Momentum is key when recruiting against other people

I can’t rightly call this a “tips” article, because the game isn’t out yet, and nobody except EA testers have probably played online dynasty enough to really give legitimate tips on the recruiting process. However, it’s never too early to start speculating and put some thought into the process.

It’s good to think of the recruiting process as a 400-meter race. It’s a sprint, but it’s not a full-out sprint. You have to get out of the blocks quickly, and not waste too much time moving back and forth between recruits in order to haul in a representative class of 20+ players. At the same time, it’s going to require some thought and you’re going to be recruiting against a much better brain trust than in the past, with 11 other humans (potentially) going against you. So it’s best not to think of the recruiting process as, “that annoying thing I have to get out of the way every week,” and really put some thought into it. Otherwise, all the promises in the world won’t make the recruits come to your side in the off-season.

So therefore it never hurts to be the most prepared guy (or gal) in the room. To my way of thinking, building up momentum during your recruiting process will be the most important aspect of recruiting against other people. There will be a lot of people that will be obsessed with stealing a recruit away from a rival, or jumping on a guy because they know another player in the league wants him. That’s fine. All they’ll be doing when hopping around from recruit to recruit is losing momentum.

It will be important to do a thorough job of analyzing the available recruits and selecting which recruits you want to go after. If you notice in week eight that your human rival is recruiting a guy you want, your chances of signing him will be much weaker than if you had scouted out the prospect at the beginning. As enticing as it might seem to go after the recruit and steal him away, it’s probably not likely unless you have a vastly superior school or features about your school that the recruit is interested in. And even if you are the big boy on the block (USC, Texas, etc.), it still will behoove you to recruit the very best players for your team rather than attempt to ruin the efforts of a rival school.

Also, unless there is a big difference in talent between a non-interested player and a player that has you in their top five, go with the interested player. Often times the recruits don’t turn out to be quite as good as you thought, and if you spend four hours over the first couple weeks trying to interest a recruit in vain, you really set yourself back.

Another component that is core to the recruitment momentum is not wasting time on the phone with recruits. Build up a system where you only allow the player a certain number of minutes on a given topic before you hang up. Last year I would give a recruit two ticks on the clock; if he didn’t have a response I would at least end the topic, and oftentimes even moved on to the next recruit. This helps you to get on a roll with players responding quickly, rather than wasting an hour to two hours with one recruit, which may end up just angering the recruit anyway. I found that I got to know my recruits much more quickly this way, usually very well by the fifth week. At that point I could concentrate on getting "en masse" interest from the group rather than continuing to figure out what their likes/dislikes were.

Remember, each week that you spend your recruiting time wisely on recruits that you have a realistic shot of landing, you’re closer to the goal of having a good incoming freshmen class.

For more on this topic read Random Online Dynasty Thoughts Part One.