Bonus Content: EA NCAA Football 2012, Recruiting Tips and Help

Recruiting Tips for EA NCAA 2012

These rules work no matter which team a coach chooses to play. They will help streamline the process so recruiting is not such a burden and overall help anyone to sign the recruits they want

Rule #1 Week one is the most important week. I am sure my readers are probably wondering why because this holds true. This is when recruits have not decides which teams they have a whole lot of interest in and they are all still in the yellow recruitment status.

The other reason this is important because this is where a coach can “go hard” at a recruit and gain their interest. What I mean by “go hard” is that in week one a coach can offer a scholarship, offer the promises the coach knows he can keep. If a coach knows they can beat a rival during the season, the coach should offer this, if the coach knows the recruit will get playing time during the season, offer that. One or two promises plus a scholarship automatically jumps a coach to the number one spot usually.Remember in week one a coach should always use 60 minutes on recruits to show the recruit the coach is really interested.

Rule #2 Generally, a coach can only recruit one level above where their school is in prestige. So if a coach has a three star team, that coach can recruit four star recruits and below, and if a coach has a four star team, that coach can recruit five star recruits and below.  Sometimes a coach can recruit two levels higher in prestige but this is not always the case and may more or less waste a coach’s minutes if the coach tries to do this a lot.

Rule # 3 Once a coach is number one and the recruit’s favorite, it’s about maintaining interest. A good rule of thumb is:

If a coach is 700 and above points than the next school: 10 minutes, maybe 20 if the coach needs to schedule a visit

If a coach is 300-600 points above the next school: 30 -40 min per week

If a coach is 0-200 points above the next school: 10-20 min per week

Rule # 4 Always focus on the right areas first:

Sort by Caliber first always. A coach always wants to make sure they are focusing on their highest caliber players first over anything else. Especially if the coach is competing against other coaches. Better to keep the coach’s team on top of the recruiting game, then to let a rival coach obtain a high caliber player

Sort by Needs second. After caliber then a coach should start sorting by needs to see what spots need to be filled and where they are weakest. Then the coach needs to find those players to fill those spots.

Sort by Interest last. Once a coach is done filling the first two types of sorting, then a coach need to look back and see if there are still players that have a high interest in their school, and then focus on those players.

Rule #5 A coach should use the change subject calls to find subjects their school is higher rated in than the main competing school. For instance, if a coach is recruiting for Miami, with an interest rank of  two and Florida has an interest rank of one with a recruit, that coach needs to try and find subjects they are higher rated in than Florida. The coach can use their change subject calls to try and find these, especially if they are ranked lower in the current subject their school lands on.  If the coach does happen to find a subject their school is ranked higher, then they can use the compare school option and decrease the rival school’s points. If the coach can decrease a competing school’s points by 100 or 200 point, that’s a good thing. This will help the coach gain ground on a school or widen the gap if they are ahead.

Rule # 6 Coaches should never promise things they cannot deliver. It might be cool to sign a recruit but if a coach lies to a recruit and cannot keep a promise your nice shiny recruit will transfer to a new team the very next year. Sometimes a coach may not care but other times a coach will hate to see a recruit a leave.

Rule # 7 A coach should save a promise for the later weeks just in case they need an ace up their sleeve. If a coach uses two promises in week one and  then in week seven or eight that same coach is still in the process of trying to sign the recruit, the coach needs to take a look at what promises they have left. If the coach has a promise left and it is one they can deliver, the coach should offer it to the recruit to increase their chances of signing the recruit. Promises almost always work better than most other options besides a scholarship.

Rule #8 Finding a recruit’s interest in a subject really does not matter. A coach can spend a lot of time doing this but they will find it really does not matter that much. If the school a coach is recruiting for is rated higher than the rival school in a subject just roll with that subject. The chances are that all the subjects the coach’s school is ranked higher in will give that coach the best chance to sign the recruit. The recruit will like some subjects and he will hate other subjects. The quantity of high ranked subjects (Subjects which are rated B or higher) will always outweigh whether a recruit has a high or low interest in a subject. A coach should just focus on how highly rated in something their school is and not whether the recruit likes it.

Rule # 9 Everyone likes a winner. The more games a coach wins, the more that recruits will want to attend their school. Recruits like to go to schools that have win streaks and are ranked. Moreover, beating a highly ranked team will help a coach and their team ranking as well.

Rule # 10 A coach should schedule their school visits on days that they know their school will play a team they can beat soundly. When a recruit visits and sees coach is a winner, they are more likely to sign with their school. In addition, when doing school visits, a coach should pick the activities by how highly ranked their school is ranked in a subject. Following this advice a recruit will hardly ever have a bad visit.

Rule # 11 A coach needs to know when to give up. What I mean is that a coach will show interest in a recruit and be so many points behind there is no point in continuing to pursue that recruit.

If a coach is 0-200 points behind continue to pursue, use 60 minutes to try and make up ground

If a coach is 300-400 points behind, the coach needs to decide if they want to continue to pursue the recruit. If the coach is recruiting against a power house school (i.e.Bama,Oklahoma,Ohio State,Oregon, etc.) go ahead and give up unless the coach is also playing a power house school too.

If a coach is 500 points + behind, it is time for the coach to think about removing that recruit from their board and moving on the next recruit. Generally when a school is this far behind the rival school there is no hope to catch the leading school.

Keep in mind this does not apply to week one because in week one everyone is yellow interest and it is easier to catch up with other schools. These rules are for after week one where interest has been established. These rules also do not apply if a coach is recruiting for a powerhouse team and the recruit is trying to go to lesser team. Many times a coach may be able to overtake the lesser team (teams like Memphis,Tulane,IowaState,Troy, etc.) if they are only behind by 500 points and under.

Rule # 12 Coaches should always remember to refill their recruiting board. This year a coach will have to keep an eye on their recruiting board. Some times the recruiting board does not refill on its own. A coach will have to do the refilling for the recruiting board.

When a coach is choosing players to fill their recruiting board they should look for recruits that have a green dot by them. This green dot means these recruits are already interested in their school. These recruits are much easier to sign than recruits that have no interest at all in their school. Using this method, a great deal of the time a coach can find players who are still in the yellow interest level. This means that these recruits can usually be swayed to the coach’s team.

Another thing a coach should remember is to focus on as many recruits as possible. Some will say that to focus on 10-15 recruit but that is limiting. When recruiting keep in mind that even a coach who is talented at recruiting will not sign every person they go after. Best advice is for a coach to try to gain interest from as many recruits as possible. Then by the end of the season the coach can tell how their recruiting class is shaping up. The end of the season is when a coach should start limiting who to concentrate on, because they are getting ready for off-season recruiting. In addition, with so many advance glitches, transfer glitches, etc, always good idea to land as many recruits as possible and then drop unwanted recruits in the off season.

Follow these rules and recruiting should be a breeze. Happy recruiting, wishing everyone a good dynasty season, and lots of wins