for yourself.
2, You skill ratings will increase a little (maybe 1 to 5 rating points for each skill) each season, so if you're going from Rookie to Elite it will take quite a few years. Scouting increases more slowly than the other ratings.
3. Since you're just starting, you MAY want to run a couple short term associations to learn the game and get your feet on the ground before trying to pull off a long-term association. Maybe run off a 1-3 year association with a mid-level or high prestige program and then try a short-term low-prestige program to see what the difference is before going for your dream rags to riches career.

Enjoy the game. Looking forward to your participation here in the forums.

[Wayne23]

When I was learning the game I did what PointGuard suggests, which is that I started a new association, learned what I could from it, dumped it and started another one... The game is DEEP, and there's a long learning curve but it is very much worth the effort. I've been playing for way over a decade.
As to ratings, Scouting progresses VERY slowly. I start that rating higher for my head coach in order to compensate.