Rec-ROUX-ting with NCAA Football 2008

[NewsCopy]

Now EA has revamped the recruiting to make it more realistic. As a former recruited college athlete, I can tell you that they got the system right. Players now have brains and personalities of their own. They can be persuaded, but they can also be insulted. They have real wants and needs, but those wants and needs can be compromised if they are given a reason to do so. With that, I'll impart some general recruiting advice my brother and I have found after a couple seasons in our dynasty, and many hours "practice recruiting." I'll preempt this by saying that in our dynasty we used Baylor (me) and UL-Lafayette (my bro). Obviously these are schools that aren't power houses. They have some high points, but mostly have to use their few strengths and strategy to suceed in the "other season."

[NewsCopy]

The dynasty mode in NCAA is the meat of the game. It's all about knowing how to run your team, picking the right playbook, and executing. The best way to be able to do all of these things at the highest level is having the right personel on your team. In NCAA '08, EA has made recruiting a new focus, and it's more real this year than ever.

After reading another recruiting piece on the site, I felt like I should write my own version. I couldn't help but notice a lot of generalizations and inconsistencies in the other piece. Recruiting in this year's game is much different than previous games. As many of you know, many last-gen gamers researched the recruiting in-depth. This involved exploring the game disc using a PC and many, many hours of recruiting. Those who did these studies found something interesting - all of the recruits in the previous games had a preset range of 10-14 schools that they would attend. Only 3 or 4 of these schools actually had a real chance at a player. A person recruiting could find the prospects most importand pitch in the first week and sit on it for 5 weeks, but if the prospect didn't have that player's school in their initial list, it was a fruitless venture.


The first thing to know with recruiting is the strengths of your school. Of course schools like USC, Ohio State, LSU, or Florida are going to be easy to recruit with. You'll basically be able to use any pitch, because all of these schools rates high in each area. When one starts to recruit with lower tier teams, strategy really comes into play. The first thing to take note of is the players you need. This is displayed at the "My School" tab. It will be written across the bottom of the screen. Go after these players first. Don't be afraid to go after prospects that seem out of your league, as long as they haven't narrowed their possible schools down too far. But make sure if you go after a guy that may be a struggle, have a couple of back-up possibilities. So if you're a 2 star ULL team and you're going after a 5 star wideout, make sure you have a couple 2, or 3 stars in your pocket.

The rest of the story

By Phil Riedman
http://www.maddenmania.com

[locoguano]

Bothers me that they have UL with a crappy campus/city... UL was only voted as a top 10 party school in recent years...

[Just1More]

_ Bothers me that they have UL with a crappy campus/city... UL was only voted as a top 10 party school in recent years... _

I'm not following you... what/who has UL with a crappy campus/city? UL has always had a reputation for being a fun school and city to go to school in, but as for the alcohol consumption status, most of the larger state schools around the nation are picking up the rep for being the haven for out-of-control binge drinking.

Cajuns have a tendency to drink to enhance socializing, whereas large northern schools, especially, are picking up a reputation for students getting wasted to forget how unbalanced they, their surroundings, and their lives are.

Who are you referencing that said UL has a "crappy" campus/city?

[Clutch0364]

_ I'm not following you... what/who has UL with a crappy campus/city? UL has always had a reputation for being a fun school and city to go to school in, but as for the alcohol consumption status, most of the larger state schools around the nation are picking up the rep for being the haven for out-of-control binge drinking.

Cajuns have a tendency to drink to enhance socializing, whereas large northern schools, especially, are picking up a reputation for students getting wasted to forget how unbalanced they, their surroundings, and their lives are.

Who are you referencing that said UL has a "crappy" campus/city? _

The video game NCAA football 2008, schools are giving a ranking on if you can get early playing time, the prestige of your coach, stability...etc, etc. and UL has a low ranking for the city/campus life.

[Just1More]

_ The video game NCAA football 2008, schools are giving a ranking on if you can get early playing time, the prestige of your coach, stability...etc, etc. and UL has a low ranking for the city/campus life. _

Oh. Thanks for the explanation. I don't play the game. I wonder how that "research" was conducted.

After graduating from UL, I always dreamed of what it would have been like to trudge thru an ice sludge while attempting to smile at a pasty-faced, runny-nosed co-ed on my way to another class across the long slippery, but salted, concrete paths at Michigan or Ohio State. How I could have been another little Wolverine or Buckeye, making sure I got that fight song down as I packed into my little sardine space on the 20 degree seat that my azz is about to transfer heat with in order to be the 100 thousandth head count spectator over in the upper upper northeast slab of the upper upper deck. Oh, but what could have been.

[RonMexico]

Oh. Thanks for the explanation. I don't play the game. I wonder how that "research" was conducted.

After graduating from UL, I always dreamed of what it would have been like to trudge thru an ice sludge while attempting to smile at a pasty-faced, runny-nosed co-ed on my way to another class across the long slippery, but salted, concrete paths at Michigan or Ohio State. How I could have been another little Wolverine or Buckeye, making sure I got that fight song down as I packed into my little sardine space on the 20 degree seat that my azz is about to transfer heat with in order to be the 100 thousandth head count spectator over in the upper upper northeast slab of the upper upper deck. Oh, but what could have been.

yeah, but Ohio St does have that tuba player dotting the "I" thing going for it.

not my dawgs, dawg.

[MissingMandy]

Went to Michigan State grew up going to EVERY home Michigan game as my dad played football there and there is nothing like sitting in that stadium packed like a sardine, snow falling in freezing temps. You could feel the tradition and the thrill. Would love for people to feel that way about UL. I still get chills when I hear the Wolverine fight song. I have spent the last 3 years dealing with college recruiting and I don't care what anyone says out of all the schools we dealt with (including the 2 listed above)small, medium and large, UL coaching staff is a class act and treated my son like a human being. I hope this year just takes off for UL as they deserve it!!!!

[Zeebart21]

Went to Michigan State grew up going to EVERY home Michigan game as my dad played football there and there is nothing like sitting in that stadium packed like a sardine, snow falling in freezing temps. You could feel the tradition and the thrill. Would love for people to feel that way about UL. I still get chills when I hear the Wolverine fight song. I have spent the last 3 years dealing with college recruiting and I don't care what anyone says out of all the schools we dealt with (including the 2 listed above)small, medium and large, UL coaching staff is a class act and treated my son like a human being. I hope this year just takes off for UL as they deserve it!!!!

Your dad played at Michigan? Now that is cool.

Z

[MissingMandy]

Yes he played Center. KP comes from some football blood!!!!

[Just1More]

_ Went to Michigan State grew up going to EVERY home Michigan game as my dad played football there and there is nothing like sitting in that stadium packed like a sardine, snow falling in freezing temps. You could feel the tradition and the thrill. Would love for people to feel that way about UL. I still get chills when I hear the Wolverine fight song. I have spent the last 3 years dealing with college recruiting and I don't care what anyone says out of all the schools we dealt with (including the 2 listed above)small, medium and large, UL coaching staff is a class act and treated my son like a human being. I hope this year just takes off for UL as they deserve it!!!! _

Oh shux. The last person I want to offend on here is you. My point is that a "crappy city/campus" in reference to Lafayette and UL aggravates me. My bro-n-law grew up in Detroit and his family loves Michigan and/or Michigan State (big family, split down the middle). He is also still a Lions fan. He lives in Lafayette now (MBA from UL), and loves the Cajuns.

I was taking a funny jab at large northern universities and cities and their frozen tundra football. But, only in jest and only as an argument for Lafayette and UL being a nice place for any student to have a great college life.

I look forward to KP enjoying his college life and football, doing well in school, staying healthy and loving his mama. I also look forward to you getting the chills at Cajun Field, on a nice fall day with low humidity, fair skies and temperatures in the mid 60s.

[Damon]

Thanks for the advice.

Bothers me that they have UL with a crappy campus/city... UL was only voted as a top 10 party school in recent years...

You know, I always hear this, but I've never seen evidence. Got a link? To me, this is nothing more than a 20 year old folklore.