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Nunyerbiz · 10-22-2019, 11:20 PM

Welcome to the Tale of the Niagara University Rhinos
An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty Report

Setting The Table:

This dynasty report is going to be featuring the Niagara Rhinos, a team from a Canadian university that exists in an alternate universe. There is a real Niagara University, a Catholic school based in New York, but I just want to make it clear that they are not the subject. This is a flight of fancy, the story of a fictional Canadian university that gets snubbed by the amateur establishment in Canada.

Seeing a desperate NCAA conference and a potential rivalry just across the falls in Buffalo, they decide to recruit a team of walk-ons, castoffs and JUCOs and switch to that bastardized Yank version of the game to join the NCAA. (For anybody who isn’t aware, what we know today as football had its evolutionary split from rugby in Canada sometime in the early 1860s).

There is no remotely plausible way the following events could happen in our real world… which is why I love alternate universe stuff… I get to have fun. So just kick back and relax. Think of it like that episode of Star Trek where the Enterprise had to go back in time to stop JFK and Marilyn Monroe from creating an unstoppable strain of herpes. That being said, certain events and figures will coincide. The Detroit Lions still stink. God still hates Cleveland. Alabama is still the preseason #1.

I won’t be getting too deep into the backstory beyond some initial world building posts at the start. I’ll get the Rhinos into the NCAA and then it’s off to the races. While I will take the recruiting/game play aspects very seriously, I intend to have at least a little bit of fun with the backstories and side stuff. Especially early on when my team will be a Bad News Bears / Major League / Unnecessary Roughness / Mighty Ducks / The Replacements / Little Giants / Cool Runnings / Slap Shot band of castoffs and misfits.

Before I continue, I just want to throw a quick shout out to my main two inspirations for this dynasty: Hellisan and Deegezy. They’ve both been around forever and I’ve been reading their stuff for years. They manage to weave the gameplay and storylines and presentation together in such a compelling fashion… Basically what I’m saying is that they are both very good at what they do, are old as **** and refuse to quit. Thanks to both of you for the great reads over the years! But seriously, I’m essentially stealing many of Hellisan’s mechanics and presentation aspects and can only hope to weave together a storyline like Deegeezy. Hope I’m not blowing too much sunshine up your skirts, but I have to give credit where it’s due. Now on to some boring stuff...

The Nuts and Bolts:

Platform: PS3
Difficulty: Heisman
Sliders: Custom (basically the OS Community sliders with some minor tweaks)
Quarter length: 9 minutes
Game Speed: Normal
Player Speed Threshold: 20
Ice the kicker: off
Home Field Advantage: on

NOTE: I won’t be doing any kicks/punts/FGs as a user… I am going to let the CPU handle it and watch the play… which it why I turned off Ice the kicker… it’s already going to be ugly enough at the start. As far as home field advantage… I never really trust EA and it’s under the hood baloney, the less of their meddling the better, but I’m aiming for a terrible team that is going to get their teeth kicked in for a few seasons… so I guess I’ll pile on the disadvantages.

Coach Starting Level: 1
Progression Rate: slowest
Coaching Skill Trees: To start I will only invest in recruiting perks for the head coach. Coordinators will only be allowed to unlock the lowest tier of upgrades. This is subject to change as time goes on, but the coaching skills can get overpowered pretty quickly… so I will likely keep things nerfed.

Rosters: I am using the default rosters with automatically generated names. Being a fictional universe, I'm not terribly interested in the real NCAA players from six seasons ago. The Rhinos are a Teambuilder squad I found sometime last year while searching for a rebuild project. I did not create them but my thanks to whoever did.

That's the major points, so for all the other details I'll be using the spoiler brackets to avoid this first post turning into a 2,000 word scrolling behemoth. I plan on doing lots of randomization and dice rolling for things like injuries, suspensions, player progression, etc. Most of these ideas were inspired by Hellisan and things he did in his excellent J.D.Clark Story... Further details below if you are interested.

Recruiting:

Spoiler

I will always favor regional recruits and will aim to have pipelines in some combination of Canada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. But at the start of recruiting, any player who shows an interest in Niagara is fair game. As far as scouting, I’m only going to be able to unlock 50% of their numbers for the first year and will reconsider this as seasons roll along. In general, I’m not going to get super specific with restrictions here… early in the rebuild I’ll likely take anybody who wants to sign. Long term I’ll likely restrict things a bit more.

Created Recruits:
In order to help the rather anemic prospect counts that Canada provides each year, I’ll likely add two created recruits each year that I plan to pursue. I ran an offline dynasty with Niagara over six seasons and generally I signed somewhere around 1/3rd of the created Canadians that I went after. They will fall in line with the guys I should be expected to recruit, so 1-3 star players for the foreseeable future. I’ll also probably create a few prospects that I won’t go after but maybe follow for storyline purposes.

Sleepers and Slackers:
After each recruiting class is finalized, I’ll do some random rolls / wheel spins to see if we have any guys that we completely missed the boat on during the scouting process. Sleepers: Each class will have a 20% chance to have 1 player that we totally underestimated and a 5% chance that we underestimated 2 players. When a sleeper is identified a random number between 60-100 will be rolled, this represents the amount of attribute points that I can add to the player. Points will be distributed as evenly as possible across all categories that contribute to the player’s OVR. The only exception is speed, which I generally won’t touch beyond maybe a 1 or 2 point bump. Slackers: Each class will have the same chances as Sleepers. Once a slacker is identified, the random roll will be 40-80 and points will be removed using the same rough approach as with the sleepers.

Transfers / Players leaving early:
I’ll accept a transfer request if it’s reasonable that the player could start when they become eligible. I’ll only try to persuade players from leaving if it’s obvious I can start them the following season.

Player Progression:

Spoiler

Injuries / Suspensions:

Spoiler

As exhaustively stated already, most of my ideas for this dynasty have been lifted from Hellisan and other long time contributors around here… and this is no exception. The game doesn’t really handle injuries that well in my opinion.. and offensive lineman never get hurt. Don’t even bring up suspensions, the game won’t touch those with a ten foot pole.

Preordained Injuries from the Wrathful Football Gods:
There will be a certain number of pre-determined injuries that will be rolled at the start of the season. A random number between 3-6 will be rolled prior to the first game, this is the baseline for how many injuries will be preordained from the football gods. Then the roster will be put into alphabetical order and a random number will be rolled from 1-75. (This is assuming a 70-man roster. If I had a 68 man roster, then the roll is 1-73, I'm just adding 5 "safe zone" numbers at the end.) The number rolled is then compared to the alphabetical list and we have our injury victim. If the random number falls in the safe zone, then we dodge the bullet all Matrix style and the football gods remove that injury. That process is repeated based on our initial roll. For players that are deemed to be injured, even more rolls happen… are you bored and ready to scroll onto the next post? I will not blame you… go ahead… nobody is looking. The next roll is 1-14 to determine the week of the injury, then another roll representing the number of weeks left in the season will determine the injury duration.

Offensive lineman injuries:
In the NCAA14 universe, these guys are freakin invincible… so we are going to change that. At the start of every game there will be a 20% chance that an offensive lineman will get hurt during the game. When the 20% roll is failed, a random number from 1-5 will determine the position injured, starting at LT and moving to RT. Then 1-4 is rolled to determine the quarter when the injury takes place. Then another 1-4 is rolled to determine how many quarters the player has to sit. Injury will take place during the first offensive possession of the quarter rolled. For now, I won’t be doing any carry over to following weeks with this system… but might introduce that in the future. At the moment I can’t think of a good way to handle it… so I am just going to move along for now.

Suspensions:
At this point, I’m still contemplating how I want to handle this. Maybe it will be a dice roll thing, it might be intentional to create / enhance something with a storyline… still in the air… but something will be in play.

Conference Changes:

Spoiler

For the purposes of this dynasty, the New Mexico State Aggies have been banished to FCS. I imported them into the MAC, then swapped them out with the Niagara Rhinos. I enabled protected rivalries in the MAC so Niagara and their neighbors across the falls in Buffalo could be rivals.

Central Michigan was moved from the west division to the east, swapping with Ohio, that so a protected rivalry with Western Michigan could be established. (I attended Central, so this one was personal)

In keeping with the general alternate universe feel, I wanted to mix things up a bit… so I did some additional juggling just for giggles… with the goal of eliminating the independents and turning on rivalries across the board.
Notre Dame and Boston College join the Big Ten (I mean Maryland and Rutgers?!? What were they thinking?) They will have the protected “Holy War” rivalry as two old-timey Catholic universities.

Old Dominion replaces BC in the ACC and get an in-state rivalry with Virginia Tech.

Northwestern and Indiana move to the Big 12 because between the Big 10 and the Big 12 at least one of them had to have the same number of teams as the conference name. Also moved Oklahoma and Oklahoma St to opposing divisions to give them a better chance at head-to-head scheduling. The protected rival for OU is still Texas.

BYU and Idaho join the Mountain West. Conference Championship moved to Mile High. Set up a protected rivalry between BYU and Boise State.

Army and Navy join Conference USA. Turns out C-USA is somehow incapable of supporting protected rivalries, as I wanted to have Army/Navy every year. But oh well. They are in opposing divisions, so should meet on a regular basis.

Looks like I need one team to remain an independent. UTSA drew the short straw in the C-USA shake up so they are now conference-less vagabonds. My sincere apologies to all fans of the program, assuming they exist.

There wasn't a whole lot of deep thinking going into these moves... Just wanted to shake things up a little bit for my own entertainment. I hope I didn't crap on one of your favorite teams in the process.

Nunyerbiz · 10-22-2019, 11:21 PM

Rhinos Booted over the Falls!
Football program will be dismissed from Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association competition.

By: U.L. Washington
December 21st, 2011

In a move that surprised nobody, the CCAA has finally had enough of the Niagara University Rhinos. After years of bad behavior, rules violations and corruption the CCAA will indefinitely suspend the Niagara University football program. The announcement was made at a press conference earlier this morning.

“An embarrassment to Canada.” was how CCAA Commissioner Rene Lachemann summarized his thoughts on the controversial university. The Rhinos joined CCAA competition in football during the 1967 season but have been habitual rule violators and bottom dwellers for most of their tenure. The private university located in Niagara Falls was founded as the Southeast Ontario College of Phrenology in 1866, eventually being reorganized as Niagara University in 1961. Their last winning season was in 1992 and their only championship was in 1975. This championship was later vacated when it was discovered program boosters had hired the New Orleans Saints to dress as the Niagara players for the championship game. The Saints managed to defeat the University of Manitoba Mooseknuckles by a score 10-7 in overtime. For the Saints, it was the highlight of both their CCAA and NFL seasons.

The final straw leading to the dismissal was a bombshell report that accused the school’s chemistry department of furnishing a designer steroid, known by the street name “Back Acne Casserole”, to the entire team for the last 11 seasons. Despite these underhanded and irresponsible efforts, the team still only managed a 21-109 record over that time. Former Head Coach Wayne Krenchicki has apparently returned to selling used cars full time and the rest of staff has reportedly received layoff notices. The fate of most players still hangs in the balance, but Commissioner Lachemann did hint that any players who fly straight will be free to transfer to other institutions.

The news came as a blow to the young term of Niagara Athletic Director Curt Lerma. He was hired only four months ago to clean up the poor reputation the department had earned over the years. “I was brought in to fix the problems, not sweep them under the rug.” said Lerma in a press conference. “As an organization, we will earn our redemption. We will return to the football field.” When asked what his first step was for the rebuild he answered, “If you want a clean slate, you have to erase what’s already on the board.”

Nunyerbiz · 10-22-2019, 11:28 PM

Nunyerbiz · 10-22-2019, 11:30 PM

Niagara Rhinos to be Reborn!
University to join NCAA and adopt American rules.

By: Sixto Lezcano
January 3rd, 2013

The infamous Niagara Rhinos football program that was shuttered in disgrace two years ago will be returning to the gridiron, if in a highly modified form. The team will become the first international member of the American NCAA and will join the Mid American Conference for football play starting in the upcoming 2013 season. MAC Commissioner Isiah Thomas made the announcement in a press conference this afternoon.

“Like I said about my trades when I was with the Knicks: the 17th time is the charm! We’ve finally landed the next great program in the history of the MAC.” Thomas was apparently referring to a document that leaked which listed all the schools that had rebuffed his advances. “I’ve become very well acquainted with Niagara AD Curt Lerma and he’s a man who wants to get things done, a man that wants redemption. Also, he didn’t hang up on me and then immediately change his number like 12 or 13 of those other athletic directors.”

“We are very excited for the opportunity. Many challenges lay ahead, but this institution is determined to meet them head on.” said Lerma. While both parties seemed very optimistic about the agreement, many questions remain. The former stadium for the Rhinos, Filcher Field, was quickly bulldozed in 2012 to make room for expansion of the Interpretive Romanian Dance Theory department, a disc golf course, a judo range and a Starbucks. For the near term, the team will play its home games at the Greater Niagara Senior Activity and Recreation Center, formerly Rick Moranis High School. The football field of the former high school, which was built in 1987 and graduated the last class in 2008, has been converted to dimensions that fit the American game. Seating capacity has not been announced, as plans to expand the bleachers have thus far been thwarted by angry senior citizens who frequent the facility. Lerma went on to state that the team would likely be playing a full slate of three non-conference games and was hoping to have one of those at home. No other details on scheduling were provided.

Little information was made public about the composition of the team. Lerma stated that “about a dozen” of the players from the 2011 Rhino team had remained enrolled at the school and will be eligible to play once they pass steroid testing. He hinted that most of the roster will be compromised of walk-ons, transfers and graduate students from other NCAA programs. Further details will be forthcoming during a press conference on the campus of the university to be scheduled within the next few days.

Nunyerbiz · 10-22-2019, 11:33 PM

Niagara Announce Coaching Staff, Two Players
Staff of unknowns hope to offer second chances to cast-offs

By: Pete Vuckovich
January 5th, 2013

Apparently, this hasn’t been a large-scale practical joke. The Niagara University Rhinos are a real thing and have hired a real head coach. Niagara Athletic Director Curt Lerma announced the hiring of Head Coach Rusty Nonek at a press conference earlier this morning. A relative obscure figure in college coaching circles, Nonek was last employed by the Kent State as a QB coach and assistant recruiting coordinator from 2007 through 2010 and has been out of the game since. This tenuous familiarity with the MAC and his ties to Rust Belt recruiting was likely a factor in his hiring. AD Lerma would not go into details only stating that the coaching search was “extensive”. The 53 year old Nonek was a backup quarterback for Portland State in 1978-79, sitting behind future NFL quarterback Neil Lomax. His collegiate stat line was 8-for-19 passing for 47 yards with 1 TD and 2 INT. He spent most of the 80s and 90s in assistant coaching and recruiting roles for a multitude of smaller colleges. His stint at Kent State was his only job with a major program.

The Rhinos defense will be handled by former standout Niagara Rhinos linebacker Jordan Johnson. The 43-year-old was the defensive captain for the 1992 Rhinos team, the last time the school had a winning record. He played for three CFL teams over a five year career, primarily as a backup safety. Shortly after his playing career ended, he got into coaching and since 2008 he has been the defensive backs coach for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

"Jordan is one of the brightest young defensive minds in the game. And Lerma told me that I had to hire at least one Canadian" said Coach Nonek. Johnson was on the recruiting trail and not immediately available for comment. Nonek stated that the team is going to run through a multitude of looks during practice and try to tailor a scheme that will fit their players.

"We aren’t going to have much size and even less speed. We’ll try everything and anything over the coming months of practice and see what sticks. 4-3, 3-4, 6-7-8, the standard stuff is out the window. We just have to coach our guys up as best we can and put them into a position to win. There will be no easy answers, this is virgin powder ahead of us.” [Editor’s note: Reporter Pete Vuckovich was mistaken, as this was a skiing metaphor and not a reference to illicit substances. His original statement has been removed from this article.]

The offense will be ran by another relative unknown, 31-year-old Derek Bell. Over the last three seasons, Bell made some minor waves as the OC for tiny Olivet College in rural Michigan by reviving the Run and Shoot offense. Coincidentally, this is the same offense that Coach Nonek ran while a reserve QB at Portland State. Similar to Johnson, Bell was on the recruiting trail and unavailable to answer questions.

But the true surprise of the morning was the introduction of two players. The big name was that of Elton Fante, the former Michigan State wide receiver who was dismissed four games into his redshirt freshman season for multiple violations of team rules. Originally a three star prospect from Charlotte, Michigan, Fante was infamous for his off the field infractions during his short time at MSU. By most accounts, he was majoring in Cannabis Inhalation with a minor in Driving While Intoxicated. His career stat line was 8 catches for 41 yards and then he was gone.

“I blew a golden opportunity. I was young and stupid and overloaded with pain killers from the training staff. I went off the rails.” said a visibly emotional Fante. “I hit rock bottom about two months after getting kicked off the team, then vowed to turn my life around. Both Mr. Lerma and Coach Nonek have stressed that this program is all about redemption and second chances. I don’t plan on making the same mistakes twice.”. Fante will be considered a redshirt sophomore by the NCAA and will have three seasons of eligibility available.

The next and last player reveal was Russ Tillman, a junior defensive back from Northridge, Ohio. He played two seasons for the Kansas Jayhawks in 2010 and 2011 before being declared academically ineligible and dropping out of school. Never considered a top-tier prospect due to his size (5’10”, 170 lbs), Tillman was a high motor player who earned a starting job in the Jayhawks secondary early in his true freshman season. He echoed Fante’s statements and emphasized he was taking his second chance seriously.

“At Kansas, I might have attended six total classes in two years. I have no idea how I lasted as long as I did, I guess everybody looked the other way because the team was so goddamn embarrassing. But I have been enrolled at Niagara for a full year now and I’m well on my way to a rewarding career in HVAC installation and repair once my playing days are over.”. Tillman will have two years of eligibility remaining and will be listed as a junior despite only having successfully completed 14 college credit hours as of this writing.

Nunyerbiz · 10-22-2019, 11:34 PM

EDIT: lol. just noticed that "Ann Arbor" somehow got auto-corrected to "Ann Aaron". Stupid spell checkers.

Nunyerbiz · 10-22-2019, 11:35 PM

To: Lerma, Curt ([email protected])
From: Hisle, Larry ([email protected])
Subject: 2013 Rhinos pocket schedules

Good Morning Curt,

This is Larry over in Marketing. We have the finalized design for the free pocket schedules. But do you really want 25,000 of these things printed? My kids went to Rick Moranis High back in the day... and that field only seats about 700 people. Just want to make sure we aren't going overboard here.

Let me know as soon as you can. Oh yea, my ex-wife is already excited for the Northern Illinois game.

Attachment:
2013_niagara_rhinos_schedule_uni_gov_edu_ca.png

Nunyerbiz · 10-23-2019, 11:48 AM

[reserving three more slots]

10-22-2019, 11:21 PM	#2
Nunyerbiz MVP OVR: 4 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 1,479	Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty Rhinos Booted over the Falls! Football program will be dismissed from Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association competition. By: U.L. Washington December 21st, 2011 In a move that surprised nobody, the CCAA has finally had enough of the Niagara University Rhinos. After years of bad behavior, rules violations and corruption the CCAA will indefinitely suspend the Niagara University football program. The announcement was made at a press conference earlier this morning. “An embarrassment to Canada.” was how CCAA Commissioner Rene Lachemann summarized his thoughts on the controversial university. The Rhinos joined CCAA competition in football during the 1967 season but have been habitual rule violators and bottom dwellers for most of their tenure. The private university located in Niagara Falls was founded as the Southeast Ontario College of Phrenology in 1866, eventually being reorganized as Niagara University in 1961. Their last winning season was in 1992 and their only championship was in 1975. This championship was later vacated when it was discovered program boosters had hired the New Orleans Saints to dress as the Niagara players for the championship game. The Saints managed to defeat the University of Manitoba Mooseknuckles by a score 10-7 in overtime. For the Saints, it was the highlight of both their CCAA and NFL seasons. The final straw leading to the dismissal was a bombshell report that accused the school’s chemistry department of furnishing a designer steroid, known by the street name “Back Acne Casserole”, to the entire team for the last 11 seasons. Despite these underhanded and irresponsible efforts, the team still only managed a 21-109 record over that time. Former Head Coach Wayne Krenchicki has apparently returned to selling used cars full time and the rest of staff has reportedly received layoff notices. The fate of most players still hangs in the balance, but Commissioner Lachemann did hint that any players who fly straight will be free to transfer to other institutions. The news came as a blow to the young term of Niagara Athletic Director Curt Lerma. He was hired only four months ago to clean up the poor reputation the department had earned over the years. “I was brought in to fix the problems, not sweep them under the rug.” said Lerma in a press conference. “As an organization, we will earn our redemption. We will return to the football field.” When asked what his first step was for the rebuild he answered, “If you want a clean slate, you have to erase what’s already on the board.” focer4, Hellisan and nofx94 like this. Last edited by Nunyerbiz; 10-26-2019 at 09:43 AM.

10-22-2019, 11:28 PM	#3
Nunyerbiz MVP OVR: 4 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 1,479	Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty nofx94 likes this. Last edited by Nunyerbiz; 10-23-2019 at 01:45 AM.

10-22-2019, 11:30 PM	#4
Nunyerbiz MVP OVR: 4 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 1,479	Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty Niagara Rhinos to be Reborn! University to join NCAA and adopt American rules. By: Sixto Lezcano January 3rd, 2013 The infamous Niagara Rhinos football program that was shuttered in disgrace two years ago will be returning to the gridiron, if in a highly modified form. The team will become the first international member of the American NCAA and will join the Mid American Conference for football play starting in the upcoming 2013 season. MAC Commissioner Isiah Thomas made the announcement in a press conference this afternoon. “Like I said about my trades when I was with the Knicks: the 17th time is the charm! We’ve finally landed the next great program in the history of the MAC.” Thomas was apparently referring to a document that leaked which listed all the schools that had rebuffed his advances. “I’ve become very well acquainted with Niagara AD Curt Lerma and he’s a man who wants to get things done, a man that wants redemption. Also, he didn’t hang up on me and then immediately change his number like 12 or 13 of those other athletic directors.” “We are very excited for the opportunity. Many challenges lay ahead, but this institution is determined to meet them head on.” said Lerma. While both parties seemed very optimistic about the agreement, many questions remain. The former stadium for the Rhinos, Filcher Field, was quickly bulldozed in 2012 to make room for expansion of the Interpretive Romanian Dance Theory department, a disc golf course, a judo range and a Starbucks. For the near term, the team will play its home games at the Greater Niagara Senior Activity and Recreation Center, formerly Rick Moranis High School. The football field of the former high school, which was built in 1987 and graduated the last class in 2008, has been converted to dimensions that fit the American game. Seating capacity has not been announced, as plans to expand the bleachers have thus far been thwarted by angry senior citizens who frequent the facility. Lerma went on to state that the team would likely be playing a full slate of three non-conference games and was hoping to have one of those at home. No other details on scheduling were provided. Little information was made public about the composition of the team. Lerma stated that “about a dozen” of the players from the 2011 Rhino team had remained enrolled at the school and will be eligible to play once they pass steroid testing. He hinted that most of the roster will be compromised of walk-ons, transfers and graduate students from other NCAA programs. Further details will be forthcoming during a press conference on the campus of the university to be scheduled within the next few days. Hellisan and nofx94 like this. Last edited by Nunyerbiz; 10-23-2019 at 10:19 AM.

10-22-2019, 11:33 PM	#5
Nunyerbiz MVP OVR: 4 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 1,479	Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty Niagara Announce Coaching Staff, Two Players Staff of unknowns hope to offer second chances to cast-offs By: Pete Vuckovich January 5th, 2013 Apparently, this hasn’t been a large-scale practical joke. The Niagara University Rhinos are a real thing and have hired a real head coach. Niagara Athletic Director Curt Lerma announced the hiring of Head Coach Rusty Nonek at a press conference earlier this morning. A relative obscure figure in college coaching circles, Nonek was last employed by the Kent State as a QB coach and assistant recruiting coordinator from 2007 through 2010 and has been out of the game since. This tenuous familiarity with the MAC and his ties to Rust Belt recruiting was likely a factor in his hiring. AD Lerma would not go into details only stating that the coaching search was “extensive”. The 53 year old Nonek was a backup quarterback for Portland State in 1978-79, sitting behind future NFL quarterback Neil Lomax. His collegiate stat line was 8-for-19 passing for 47 yards with 1 TD and 2 INT. He spent most of the 80s and 90s in assistant coaching and recruiting roles for a multitude of smaller colleges. His stint at Kent State was his only job with a major program. The Rhinos defense will be handled by former standout Niagara Rhinos linebacker Jordan Johnson. The 43-year-old was the defensive captain for the 1992 Rhinos team, the last time the school had a winning record. He played for three CFL teams over a five year career, primarily as a backup safety. Shortly after his playing career ended, he got into coaching and since 2008 he has been the defensive backs coach for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. "Jordan is one of the brightest young defensive minds in the game. And Lerma told me that I had to hire at least one Canadian" said Coach Nonek. Johnson was on the recruiting trail and not immediately available for comment. Nonek stated that the team is going to run through a multitude of looks during practice and try to tailor a scheme that will fit their players. "We aren’t going to have much size and even less speed. We’ll try everything and anything over the coming months of practice and see what sticks. 4-3, 3-4, 6-7-8, the standard stuff is out the window. We just have to coach our guys up as best we can and put them into a position to win. There will be no easy answers, this is virgin powder ahead of us.” [Editor’s note: Reporter Pete Vuckovich was mistaken, as this was a skiing metaphor and not a reference to illicit substances. His original statement has been removed from this article.] The offense will be ran by another relative unknown, 31-year-old Derek Bell. Over the last three seasons, Bell made some minor waves as the OC for tiny Olivet College in rural Michigan by reviving the Run and Shoot offense. Coincidentally, this is the same offense that Coach Nonek ran while a reserve QB at Portland State. Similar to Johnson, Bell was on the recruiting trail and unavailable to answer questions. But the true surprise of the morning was the introduction of two players. The big name was that of Elton Fante, the former Michigan State wide receiver who was dismissed four games into his redshirt freshman season for multiple violations of team rules. Originally a three star prospect from Charlotte, Michigan, Fante was infamous for his off the field infractions during his short time at MSU. By most accounts, he was majoring in Cannabis Inhalation with a minor in Driving While Intoxicated. His career stat line was 8 catches for 41 yards and then he was gone. “I blew a golden opportunity. I was young and stupid and overloaded with pain killers from the training staff. I went off the rails.” said a visibly emotional Fante. “I hit rock bottom about two months after getting kicked off the team, then vowed to turn my life around. Both Mr. Lerma and Coach Nonek have stressed that this program is all about redemption and second chances. I don’t plan on making the same mistakes twice.”. Fante will be considered a redshirt sophomore by the NCAA and will have three seasons of eligibility available. The next and last player reveal was Russ Tillman, a junior defensive back from Northridge, Ohio. He played two seasons for the Kansas Jayhawks in 2010 and 2011 before being declared academically ineligible and dropping out of school. Never considered a top-tier prospect due to his size (5’10”, 170 lbs), Tillman was a high motor player who earned a starting job in the Jayhawks secondary early in his true freshman season. He echoed Fante’s statements and emphasized he was taking his second chance seriously. “At Kansas, I might have attended six total classes in two years. I have no idea how I lasted as long as I did, I guess everybody looked the other way because the team was so goddamn embarrassing. But I have been enrolled at Niagara for a full year now and I’m well on my way to a rewarding career in HVAC installation and repair once my playing days are over.”. Tillman will have two years of eligibility remaining and will be listed as a junior despite only having successfully completed 14 college credit hours as of this writing. chris11sg likes this. Last edited by Nunyerbiz; 10-23-2019 at 12:28 PM.

10-22-2019, 11:34 PM	#6
Nunyerbiz MVP OVR: 4 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 1,479	Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty EDIT: lol. just noticed that "Ann Arbor" somehow got auto-corrected to "Ann Aaron". Stupid spell checkers. Last edited by Nunyerbiz; 10-23-2019 at 08:53 PM.

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10-22-2019, 11:20 PM	#1
Nunyerbiz MVP OVR: 4 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 1,479	Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty Welcome to the Tale of the Niagara University Rhinos An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty Report Setting The Table: This dynasty report is going to be featuring the Niagara Rhinos, a team from a Canadian university that exists in an alternate universe. There is a real Niagara University, a Catholic school based in New York, but I just want to make it clear that they are not the subject. This is a flight of fancy, the story of a fictional Canadian university that gets snubbed by the amateur establishment in Canada. Seeing a desperate NCAA conference and a potential rivalry just across the falls in Buffalo, they decide to recruit a team of walk-ons, castoffs and JUCOs and switch to that bastardized Yank version of the game to join the NCAA. (For anybody who isn’t aware, what we know today as football had its evolutionary split from rugby in Canada sometime in the early 1860s). There is no remotely plausible way the following events could happen in our real world… which is why I love alternate universe stuff… I get to have fun. So just kick back and relax. Think of it like that episode of Star Trek where the Enterprise had to go back in time to stop JFK and Marilyn Monroe from creating an unstoppable strain of herpes. That being said, certain events and figures will coincide. The Detroit Lions still stink. God still hates Cleveland. Alabama is still the preseason #1. I won’t be getting too deep into the backstory beyond some initial world building posts at the start. I’ll get the Rhinos into the NCAA and then it’s off to the races. While I will take the recruiting/game play aspects very seriously, I intend to have at least a little bit of fun with the backstories and side stuff. Especially early on when my team will be a Bad News Bears / Major League / Unnecessary Roughness / Mighty Ducks / The Replacements / Little Giants / Cool Runnings / Slap Shot band of castoffs and misfits. Before I continue, I just want to throw a quick shout out to my main two inspirations for this dynasty: Hellisan and Deegezy. They’ve both been around forever and I’ve been reading their stuff for years. They manage to weave the gameplay and storylines and presentation together in such a compelling fashion… Basically what I’m saying is that they are both very good at what they do, are old as ** and refuse to quit. Thanks to both of you for the great reads over the years! But seriously, I’m essentially stealing many of Hellisan’s mechanics and presentation aspects and can only hope to weave together a storyline like Deegeezy. Hope I’m not blowing too much sunshine up your skirts, but I have to give credit where it’s due. Now on to some boring stuff... The Nuts and Bolts: Platform: PS3 Difficulty: Heisman Sliders: Custom (basically the OS Community sliders with some minor tweaks) Quarter length: 9 minutes Game Speed: Normal Player Speed Threshold: 20 Ice the kicker: off Home Field Advantage: on NOTE: I won’t be doing any kicks/punts/FGs as a user… I am going to let the CPU handle it and watch the play… which it why I turned off Ice the kicker… it’s already going to be ugly enough at the start. As far as home field advantage… I never really trust EA and it’s under the hood baloney, the less of their meddling the better, but I’m aiming for a terrible team that is going to get their teeth kicked in for a few seasons… so I guess I’ll pile on the disadvantages. Coach Starting Level: 1 Progression Rate: slowest Coaching Skill Trees: To start I will only invest in recruiting perks for the head coach. Coordinators will only be allowed to unlock the lowest tier of upgrades. This is subject to change as time goes on, but the coaching skills can get overpowered pretty quickly… so I will likely keep things nerfed. Rosters: I am using the default rosters with automatically generated names. Being a fictional universe, I'm not terribly interested in the real NCAA players from six seasons ago. The Rhinos are a Teambuilder squad I found sometime last year while searching for a rebuild project. I did not create them but my thanks to whoever did. That's the major points, so for all the other details I'll be using the spoiler brackets to avoid this first post turning into a 2,000 word scrolling behemoth. I plan on doing lots of randomization and dice rolling for things like injuries, suspensions, player progression, etc. Most of these ideas were inspired by Hellisan and things he did in his excellent J.D.Clark Story... Further details below if you are interested. Recruiting: Spoiler I will always favor regional recruits and will aim to have pipelines in some combination of Canada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. But at the start of recruiting, any player who shows an interest in Niagara is fair game. As far as scouting, I’m only going to be able to unlock 50% of their numbers for the first year and will reconsider this as seasons roll along. In general, I’m not going to get super specific with restrictions here… early in the rebuild I’ll likely take anybody who wants to sign. Long term I’ll likely restrict things a bit more. Created Recruits: In order to help the rather anemic prospect counts that Canada provides each year, I’ll likely add two created recruits each year that I plan to pursue. I ran an offline dynasty with Niagara over six seasons and generally I signed somewhere around 1/3rd of the created Canadians that I went after. They will fall in line with the guys I should be expected to recruit, so 1-3 star players for the foreseeable future. I’ll also probably create a few prospects that I won’t go after but maybe follow for storyline purposes. Sleepers and Slackers: After each recruiting class is finalized, I’ll do some random rolls / wheel spins to see if we have any guys that we completely missed the boat on during the scouting process. Sleepers: Each class will have a 20% chance to have 1 player that we totally underestimated and a 5% chance that we underestimated 2 players. When a sleeper is identified a random number between 60-100 will be rolled, this represents the amount of attribute points that I can add to the player. Points will be distributed as evenly as possible across all categories that contribute to the player’s OVR. The only exception is speed, which I generally won’t touch beyond maybe a 1 or 2 point bump. Slackers: Each class will have the same chances as Sleepers. Once a slacker is identified, the random roll will be 40-80 and points will be removed using the same rough approach as with the sleepers. Transfers / Players leaving early: I’ll accept a transfer request if it’s reasonable that the player could start when they become eligible. I’ll only try to persuade players from leaving if it’s obvious I can start them the following season. Player Progression: Spoiler The game pretty much progresses all players at roughly an equal pace and I want to introduce some more variance than that, booms and busts and high motor Rudy types and low effort Jay Cutler types. So I’ll be using a work ethic modifier to change the CPU progression choices. I won’t get into all the algebra here, but this is basically the system developed by Hellisan and then later tweaked by itsbigmike. I’ll probably provide a bit more information on my implementation during the offseason. Link if interested in further reading: https://forums.operationsports.com/f...provement.html Injuries / Suspensions: Spoiler As exhaustively stated already, most of my ideas for this dynasty have been lifted from Hellisan and other long time contributors around here… and this is no exception. The game doesn’t really handle injuries that well in my opinion.. and offensive lineman never get hurt. Don’t even bring up suspensions, the game won’t touch those with a ten foot pole. Preordained Injuries from the Wrathful Football Gods: There will be a certain number of pre-determined injuries that will be rolled at the start of the season. A random number between 3-6 will be rolled prior to the first game, this is the baseline for how many injuries will be preordained from the football gods. Then the roster will be put into alphabetical order and a random number will be rolled from 1-75. (This is assuming a 70-man roster. If I had a 68 man roster, then the roll is 1-73, I'm just adding 5 "safe zone" numbers at the end.) The number rolled is then compared to the alphabetical list and we have our injury victim. If the random number falls in the safe zone, then we dodge the bullet all Matrix style and the football gods remove that injury. That process is repeated based on our initial roll. For players that are deemed to be injured, even more rolls happen… are you bored and ready to scroll onto the next post? I will not blame you… go ahead… nobody is looking. The next roll is 1-14 to determine the week of the injury, then another roll representing the number of weeks left in the season will determine the injury duration. Offensive lineman injuries: In the NCAA14 universe, these guys are freakin invincible… so we are going to change that. At the start of every game there will be a 20% chance that an offensive lineman will get hurt during the game. When the 20% roll is failed, a random number from 1-5 will determine the position injured, starting at LT and moving to RT. Then 1-4 is rolled to determine the quarter when the injury takes place. Then another 1-4 is rolled to determine how many quarters the player has to sit. Injury will take place during the first offensive possession of the quarter rolled. For now, I won’t be doing any carry over to following weeks with this system… but might introduce that in the future. At the moment I can’t think of a good way to handle it… so I am just going to move along for now. Suspensions: At this point, I’m still contemplating how I want to handle this. Maybe it will be a dice roll thing, it might be intentional to create / enhance something with a storyline… still in the air… but something will be in play. Conference Changes:** Spoiler For the purposes of this dynasty, the New Mexico State Aggies have been banished to FCS. I imported them into the MAC, then swapped them out with the Niagara Rhinos. I enabled protected rivalries in the MAC so Niagara and their neighbors across the falls in Buffalo could be rivals. Central Michigan was moved from the west division to the east, swapping with Ohio, that so a protected rivalry with Western Michigan could be established. (I attended Central, so this one was personal) In keeping with the general alternate universe feel, I wanted to mix things up a bit… so I did some additional juggling just for giggles… with the goal of eliminating the independents and turning on rivalries across the board. Notre Dame and Boston College join the Big Ten (I mean Maryland and Rutgers?!? What were they thinking?) They will have the protected “Holy War” rivalry as two old-timey Catholic universities. Old Dominion replaces BC in the ACC and get an in-state rivalry with Virginia Tech. Northwestern and Indiana move to the Big 12 because between the Big 10 and the Big 12 at least one of them had to have the same number of teams as the conference name. Also moved Oklahoma and Oklahoma St to opposing divisions to give them a better chance at head-to-head scheduling. The protected rival for OU is still Texas. BYU and Idaho join the Mountain West. Conference Championship moved to Mile High. Set up a protected rivalry between BYU and Boise State. Army and Navy join Conference USA. Turns out C-USA is somehow incapable of supporting protected rivalries, as I wanted to have Army/Navy every year. But oh well. They are in opposing divisions, so should meet on a regular basis. Looks like I need one team to remain an independent. UTSA drew the short straw in the C-USA shake up so they are now conference-less vagabonds. My sincere apologies to all fans of the program, assuming they exist. There wasn't a whole lot of deep thinking going into these moves... Just wanted to shake things up a little bit for my own entertainment. I hope I didn't crap on one of your favorite teams in the process. focer4, Hellisan, Deegeezy and 3 others like this. Last edited by Nunyerbiz; 10-22-2019 at 11:43 PM.

10-22-2019, 11:35 PM	#7
Nunyerbiz MVP OVR: 4 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 1,479	Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty To: Lerma, Curt ([email protected]) From: Hisle, Larry ([email protected]) Subject: 2013 Rhinos pocket schedules Good Morning Curt, This is Larry over in Marketing. We have the finalized design for the free pocket schedules. But do you really want 25,000 of these things printed? My kids went to Rick Moranis High back in the day... and that field only seats about 700 people. Just want to make sure we aren't going overboard here. Let me know as soon as you can. Oh yea, my ex-wife is already excited for the Northern Illinois game. Attachment: 2013_niagara_rhinos_schedule_uni_gov_edu_ca.png Hellisan, LopaKa and nofx94 like this. Last edited by Nunyerbiz; 10-23-2019 at 11:36 AM.

10-23-2019, 11:48 AM	#8
Nunyerbiz MVP OVR: 4 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 1,479	Re: Niagara Rhinos: An Alternate Universe NCAA 14 Dynasty [reserving three more slots]

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