Building a competitive college football program in College Football 25 can be especially challenging when starting with a low-rated team. For this guide, we'll dive into one of the most effective methods to sign 5-star and 4-star recruits, even when coaching a one-star or one-and-a-half-star school like UMass. With UMass's low program rating and poor recruiting pipelines, it's a tough task to pull in top-tier talent. However, by following a strategic approach, you can bolster your roster with elite recruits. Let's break down the process step-by-step.
Understanding the Challenge
UMass is a one-and-a-half-star program with limited pipeline states. Pipelines help in recruiting by offering a boost if you're targeting players from those states. For UMass, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts make up their best pipelines, but even those are limited to two stars. As a result, the strategy here is to avoid hard selling, which involves heavily pitching specific program strengths. For a program like UMass, whose academic and football-related grades aren't high, hard selling isn't effective. Instead, we'll use a more subtle and calculated approach.
Focus on Recruitment Without Hard Selling
The core idea behind this method is to prioritize prospects that are more naturally inclined to consider your program based on location and playing time. By not hard selling, we avoid wasting time and effort trying to persuade recruits in areas where our school can't compete. Here's a detailed look at how to execute this approach:
1. Initial Recruitment Strategy
• Target Interested Prospects First: Start by offering scholarships to any four-star recruits who show interest in your program. For UMass, we began with a few players who already had some inclination toward us, which made them easier to recruit.
• Expand to 5-Star Recruits: Next, look for 5-star recruits that fit into your existing pipelines or have preferences like "Staying Close to Home" or "A+ Playing Time." These factors are crucial for a smaller program because they can offset the lower appeal of your school's other attributes.
2. Scheduling Adjustments
• Optimize for Early Season Recruiting: Remove games in the first few weeks of the season (Weeks 0-2) to ensure that no visits are scheduled too early. This is because recruits need time to narrow down their top schools, and visits are more effective when a recruit has already formed a top-five list.
• Schedule Home Games Strategically: Line up several home games starting in Week 4, during a period when recruits can take visits. This helps maximize the effectiveness of those visits, especially when you play against beatable teams.
3. Allocating Recruiting Hours
• Allocate Resources Efficiently: You only have 400 hours of recruiting time to spend each week as a low-rated program. Divide these hours among the most promising recruits:
• Focus initially on the four stars who showed interest and the few five stars you're targeting.
• Spend 50 hours on each top target until they narrow down their options to a top five.
4. Visits and Scholarships
• Line Up Visits for Maximum Impact: Schedule visits for multiple recruits during the same home game. This concentrated effort can significantly boost your chances of landing commitments. Additionally, aim to schedule visits against weaker opponents to increase the likelihood of a win, which positively influences recruits.
• Use Scholarships Wisely: Offer scholarships early to all of your targets, even if you're unsure about their potential. Scholarships make your program stand out and help attract attention from recruits, especially for players considering multiple schools.
5. Weekly Adjustments and Monitoring
• Adjust Focus Based on Recruit Interest: As the season progresses, some recruits will move quicker in the recruitment process than others. Keep an eye on four-star players who have added your program to their top five early and adjust your recruiting time to reflect their progress.
• Shift Resources When Needed: If a recruit falls behind or their interest wanes, pull back some hours and redistribute them to other prospects with a higher likelihood of signing. This ensures that you don't waste time on long-shot prospects.
6. Leveraging Visits Over Hard Sells
Because hard selling isn't effective for a program like UMass, visits become the primary tool for swaying recruits. Here's how to maximize the impact of each visit:
• Choose Visit Topics Wisely: Focus on aspects like "Staying Close to Home" or "Playing Time," as these align better with the motivations of recruits looking at smaller schools.
• Schedule Complementary Visits: If multiple players have similar priorities, like preferring schools close to home, try to schedule their visits together. This way, the positive atmosphere of a game day can create a shared experience that may enhance their perception of the program.
Mid-Season Adjustments and Beyond
As the season progresses, your focus should shift slightly:
• Replace Locked-Out Prospects: Remove any players who lock you out of their recruitment and replace them with lower-tier four stars or three stars to fill out the roster. This keeps your depth intact.
• Use the ‘Allowance’ for Extra Visits: If you've freed up some time by cutting hours on players less likely to commit, use that time to schedule additional visits or scout any newly interested players.
Results and Outcome
After employing this method, UMass found itself in a competitive position for several four-star recruits and even a few five-star prospects by Week 5:
• Securing Early Commitments: By scheduling early visits and playing to our strengths like location and playing time, we locked in commitments from three four-star recruits before the midpoint of the season.
• Strategic Wins During Visits: Winning a key game against a three-star opponent during a major visit weekend helped boost our appeal and led to additional commitments.
• Building Momentum with Each Commitment: Each new commitment from a four-star recruit helped increase the perception of UMass as a viable destination, making future recruiting slightly easier.
Conclusion: Patience and Strategy Over Brute Force
The key to recruiting success as a low-rated program in College Football 25 is to leverage the strengths you have—like home location and playing time—without overextending on areas where you can't compete, such as academic or athletic grades. Instead of focusing on hard selling, this method prioritizes strategic visits and carefully allocated resources. By adapting to the recruiting landscape week-by-week and focusing on realistic targets, you can build a solid foundation that will elevate your program over time.
Remember, this process requires patience, but it allows you to gradually build a competitive team. With dedication, you'll soon find yourself securing higher-rated recruits and transforming your one-star program into a true contender. Happy recruiting, and good luck building your dynasty!
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