Gridiron Dynasty - Leahy DIAA

[joannes3000]

Welcome to Furman, Coach! We are thrilled to have you leading our program and we are sure that you can lead us to great success.

Ariel Bernard

President

Furman University

Elmer Wright

Athletic Director

Furman University

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I had a very hard decision to make in Leahy when the season ended. On one hand, I was dying to move up because I will only be getting 25% reward points at DII. On the other hand, I had a hell of a team in place and had some STUDS waiting in the wings. In the end, when 17-1 and defending Southern Conference Champion Furman opened up, I couldn't pass on the opportunity. On the heels of a run into the semifinals and a loss to the eventual NC, I felt I was as ready as I'd ever be to make the step up.

From the onset, DIAA looks to have the highest risk/reward recruiting in all of GD. The risk comes from non-BCS teams swimming in the same pool as upper level DIAA teams. The reward comes from DIA caliber players slipping through the cracks and hopefully landing on a DIAA roster. My recruiting strategy will change to a much slower pace to avoid nearly unwinnable battles against DIA teams.

DIAA teams receive 10k per scholarship, up from the 6k per scholarship received at DII, so DIAA teams have even more ammo when it comes to battling each other also. I expect battles within the same level (DIAA vs DIAA) to be even more hard-fought because of this fact.

The conference I'm in has 8 sim schools currently. Coupled with the fact that Furman has some nice offensive and defensive pieces returning, we should be able to hit the ground running and hopefully establish ourselves early within the conference.

[joannes3000]

I decided to give the team a closer inspection this morning before the season rolls over and I start diving into recruiting. Overall there will be 21 scholarships to fill; 11 on offense, 9 on defense, and 1 special teams. I consider anything over 15 to be a large class, so I will be redshirting the limit of 3 players to make this class a little smaller.

Offensively we lose 2 QBs, 1 RB, 2 WR, 2 TE, and 4 OL. The 4 OL is my only concern because that's twice as many OL that I'd like to have graduate at any given time. The tentative plan is to recruit 3 OL, have 1 RS, run lean at the position for a year, and hope things work out ok. That leaves me with one extra spot which I will use on a RB. I will also go after an extra WR (3 total) with the spare scholarship I will have from the defensive side of the ball.

Defensively we lose 3 DL, 2 LB, and 4 DB. My biggest concern is the 4 DB, again because that's twice as many as I'd like to replace in a single season. I would like to land 3 DB this year, RS 1, and call it a day. The DL is also a bit of a concern because we have 5 FR on the roster which can pose a future problem. I will more than likely go after 3 DL and have 1 RS. Next year I will only have 1 graduating DL which will allow me to recruit 3, have 2 RS, and essentially balance out the class just before those FR graduate. The one extra scholarship will be used on offense at WR.

For special teams, I'll be replacing a K. Anticlimactic, I know.

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Our returning offense should be strong on the ground, which is what I was looking for when I was looking at available jobs. I have two capable RBs and a solid OL to build on. I also have fairly strong WRs but we will need a playmaker at QB to take advantage.

On defense our secondary will be suspect, but I'm hoping that our DL will help mask that by providing a good pass rush. Our front 7 is solid if not spectacular.

[joannes3000]

Well, my first foray into DIAA recruiting was very interesting to say the least. I did my best to recruit slowly, which is something I've been meaning to get into a habit of any way. I also targeted a mix of DIAA talent (to fill out the vast majority of my roster) and DIA talent (in case any studs fall through the cracks), which again, is something I've been meaning to get into a habit of.

With a monster class of 21 recruits it was difficult analyzing so many players, keeping in mind that I don't want to shoot too high because DIA schools will likely scoop them up while at the same time not shooting too low because I want to be competitive at DIAA. For my first time, I think things went well. I'm changing up the formatting a bit, removing pictures and adding recruit positional rankings in (parentheses) and their potential as well.

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QB: this had to be the most difficult position to recruit this season. 8/11 went DIA.

Joe Curtis(#186) has above average potential and work ethic; average stamina; and below average strength, game instinct, and technique.

Frank Beach(#200) has average potential, work ethic, and stamina; and below average strength, game instinct, and technique.

RB: this was another difficult position to recruit, although we fared much better in terms of talent. 4/14 went DIA. I should've recruited slower, as I ended up pulling an offer on a recruit I sank 14k into because 1) I got late competition for him and 2) I found an equally good recruit for 3k.

Daniel Russell(#104) has above average elusiveness, strength, and stamina; average athleticism, speed, and work ethic; and below average potential.

David Dodson(#111) has excellent speed; above average potential; and average elusiveness, strength, work ethic, stamina and athleticism.

WR: we did well in landing our 3 receivers. 6/14 went DIA.

Ricardo Roe(#103) has excellent hands and speed; above average athleticism and technique; and average work ethic, stamina, elusiveness, and potential.

Ryan Powers(NR) has above average technique, game instinct, and potential; average hands and work ethic; and below average athleticism, stamina, game instinct, and elusiveness.

Robert Flynn(NR) has above average potential and hands; average work ethic, stamina, and technique; and below average athleticism, game instinct, and elusiveness.

TE: we also did well with our one recruit. 2/5 went DIA.

Edward Jordan(#114) has above average strength, blocking, and potential; average hands, speed, and technique; and below average work ethic and stamina.

OL: this was another tough position to recruit but we did very well with the 4 we signed. 8/22 went DIA.

Clifford Smith(NR) has above average blocking; average strength, technique, and work ethic; and below average stamina, game instinct, and potential.

Harold Garza(#133) has above average blocking, stamina, game instinct, and potential; and average work ethic, strength, and technique.

Tom Gibson(#173) has excellent potential and strength; average blocking, technique, and stamina; and below average work ethic and game instinct.

Joseph Funk(#198) has excellent strength; above average potential; average blocking and technique; and below average work ethic, stamina, and game instinct.

DL: we did well with our 3 recruits at this position. 7/19 went DIA.

Steven Phillips(#200) has excellent tackling; above average strength, potential, work ethic, and stamina; and average game instinct and technique.

Norman Griffin(NR) has above average potential and stamina; average work ethic; and below average strength, tackling, game instinct, and technique.

Robert McKinney(NR) has excellent tackling; above average potential, game instinct, and technique; average stamina; and below average work ethic.

LB: we did very well with our 2 recruits. 5/9 went DIA.

Alan Valenzuela(#137) has above average tackling; average strength, speed, athleticism, hands, technique, and game instinct; and below average potential, work ethic, and stamina.

Robert Porter(#108) has excellent potential, and strength; above average athleticism, tackling, and game instinct; average speed and stamina; and below average work ethic, hands, and technique.

DB: we did well with our 4 recruits. 6/14 went DIA.

Alan Jones(NR) has above average speed, work ethic, and tackling; average potential, stamina, game instinct, elusiveness, and technique; and below average hands and athleticism.

Edgar Edwards(NR) has above average game instinct, elusiveness, and potential; average speed, work ethic, stamina, tackling, and technique; and below average hands and athleticism.

George Brown(NR) has above average potential and elusiveness; average speed, work ethic, stamina, tackling, and game instinct; and below average athleticism and technique.

Christopher Robinson(NR) has excellent elusiveness; above average speed and game instinct; average potential, athleticism, tackling, and work ethic; and below average stamina and hands.

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Overall I would give our class a B grade. I think we did well in some areas like LB, TE, and OL as a whole, and we also landed some nice individual players at DB, RB, WR, and DL. However, we had to settle for substandard QBs and we also got some questionable guys at DL and DB. I'll chalk this up as a learning experience, and a major one at that. I definitely could have saved more money and future recruiting efforts will definitely be an improvement on this initial one.

My original recruiting plan changed a bit. Offensively I decided to go with 4 OL (1 RS) and have 8 active. In 3 years I will balance out as I will only have 1 graduating SR at that time. The rest of the plan was unchanged, recruiting 2 QBs, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, and 1 TE.

Defensively we went as scheduled (I mistakenly typed 3 DB when I meant to type 4), although I won't RS one of my 3 DL. I decided against running lean at DL because I think it's the most critical position on defense. We'll work that out starting next year where we only have 1 graduating SR.

I also decided to go against recruiting a kicker, instead going with the old double duty routine and having my P handle all special teams assignments.

[joannes3000]

[shug94]

You seem to have done really well in recruiting! Good work!

My plan for recruiting is to wait until the last minute and then snag some DII players that drop (I play in DIII), hopefully ones with good work ethic.

It is so hard to sit on your hands and not spend any recruiting money right now though!

[AHF]

Do you think that is a representation of a big edge in quality of recruits compared to other schools or is this a reflection of the size of the class or some combination?

Either way, it looks like a very successful first effort.

[joannes3000]

Quote:

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My plan for recruiting is to wait until the last minute and then snag some DII players that drop (I play in DIII), hopefully ones with good work ethic.

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Unfortunately, that doesn't happen in GD. If you can't see a player in your divisional search (DIII, DII, etc.), you have zero chance of landing them and they will never drop down a level. Coming into DIAA with such a big class, I waited a full day before I got started so I could gauge who was interested in whom. In the end I had very little dead money that went to players I didn't sign, but I had to spend nearly all of my budget in order to land the players that I did. I'll take those results (top 10 class vs lots of carryover cash) every time, though.

Quote:

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It is so hard to sit on your hands and not spend any recruiting money right now though!

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Agreed. I stay away from GD as much as possible whenever recruiting starts so I don't get tempted to start recruiting kids.

[joannes3000]

Quote:

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Do you think that is a representation of a big edge in quality of recruits compared to other schools or is this a reflection of the size of the class or some combination?

Either way, it looks like a very successful first effort.

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It's a combination of the two. The WIS recruit rankings are weighted heavily by volume, which I don't even pay attention to because it obviously skews it toward larger classes like mine. There are a handful of GD users that create their own rankings, putting more emphasis on core stats for each position which gives a much more accurate analysis.

[joannes3000]

In looking over our regular season schedule, the first thing that jumps out is the fact that we only play 5 human teams out of 13 games. Granted, sim teams have become much more competitive after the update, but they still are no match for a decent team and a decent coach. I'd like to think that we're above average in both categories.

I inherited the previous coach's OOC record, which has us opening the season against two sim teams. This will actually play into our favor because I will be breaking out with a new offense and defense now that I am in DIAA. With recruits coming in with higher core ratings, less time needs to be dedicated toward individual practice and can now be spent on formation practice.

On offense we will be installing the Pro set that I tinkered with at DII Nebraska Omaha, and on defense we will be installing the 4-3. Pro set gives me an offense that will keep defenses on their toes, as it allows me to pass or run effectively at any given time. Naturally, I chose the 4-3 defense because it will let me guard the Pro/I more effectively when I face it.

We face human coaching for games 3-5 of our OOC slate, however none of them have been quite successful in their coaching careers. My winning % in Leahy is .733, including the time it took for me to build Wayne State into a playoff contender. My opposing coaches have winning %s of .531, .580, and .710 so I like my chances of getting into in-conference play undefeated.

We did draw west division power Northwestern State this year, not to mention as a road opponent, and we get human coached Nicholls State at home. The remaining 6 conference games are all against sim teams.

First year predictions? If all goes well and my team responds well to my coaching style, it's not crazy to think that we go undefeated and win the CC. We have the talent to compete with everyone on our schedule and I am at least on par with the coaches in terms of game planning ability.

We do have a questionable DL, however, which could be a factor against FIU (they aren't DIA in GD) and Northwestern State. I have set the bar high, and the worst I expect us to do is 11-2 with a CC, with losses to FIU and Northwestern State, both of which are on the road. If I make the CC, however, I expect to be able to beat Northwestern State on neutral turf for the CC.

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9/20/07 at Central Connecticut

9/21/07 Richmond

9/22/07 Western Illinois

[joannes3000]

9/20/07 at Central Connecticut 40-13 W

9/21/07 Richmond 13-51 W

9/22/07 Western Illinois 20-30 W

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Central Connecticut made for good practice before we play Western Illinois. Focusing on passing, we ran for 169/2 and passed for 329/4. 40-13 W

With our passing game looking good, Richmond faced our running attack. We ran for 325/4 and passed for 306/3.

13-51 W

Finally, our first live fire of the season. Against Western Illinois we ran for 359/2 and passed for 117/1.

20-30 W

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I feel good about our team after the first three games. The biggest thing of note is that we have a studly RB in William Allen. He has top-end core stats coupled with excellent stamina. To date he is averaging over 10 ypc and has carried the ball more times than the rest of my RBs combined. He is only starting and receiving significant carries from one set, but that will be changing soon to maximize his touches.

It's still early, but it seems like our 3rd offense/defense is working well also. So far, we've been able to keep opposing defenses guessing with the Pro set and our own defense hasn't been caught off guard as much.

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The next three games bring 2 human teams, and it looks like I overhyped our meeting with Florida International. They have a strong OOC schedule, but have only played tough against one team so far. We'll see how ready they are soon enough. I definitely feel like we're ready for them.

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9/23/07 at Florida International

9/24/07 at Murray State

9/25/07 at Tennessee-Chattanooga

[joannes3000]

What was I so worried about Florida International for? We ran for 222/2 and passed for 502/6. 63-29 W

Murray State was even more lopsided. They only have 5 DL, so I just kept running at them. By halftime they had OL and LBs playing DL - never a good sign. We ran for 289/5 and passed for 285/3. 59-6 W

Tenn-Chattanooga did little to slow us down. We ran for 176/6 and passed for 347/0. 42-9 W

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I feel good after throttling two consecutive human teams on the road. I am cautious about the level of competition we've faced so far, however. As of this post, I have yet to play anyone in the top 25 and have yet to face a team with record better than 3-3. So while we're clicking on offense and holding strong on defense, I expect the results we're putting up so far, given the competition we've faced.

It looks like Northwestern State will be our toughest challenge of the season. It's a road game against a human coached team that is currently 5-1. The one loss was to a sim team, however. We'll see soon enough.

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9/26/07 Elon

9/27/07 at Northwestern State

9/28/07 Wofford

[drzachary]

I'm going to be disappointed with you if you lose even a single game this season.

[joannes3000]

Speaking of games, time for an update.

Elon is the last tuneup before our next hurdle of the season. We ran for 238/2 and passed for 247/3. 13-41 W

To be fair, having 6 DL is like being a 1-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. My game plan was to run at Northwestern State because they weren't going to be able to defend us effectively and the plan worked to perfection. They defended my NDB rushing attack out of a 4-3. That's 7 frontline blockers to their 4 man front. We ran for 290/3 and passed for 211/1. 38-21 W

The most difficult part of the Wofford game was trying to cover the 26.5 point spread. We ran for 385/4 and passed for 295/3. We barely eeked it out against the spread, though. 23-50 W

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For all intensive purposes we have our CC bid all but sewn up. If we get past Western Carolina tomorrow, you can go ahead and make travel plans for the post season. We still have two games of concern, but they are minor, at worst. Both teams are still undefeated in the conference so a loss to either can derail our CC bid.

Tonight's game has us at home against #20 Western Carolina, a sim team! That's testament to how much better the sim competition is after the update. They have lost one game so far, and that's to the currently undefeated #5 team (14-16 final score).

Our final game of the season is on the road against Citadel. They also only have 6 DL, so you know what that means.

I'm being cautiously optimistic at this point, because in all honesty I think we're gonna roll through to the playoffs. Our running game is in full swing, with William Allen leading the way.

Here are his current WCAA rankings:

#2 rushing yards (1900)

Tied for #2 in YPC (10.1)

#9 in TDs (18)

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9/29/07 #22 Western Carolina

9/30/07 at Appalachian State

10/1/07 at Georgia Southern

10/2/07 at Citadel

[joannes3000]

Unfreakingbelievable. I just lost to a sim team, and the only team that stood in my way of a CC bid and a likely CC.

In a game that featured two offenses that scored on nearly every possession, it truly came down to who had the ball last. And while I did get the ball last, with only 53 seconds and 2 timeouts our drive fell short at the 30 yard line as time expired.

I punted once the entire game and had zero turnovers. Western Carolina punted twice and also had zero turnovers. My only defense is that I didn't check the score at halftime (20-21) because last night was my two year wedding anniversary.

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And to add to my misery, after looking at the box score tonight, I realized some discrepancies and have submitted the following ticket to Customer Support:

In my most recent game against Western Carolina, why didn't my team utilize our final timeout on the last drive of the game? It could've made the difference in an attempted field goal or a last shot at the endzone. Instead time ran out as we were driving on the 30 yard line.

I can understand the logic of not calling timeouts when you're on your side of the field, but with 53 seconds left we should've been trying to preserve time regardless. I don't see why a timeout was called after our first run, but another one wasn't called from that point forward.

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Not only that, but why didn't my 'optional 1' game plan kick in when there was less than 3 minutes left and I was down 3 or more? 3 plays were run out of Pro which isn't listed at all for that situation.

I rarely complain, but this is a situation where I think the game engine fudged the bucket. Not using a timeout is senseless enough, but I didn't notice that my 2 minute game plan didn't kick in until just now. We'll see what happens.

[joannes3000]

Disregard the 2nd part of the ticket I sent in. My game plan doesn't kick in unless I'm down 7 or more.

[joannes3000]

Appalachian State got to suffer my wrath after we lost our game against Western Carolina. We ran for 303/3 and passed for 400/6. 69-7 W

Georgia Southern did a little better in containing us, and we were a little down after watching Western Carolina all but wrap up a CC bid after manhandling Citadel. We ran for 163/1 and passed for 341/5. 41-17 W

Our final game of the regular season was over before it started. Even on the road, I switched to our run-heavy offense to take full advantage of Citadel's DL weakness. We ended up running for 244/3 and passing for 272/3. 42-28 W

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Instead of game planning up for the CC, we will be spending tonight resting and gearing up for the playoffs; a solemn reminder of how we fell 3 agonizing points short of a possible undefeated regular season. We don't have time to feel bad for ourselves, however, as we have the playoffs to look forward to. Last season's squad made it to the semifinals and depending on how teams are seeded, we should be favored to make it to the final four again this year.

[joannes3000]

Well it looks like the pollsters took kindly to our sob story about losing to Western Carolina, as we were awarded with a #3 seed in the playoffs after finishing the season ranked #10 overall. Ironically, Western Carolina, who won the CC by the way, is also a #3 seed.

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Our first opponent is 11-2 (#24) Marist. Their coach has a career playoff record of 8-6 (.571), nothing to be afraid of. From a talent standpoint things look fairly even, although I think our OL has enough of an advantage over their DL to let my running game get on track. Looking at their offensive numbers, it also looks like game planning may be the biggest downfall of the team, because they have above average talent on paper. One big thing is that they defend the NDB with the 5-2, which means I will be throwing like crazy out of the NDB in the first half to soften him up for our running attack in the second half.

[AHF]

NDB?

[joannes3000]

Notre Dame Box. Sorry, the more I write about GD here, the more I'm going to expect you guys to know the shorthand that comes with the game.

[joannes3000]

Marist came out firing on all cylinders in the 1st quarter and they went 70 yards in 5 minutes with an opening TD drive. Not to be outdone we also came out flashing a strong offense by countering with a 55 yard TD drive that took 3 minutes. Marist ended the quarter driving into our redzone with relative ease, which has me concerned.

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Our defense wakes up in time to hold Marist to a FG to open the 2nd quarter scoring. A promising drive was cut short on our next possession, however, when we fumbled the ball away after completing a 28 yard pass on 3rd and 5 that had us on Marist's 45. Marist turns around and capitalized with a 4 minute TD drive, taking a 16-7 lead after missing the XP. Our next possession winds up in a punt that pins Marist on their 6. Our defense proceeds to give up ground until a very timely INT at midfield. With 3 minutes till the half we go into quick-strike mode and score a TD in 49 seconds. Our defense falters again, however, recovering just in time to hold Marist to a FG after they had driven all the way down to our 2 yard line.

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At halftime we are down 19-14 but we get the ball to open the 2nd half. To this point I'm happy with where we stand. We had a sloppy 1st half and we're only down 5 points.

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Much to my content, we make good on our opening drive of the 3rd quarter and take the lead with a TD. Marist manages to drill home a 52 yard FG to retake the lead, 22-21, on their next possession. Our next possession is a masterful 8 minute TD drive featuring 3 solid 3rd down conversions. The 3rd quarter ends with us in the lead, 28-22.

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To follow with the theme of the game so far, our defense falters until the last minute and we hold Marist to a 28 yard FG to open the final frame. With just under 12 minutes to go, our next drive accomplishes exactly what we needed. We chew up 4 minutes of clock en route to a TD that gives us a 35-25 lead. Marist counters with a TD drive of their own, making the score 35-32 with just over 3 minutes to go. Our offense polished off the game, killing the clock with 3 kneeldowns within their 10 yard line.

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32-35 W

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Judging by the final score, our offense and defense did just enough today. We ran for 144/2 and passed for 277/3. Our defense actually gave up 462 total yards but came up big when we needed it as evidenced by 4 FGs, 3 of which were within 35 yards. The turnover battle was even, with both teams giving up the ball once. We also punted only once, but did not force a single punt ourselves (no 4th down conversion attempts for either team). Our inability to force a punt is the most concerning stat for me heading into our next game against #7 Butler.