Gridiron Dynasty - University of Puget Sound

[joannes3000]

You guys won; I signed up when I got home from work.

Of the teams looking for a coach in the Rockne World, I went with one of the Northwest schools. And while Linfield College was a little bit better overall regarding talent and past history Puget Sound won't be hit with mass graduation next year, which will give me a bit of continuity.

Coming in, I knew UPS had a meager history managing only two winning seasons in the past 19 and never reaching the playoffs. The school is coming off of back-to-back 4-9 seasons but is only three years removed from it's best ever season (9-4).

I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm gonna bring my traditional smashmouth run oriented playbook with me and work this thing on out.

[joannes3000]

After laboriously pouring over information on the team, I'm almost ready to hit the recruiting trail tomorrow. Main areas of concern are OL, LB, WR, and TE. The offensive line graduates 2 seniors next year, while the linebacker and receiver position could use more talent across the board. And with only one TE, we need depth.

[joannes3000]

Recruiting has started up and I've got a pretty nice array of recruits on my wishlist. As I wait for responses from them, I decided to take a closer look at my team. My avg. ratings (starters in parentheses) are as follows:

QB - 388 (406)

RB - 428 (460, 435)

WR - 442 (468, 430)

TE - 380 (380)

OL - 440 (470, 468, 461, 439, 411)

DL - 433 (447, 445, 445, 436)

LB - 439 (487, 460, 449)

DB - 446 (471, 469, 438, 431)

K/P - 398/370

Team avg - 429

Looking at more established team rosters, the ceiling looks to be >525 for SR and >475 for JR with the occasional bluechipper (DIII standards at least) that goes beyond that. Judging by that I have a few nice pieces on my team to build around.

Starting junior RB, Roland Lewis

Starting senior WR and KR/PR, Robert Cook

Starting senior OL, Brian Steele and William Moore

Starting junior OL, Douglas Walker

Starting junior LBs, Steven Miller and Herbert Hammond

Starting junior DBs, Roy Townsend and Timothy Smith

[Guest Riv]

Dont go by overall, they are deceiving. Go by the core #'s.

[joannes3000]

Oh trust me, I've got a seperate excel cell that only considers "core" abilities. I just wanted to throw up a quick comparison without diving into everyone's player rosters. Well, at least not until I find Office Pro and get a newer version of excel so I can run your query suggestion. Kudos again for that, btw.

[Guest Riv]

I got it off of the WIS boards so they deserve the credit.

[joannes3000]

Well, the first day of signing has come and gone and I secured all 15 open scholarships in one fell swoop! I actually missed out on a couple of guys that accepted my offer too late.

Here is year 20's UPS recruiting class:

James Frank, DB

Samuel Sherman, DB

Anthony Maynard, DL

Juan Hughes, LB

Ronnie Thomas, LB

William Reyes, LB

Louis Scruggs, OL

Michael Gallegos, OL

James Erickson, RB

Ronald Drake, RB

Donald Parks, TE

Steve Thomas, TE

Clarence Martinez, TE

Mark Sanders, WR

Eric Gaston, WR

Guys I ran out of scholarships for:

Edward Schaefer, DL

Marvin Taylor, QB

Derrick Reynolds, TE

[joannes3000]

Doh. Links are all bad, naturally. I'll have to wait until the guys get on my roster then I'll repost.

[joannes3000]

Game 1 is in the books and I'm sad to report that I lost by a touchdown in overtime... After winning the toss and electing to defend first, I promptly give up a touchdown drive and go 4-and-out when I get the ball.

Comparing the teams before the game I felt that UPS was on par even though the other team was slightly better overall. I had faith in my gameplan and it worked well until the meltdown in the 4th quarter and overtime. Here's the

box score.

Highlights:

**203 yards and 3 scores on the ground made me very happy.

**18/30 passing for 187 yards and a 2/1 ratio surprised me.

**My freshman TE Donald Parks showed why he made some preseason lists with his performance, leading the team with 8 receptions and 2 scoures.

Lowlights:

**Giving up 300 yards and 4 scores through the air.

**Letting a 28-7 halftime lead go to waste by giving up 20 unanswered points in the 3rd quarter.

**Giving up a touchdown and the game-tying 2 pt conversion with 43 SECONDS left in the game.

Game 2 looks like a good a time as any to notch my first career win against a Luther team that quite honestly should be outplayed for 4 quarters. Their secondary is suspect and even though I do a lot of running, we should be able to test them deep with positive results.

[joannes3000]

Link to the box score.

After a brutal first half of the season which included two overtime losses to Capital and to Linfield , I was finally able to motivate my players to play for 4 quarters. Steady scoring highlighted this first victory and although the defense gave up a lot of yards, the scoreboard reflected a bend-but-dont-break attitude.

We're still giving up way too many passing yards which continued with today's game. We surrendered 278 yards through the air on 21/42 passing and a 1/1 td/int ratio. The ground game was fairly stout, allowing a 100 yard rusher but only 130 net yards overall.

Meanwhile, our offense clicked to the tune of 239 passing yards on 19/28 passing and a 1/0 td/int ratio. My starting QB, Keith Castillo connected on an awesome 13/18 for 174 yards and the lone score. The run attack was solid as always, grinding out 229 yards and 3 scores on 41 carries. Starters John Smart and Christopher Bland combined for 168 of those yards and 1 score on 25 carries while backup Roland Lewis made the best of his 11 carries, chipping in 73 yards and TWO scores.

Donald Parks continues to impress with his team high 5 catches. That gives the heralded rookie TE 36 catches on the year for 318 yards and 2 scores.

Looking forward to next week, UPS faces conference juggernaut Stillman who is currently ranked 10th in the nation. There is always hope for an upset, but Stillman's closest game yet has been a 19 point dismantling of conference foe Frostburg State. Our team is fired up though and will at least guarantee to show up on gameday!

[joannes3000]

Well my first season under the helm at UPS has come and gone without much fanfare. We wrapped up the first year of rebuilding at a very modest 3-10 going 3-8 in the conference. The NWC did send three teams to the playoffs and as of the semis, Menlo looks to be heading to the finals. With that said, there's a lot of good teams and an equal amount of good coaches in our league. I've learned a lot and have a ways to go.

Glancing back at our overall record, I had an OOC game and an IC game that I lost in overtime, which could have potentially put UPS at 5-8 (4-7). Those figures would have been tied for the 4th best finish ever at the school. With a full season under my belt, I'm making a 6-7 record the target for next season.

Early on I had some formation changes on both sides of the ball and I think I've settled into formations that I'll be using indefinitely, assuming I can maintain recruits at my key positions on the field. A full season of positional and formation changes upcoming should show benefits on the field.

Our offense should be solid again next year with emphasis on the run. We only ran the ball a little less than 100 times than we passed and that will scale more heavily on the run next season. On 443 attempts we gained 2022 yards (4.6 per) and 17 scores. I graduate one of my starting RBs but he had 20 less carries than his replacement, who averaged 1.7 more ypc. My young TEs are all back, and rookie sensation Donald Parks should become a bigger fixture on offense after leading the team in receptions (71), yards (618), and TD receptions (4). In my run-heavy offense, that's roughly 1/3 of the yards and receptions and HALF the TDs! We do graduate some studs on the OL, however, with Brian Steele averaging a 48 core and William Moore averaging a 47.75 core.

Defensively we graduate two players on the D-Line, with Thomas Arnold being a starter (49.6 core). The LB unit remains intact with stud Steven Miller (47.8 core) set for a great senior season. Miller led the team with 125 tackles, and was second with 4 interceptions. The secondary graduates starter Robert Miller (42.5 core) but can definitely stand to get better with recruiting.

The playoffs are nearly done and I have most of my recruits already targetted so I'm dying to get recruiting started. Good luck to everyone else playing next season!

[joannes3000]

Recruiting is well underway and as usual my budget is dwindling. I've got 3 targets signed with 8 to go, and as always I'm scraping by with recruiting funds. Note to self: exhibit more patience in the future.

On a positive note, I just wrapped up my last preseason game and notched an undefeated record! Case Western Reserve doesn't count because they're a sim AI team. I scheduled them at the request of an in-conference coach. Louisiana and Mount Ida were human teams, however, and we put up wins against both. Compared to last year we're definitely looking more like a competitive team.

One thing that stood out was my running game. There's a definite emphasis on the ground attack this year, as the box scores indicate. 47 attempts for 294 yards and 4 scores in the first game. 41 attempts for 215 yards and 2 scores in the second game. 44 attempts for 254 yards and 3 scores in the final game. Total passes attempted in all three games combined - 65.

Another thing that stood out is even with the lack of depth (since freshmen haven't begun reporting yet) we were able to run our brand of football out there. Season 21 is looking very positive and the entire UPS campus is buzzing with the start of the season so close at hand.

[joannes3000]

Well we're a little over halfway through season 21 and I must say I'm proud of our team's relative success thus far. We've already eclipsed last year's 3 win total, having notched win number four last week against a good Stillman team. Previous wins have come against Willamette, Pacific Lutheran, and OOC foe Waynesburg.

We're at halftime against Whitworth and leading 20-7. If we can hold on this week, we'll be sitting pretty at 5-3 with some very winnable games left on the slate. We could realistically look to reel off a 4 game winning streak going into the Blackburn game at their house. A 7 win season is very reachable at this point, with an 8 or 9 win season just an upset or two away.

We wrap up against conference powerhouse and defending DIII champ Menlo so any chance of a surprise eastern division championship rests on the mentioned upsets of Blackburn and/or Principia. We're currently one game behind division leader Lewis and Clark and lost the earlier in-season matchup.

Go Loggers!

[joannes3000]

Well technically the season is still ongoing, but with only one half of play left against national powerhouse Menlo, my season for all intensive purposes is in the books. Assuming the last half goes as planned, with me not upsetting Menlo, we will wrap up the season a very impressive 8-5 (7-4)!

Looking back at last year's goal of 6 wins, I'm proud to say that this should be the first step to continued success for UPS. We will finish 2nd in our division behind Lewis and Clark who should finish with a 10-3 (8-3 div) record. Looking forward, we should see a bumper crop of recruits after next season since that will wipe away a 4-9 record from our 5 year history (as far as recruiting is concerned).

Offensively we have made the switch to a powerhouse run offense and I attribute most of our success to that fact. There is an obvious trend of power running teams faring well in our conference, with Menlo and Principia averaging 330.3 and 283 ypg rushing. Those teams will boast conference leading records of 13-0 and 12-1. UPS has made the charge to 3rd in rushing averaging 250.2 ypg. The entire campus is buzzing about what the future holds now that I've installed our smashmouth running style.

Defensively we're making strides also, again looking at the correlation between rush defense and success. Again, Menlo and Principia lead the way allowing 53.4 ypg and 69.8 ypg. We managed to hold offenses to 116.5 ypg on the ground. Much like with the offense, going into year 3 of the same offensive and defensive systems will only bring more success.

We're going to get hit hard with graduations this year, having a whopping 20 seniors graduating, many of which are key contributors. On the offensive side of things, we lose our top 3 running backs who accounted for over 2950 yards and 19 scores on the ground. We have two running backs who have been waiting in the wings, however, one of which scored 8 times without having started a single game. We also lose a top flight OL, but there are plenty of capable underclassmen in line.

Defensively we get hit hard. We lose 5 off our 6 man rotation on the DL. We return one player from the rotation and bring in two freshmen that waited patiently this year. 3 of the rotating 4 LBs also graduate this year but we have one stud holdover. DBs get hit the hardest with all 4 starters graduating and only 2 underclassmen returning at all.

Needless to say, defense will be the center of our recruting efforts. We need starter quality guys in the secondary and guys that can start in 2 years on the front 7. The offense has a little more time, but we will need starters in 2 years at QB, OL, and WR. If I've learned anything, I hope it's how to better handle recruiting because the next two years will be make-or-break time, determining whether or not this season was simply a fluke or hopefully a sign of great things to come.

[joannes3000]

Just wanted to give anyone that's interested in joining a head's up. We've got 3 openings in the NWC which is arguably one of the strongest conferences in DIII. Last year we had 4! 10 game winners and sent 2 teams to the playoffs again. If anyone's interested let me know so I can score a referral!

[joannes3000]

Another season is in the books and we've improved again. We eeked out one more win than last year, bringing this year's total to 9. More important than the one extra win, the game was against division rival Lewis and Clark, so that put Puget Sound into it's first ever Conference Championship game!

In three seasons we've seen UPS double it's win total and make the CC game. In the next three seasons we should see UPS crack double digits in the win column and getting past one of the big 4 from the eastern division for a CC.

[joannes3000]

After taking my lumps in one of the most brutal DIII conferences, I finally jumped ship. My main reason was to give myself a quick route to DII, but I was fortunate to have landed a DII promotion after two decent seasons at my other school, Sul Ross State.

So now, I'm terrorizing the American Southwest Conference at the helm of CMH, who until the season before was an absolute powerhouse of a team. I'm in the process of bringing the team right back to the playoffs after having a miserable 3-10 season. We're currently undefeated at 6-0 and currently ranked 9th in the country. I only see one major threat to an undefeated regular season left against Mississippi, but we have them at home, where we've already defeated then-ranked Chapman.

We're currently outscoring opponents by an average of nearly 5 touchdowns per game, led by an unforgiving running game that grinds out ~300 yards per game. Our passing game is far from absent, averaging just over ~175 yards.

A berth in the CC can be all but wrapped up, especially if Mississippi falls today to Mary Hardin-Baylor (MHB winning 17-3 at halftime). I'm hoping for a CC win and an automatic playoff bid, but as strong as we've performed to this point the chance of an undefeated regular season looks pretty good.

[drzachary]

Quote:

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After taking my lumps in one of the most brutal DIII conferences, I finally jumped ship. My main reason was to give myself a quick route to DII, but I was fortunate to have landed a DII promotion after two decent seasons at my other school, Sul Ross State.

So now, I'm terrorizing the American Southwest Conference at the helm of CMH, who until the season before was an absolute powerhouse of a team. I'm in the process of bringing the team right back to the playoffs after having a miserable 3-10 season. We're currently undefeated at 6-0 and currently ranked 9th in the country. I only see one major threat to an undefeated regular season left against Mississippi, but we have them at home, where we've already defeated then-ranked Chapman.

We're currently outscoring opponents by an average of nearly 5 touchdowns per game, led by an unforgiving running game that grinds out ~300 yards per game. Our passing game is far from absent, averaging just over ~175 yards.

A berth in the CC can be all but wrapped up, especially if Mississippi falls today to Mary Hardin-Baylor (MHB winning 17-3 at halftime). I'm hoping for a CC win and an automatic playoff bid, but as strong as we've performed to this point the chance of an undefeated regular season looks pretty good.

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Awesome! Sounds like you're doing well?

I got rebuked trying to apply to Div-I schools in hoops, straight out of Div-III. I had a Sweet 16 season followed by a Final Four season, so I thought my chances could be okay for getting a low-run Div-I school. Terribly wrong!

Question: does div-i in football have a playoff?

[joannes3000]

Quote:

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Awesome! Sounds like you're doing well?

I got rebuked trying to apply to Div-I schools in hoops, straight out of Div-III. I had a Sweet 16 season followed by a Final Four season, so I thought my chances could be okay for getting a low-run Div-I school. Terribly wrong!

Question: does div-i in football have a playoff?

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I think I'm doing well, but I'm riding the coattails of success right now at CMH. I have to hit the ground running because there's that horrible 3 win season that factors into my recruiting vision. I figure if I can rattle off back-to-back playoff seasons, which I should be able to do, then I can establish a foundation.

And nope, DIA currently follows the BCS format.

Question regarding HD - how long in realtime does each season last? GD lasts a little over a month and I'd be willing to pick up a HD team sooner than later if it lasts longer than a month's time.

[drzachary]

Quote:

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Quote:

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Awesome! Sounds like you're doing well?

I got rebuked trying to apply to Div-I schools in hoops, straight out of Div-III. I had a Sweet 16 season followed by a Final Four season, so I thought my chances could be okay for getting a low-run Div-I school. Terribly wrong!

Question: does div-i in football have a playoff?

---

I think I'm doing well, but I'm riding the coattails of success right now at CMH. I have to hit the ground running because there's that horrible 3 win season that factors into my recruiting vision. I figure if I can rattle off back-to-back playoff seasons, which I should be able to do, then I can establish a foundation.

And nope, DIA currently follows the BCS format.

Question regarding HD - how long in realtime does each season last? GD lasts a little over a month and I'd be willing to pick up a HD team sooner than later if it lasts longer than a month's time.

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I have one HD team in a normal world, and one in the turbo world, which is 2 games per day.

The normal world schedule is probably about 42-45 days long. There are 31 days of games in the regular season, it looks like. There are 4 days or so of recruiting prior, and then the conf tourney and the national tourney are about 10 days altogether.

If you are going to start a team, if you joined Rupp (a few weeks from new signups) you could join my conf. It's one of the better ones, with several national champions coming out of it.