NCAA Dynasty: Season #1

For the first time since the 2004 online addiction to NCAA Football, I decided to start up an Ohio State dynasty and attempt to have a good time exploring the game in more detail than the previous 2 seasons...or, you could say I've been getting my ass kicked online lately and needed the suberfuge that dynasty games grant. I'm 6-1 with my Buckeyes in DaONE, 2-1 with my Virginia squad in the League of Dedication (where I was coincidentally told last night that I couldn't pinch my line together while running the 3-4), and I'm a brutal 1-4 in my own league at MM. The bad thing: the 1-4 record, the 1 loss with Virginia and the 1 loss with OSU are virtually all from the last 3 weeks, where I've just been inept at this goddamn game and can't win to save my ass.

Enough of my troubles.

As with any dynasty, one of the most important features is the set of sliders you're playing the game on. I've always traditionally played All-American difficulty mode while winning all the rivalry trophies and running practice mode over the past 2 years, but with the jump to Heisman by most leagues this season I'm now doing so as well. Now Heisman's a tricky beast - there's always been the hack to kill the speed cheat by plugging in another controller and putting that player on the other team, allowing him to also play AI QB and have Corso call their plays, but it's somewhat involving and well, I'm lazy. So - as an online guy first and foremost, I always attempt to create sliders so that I'm playing with about the same amount of attributes as I am online, I just don't want to be able to do something offline that I can't do on.

Offense: XkqztBUO
Defense: WuCxiQL2

Anyway, in the season I finish 9-3 (6-2) and good enough to win the Big 10, losing to Texas 35-14, Michigan State 9-6 in OT and Michigan 38-7. As much as losing to both Michigans chaps my ass, my #12 ranked Buckeyes managed to win the Fiesta Bowl anyway against #3 Georgia - so I think my sliders were pretty alright. I really got woodshedded a couple of times, but I managed to have my way with plenty of other schools. QB Reggie McNeal of Texas A&M won the Heisman Trophy, despite Matt Leinart winning the Maxwell, Best QB Award and was named First Team All-American, all while setting the NCAA Dynasty record by tossing 57 touchdown passes during the season. McNeal did make the Second Team, so I guess not all is lost. DonTrell Moore won the Best HB award despite Mr. President Reggie Bush being selected First Team AA, Steve Smith won the Best WR over Jovon Bouknight of Wyoming - nothing else really significant. Texas A&M defeated the unbeaten #2 Texas team to send Florida to a National Championship blowout against USC, and I think like 3 mid-majors finished higher than I did at the #7 slot.

At any rate, I compiled a short spreadsheet of my draft class for your consumption - cause I know you're dieing to see, but also because I like looking back throughout the dynasty and seeing how different guys turn out and comparing prospects to one another. I'm very curious as to whether or not the discipline and potential ratings are right - if in fact high potential prospects end up being great players or vice versa, say a kid has all the physical talent in the world but never develops into a great player. And oh: the recruiting class

#1 class: (5) 5 stars, (17) 4 stars, (1) 3 star, (1) 2 star

I know, I know...

...but just roll with me here. Anyway, I made the same mistake that I believe I made back in '04, I left AI assistance on while I recruited. This was no more than noticable until after week #5 when I had already received all the recruits I wanted, and then I was stacked with 8 additional recruits I had either scouted, at one time offered a scholarship to or maybe even glanced at them while they were interested. I had to cut several players to make room for the youth movement including 1 recruit (HB Drew Britton if you're interested), but yo - don't make the same mistake I did, these guys just came rolling in.

Also, a user at Maddenmania, Faaip De Oiad, puts out a recruiting tool every year for people to use to evaluate prospects while recruiting. You can input all the scouting reports into a generator to see what their prospective rating will be, and it's typically pretty accurate as well. you can get the evaluator here, and you can view the thread at MM here. If you're getting an error message when trying to run it, you need to have .NET framework 1.1 for this file to work, which is found on either microsoft.com or downloaded via Windows update.

Some of the things I'm curious on - I score the #1 HB in the nation (Victor Yancey) who runs a 4.31, and it turns out some 4 star athlete recruit (John Bell) that the coaches signed in the final week who ran a 4.41 is faster. Granted I didn't scout him, but seriously - a 4.41 down below a 4.31? Furthermore, this athlete - who stands at 6'2, 202 lbs - is an 85 OVR DE as opposed to a 78 OVR HB - it's like...serious? Here I think I'm landing the next Reggie Bush with his A+ hands and blazing speed, and turns out some 4-star dude out of NY is good enough to earn Yancey a redshirt. Coupled with the fact that my current back, Erik Haw, is a redshirt sophomore this upcoming season - I think I'm destined to have about 18 transfers here in the next year at least. There's just not enough balls on the field.

Have you seen a better secondary class like - ever in your life? For season #2, I have Donte Whitner as an impact CB and a 97 OVR, Ashton Youboty opposite of him as a 96 OVR, and my next 4 are all from this draft class, each rated 82 OVR (one is a junior transfer). Oh...and all have 99 speed. Wtf? Ya, 6'2 hell-spawned demons flying around the field running 4.16's...I'd advise running against OSU for about the next 4 years. The sad thing about this is that I pulled in the #2, 3, 4 and 15 ranked recruits at the position - scarey to think what lies out there this year and what it may become in a few more after that. To think, I felt that Brandon Greenway signing during the season would be my cornerstone player on defense over the next few years, impact player and everything...and then I go and get 3 guys just as good to give him a red shirt season.

HB Antonio Pittman left and went to Maryland due to his only 300+ yards and 5 TD's, so as a result the coaching staff apparently decided that no less than 8 replacements would be necessary. Seriously, I have so many freakin' backs now I have no idea what to do with them.

I was stoked about my C recruit Maurice Keyes to replace Nick Mangold during the season, but after just halfway pursuing Joe Bostic in the offseason and landing him, it turns out Bostic is about 12 points higher than Keyes as far as rating goes. Keyes is bigger, slightly slower and lacks 40 pounds on his squat compared to Bostic, but the difference as far as first year starters goes is way too vast to consider giving Keyes playing time. Guess that shows the importance of In-Season Recruiting this year.