Picking Your Staff

[Bohemian Rap City]

I am really interested in hearing from experienced players about how to pick a Coach and his coordinators. I am not well versed in the Xs and Os of calling formations and plays, but I do understand the value of recruiting skill as it increases the chances of gaining talent for your program.

Is it a good Idea to have all 3 as recruiters? I currently have both OC and DC as recruiters, while the HC is an offense CEO. I am curious which combination of skills (especially as they add new skills) I should be looking for in each.

[Strategic Sage]

I would say once you are familiar with the game, recruiting is currently the least important attribute. Training first for HC, Offense then training for OC, Defense then training for DC. It's important for your coordinators to match your HC in their playbook (i.e. Spread on offense, 4-3 on defense). Maximizing playcalling efficiency has a huge impact on how well your team plays.

[Bairemuth]

For your head coach - I would aim for high training and high recruiting (10 and 10 would be ideal). The head coach should also include the scheme you'd like to run for both offense and defense. The head coach's offensive and defensive abilities won't matter nearly as much as your coordinators. I would argue recruiting is most important for head coach since he will have 6 actions in the recruiting battle.

For your coordinators, I would aim for high (10) offense/defense (depending on which coordinator) that matches your coach, then I typically look for the highest training + recruiting combo as possible, prioritizing training over recruiting.

I typically don't pay attention to the coach's labels like "CEO" or "recruiter" but badges can certainly make an impact as well.

[Bohemian Rap City]

I understand. A lot of the tags like "offensive Genius" or "Defensive CEO" offer no real explanation for what that means.

[Bairemuth]

I would guess it's kind of based on their base "stats" and badges no different than players and their labels.

[Strategic Sage]

It actually works the other way. The archetype determines the available badges and the general ratings distribution.

[Strategic Sage]

Originally posted by Bairemuth:

I would argue recruiting is most important for head coach since he will have 6 actions in the recruiting battle.

The reason I don't agree with this currently is that the way the game works right now, recruiting isn't mostly about your coach's abilities. It's more about correctly identifying which players to go after, and it's very possible to recruit successfully even with coaches who are terrible at it by rating.

[Bairemuth]

Originally posted by Strategic Sage:

Originally posted by Bairemuth:

I would argue recruiting is most important for head coach since he will have 6 actions in the recruiting battle.

The reason I don't agree with this currently is that the way the game works right now, recruiting isn't mostly about your coach's abilities. It's more about correctly identifying which players to go after, and it's very possible to recruit successfully even with coaches who are terrible at it by rating.

Your rating directly influences what pitch options you have. This can be huge. Obviously having high interest is important, but there are times I'm trying to go after a player who may be interested slightly more in another team, but I want the player because they are the best at that position.

With that said, your head coach's defensive ability and offensive ability are irrelevant. So we are basically debating training vs. recruiting. Training ability is hard to judge because I don't know for sure what a 5 or a 10 truly does on % offseason gains. I seem to get about the same gains each season regardless of my coaches...potential of players seems to be most important.

[Bairemuth]

Originally posted by Strategic Sage:

It actually works the other way. The archetype determines the available badges and the general ratings distribution.

Did not know this - good to know!

[lathius2]

Speaking of the staff. I really hope they plan on including the on field staff at minimum for the depth it can add to development and recruiting. Off field staff would be nice as well, but may be too tall a task with so many spots for off field staff anymore.

[Bairemuth]

Originally posted by lathius2:

Speaking of the staff. I really hope they plan on including the on field staff at minimum for the depth it can add to development and recruiting. Off field staff would be nice as well, but may be too tall a task with so many spots for off field staff anymore.

Would be cool to have things like positional coaches for sure.

[Strategic Sage]

Adding them for the sake of adding them is not good IMO. They need to have an interesting role for the player to interact with to make it worthwhile.

[Bohemian Rap City]

Originally posted by Strategic Sage:

Adding them for the sake of adding them is not good IMO. They need to have an interesting role for the player to interact with to make it worthwhile.

I agree. I don't think the game needs window dressing. I can see hiring medical staff, strength/conditioning coach, etc, Perhaps adding the cost to benefit ratio to the other expenses.

[lathius2]

Originally posted by Strategic Sage:

Adding them for the sake of adding them is not good IMO. They need to have an interesting role for the player to interact with to make it worthwhile.

I wasn't asking for just the sake of it. They can add another layer to recruiting. College football has rules that impact who can see recruits off campus, staffs have limited time to recruit such as phone calls, scouting, etc. Expanded staff allows all that to be flushed out and better coaches typically get you better results in recruiting or development. Position coaches have a huge role in recruiting and development. I would argue strength coaches have an even bigger role in developing the culture and development of player though.

[Strategic Sage]

As described I think a lot of that is better off being abstracted out though, otherwhise it just becomes busywork.

For example, what interesting player decisions would there by around strength & conditioning coaches beyond 'get the best one you can'? Same for the other staff positions. It's not a question of whether or not real college football teams have those, certainly they do and they matter. Currently with coordinators for example, we have their preferred playbook and style, along with three other ratings that matter; offense/defense, training, and recruiting. There are several facets of them in other words to work out and weight one versus another.

If you are talking about a position coach, what do you have beyond their general ability and maybe a favored archetype? I just think there has to be more to that, or it's not worth adding in and is best abstracted with existing mechanics. Otherwhise is just becomes bloat, and busywork for the player to do with no real gameplay value.

[Bohemian Rap City]

Well, I abstract out coaching entirely. I see HC, OC, DC as an amalgam of all staff. I suppose even the scouting could fall in the same boat. However, I would like the ability to flag specific players so that they are easier to track progress on.

Another pet peeve is that currently, when you spend time recruiting a player, then drop him when scouting reports show negative traits, they still keep coming up on search parameters.