[NCAA11--PS3] ITT I Document My NCAA 11 Dynasty Season

[Atmosfear]

Breaking News: Shortly after winning his 9th consecutive BCS Title, Coach Atmosfear announced his plans to leave his job as Head Coach of his alma mater, the University of Jorja. After receiving an offer from literally every team in the country, he narrowed his options down to five top schools: Wyoming, Rice, Tulane, Army, and San Jose State. In a nationally televised press conference rivaling only LeBron James' "The Decision" for senseless egotism, Coach Atmosfear announced he will be bringing his 126-0 career coaching record (63-0 vs ranked opponents) to Tulane, a 1-star program from Conference USA that hasn't won a conference title since 1998.

Though Tulane finished the 2018 season 8-5, the program jumped at the chance to hire a legendary coach such as Atmosfear. Analysts widely consider Tulane to be one of the worst programs in the country, as they are rated an overall D, receiving a D for offense and a D+ for defense. Atmosfear will inherit the #98 recruiting class in the country this year, including only two players rated 3-stars by ESPN. By comparison, he left behind the #1 rated class at Jorja (10 5-stars, 12 4-stars, 20 ESPN Top 150) with established pipelines in the states of California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

Coach Atmosfear had reportedly felt "bored" with his job at the University of Jorja, and had told the administration that he would not be signing a contract extension as early as 2017. At his press conference, he mentioned his excitement to contribute to a new tradition at Tulane, which was a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and a perennial rival of LSU and Notre Dame in the first half of the 20th century. He mentioned the strength of its location (proximity to many of the pipeline states he dominated while at Jorja), Academic Prestige, and Campus Lifestyle. He noted that while Tulane did not have a strong reputation in Pro Potential, Coach Prestige, or Television Exposure, he felt he would be able to sell recruits on the strengths of the University while working with the administration to improve weaknesses. He also identified the possibility of moving the school to the SEC, potentially replacing Vanderbilt, which would make Tulane and Jorja annual opponents. Finally, he mentioned his excitement to play in the Lousiana Superdome, which would serve as a large venue for the program's soon-to-be growing fan base, which many competing universities could not provide.

Atmosfear has coached NCAA record holders for every major season and career statistic, as well as many single game statistics. He has coached a winner of each of the major postseason awards, except for the Tight End, Kicker, and Punter awards. Most recently, Jorja was honored with 8 first-team and 13 second-team All Americans, including their entire starting defensive line. His defense, which famously switched from a 3-4 to a Nickle-based 4-3 in 2016, has been top 10 in every major defensive statistic each of the past 5 years. Offensively, Coach Atmosfear has earned a reputation for running up the score, including a 120-0 drubbing of Vanderbilt at home in 2018. He will bring his playbook from Jorja, which is a blend of a pro-style run game and a spread-style 4-wide passing attack.

After announcing his acceptance of the Tulane job, Coach Atmosfear has been hot on the recruiting trail, closing out the 2018 recruiting class without much splash, but angling on 10 3-star recruits for his 2019 class, which he has dubbed "the turnaround class." His strategy thus far has been to heavily recruit the 10 3-stars on his board, but he intends to focus on establishing pipelines to Alabama and Florida later in the season to access more top talent for his 2020 campaign.

Coach Atmosfear has also cancelled all of Tulane's prior scheduling commitments, including road games at ranked teams Alabama, Florida, and Georgia Tech. He has instead elected to greatly weaken his strength of schedule in favor of maintaining his 126-game win streak, and will open against an FCS East opponent before playing the Akron Zips at home week 3.

Yep so basically after 9 seasons I'm switching schools in my NCAA 11 Dynasty. I thought it would be interesting to try to build up a 1-star program from a non-BCS conference since, frankly, my recruiting at UGA was so ridiculous that I was destroying the game's balance. Consecutive classes of 8+ 5-star recruits is just too much talent on one team... if I had starters rated under 90, it was only because their speed/acceleration was so high that I wanted them on the field, especially for WRs. The game actually started shifting top recruits out of my pipeline states, so that California, Texas, and Florida, which typically have 3 or more 5-stars each year, would get 1 or none, and states like Alabama would suddenly become hotbeds (and thus I would make them a pipeline.)

I'm going to post updates in this thread as the seasons progress. I won't win a National Championship for a year or maybe 2, but I'm trying to go undefeated and maintain my win streak and continue building Tulane into a 6 star program.

[Atmosfear]

One observation early: when you team doesn't have many strengths (I have A or A+ in Academic Prestige, Campus Lifestyle, and Coach Experience--proximity and early play time changes by recruit, but I'm trying to use those as much as possible, too) and a lot of weaknesses (Cs/Ds in everything else except a B+ in Program Stability), it's really affecting my strategy. I knew it would be difficult, so I ended up cutting a lot of players in the off season to thin out my depth chart and improve my Early Play Time across the board. I'm also having to spend more time trying to sway recruits up on the pitches I have an A or A+ in, which I never had to really do at UGA (except when I was trying to take advantage of another school's weakness.)

Also, I've basically just gone through and set my Recruiting Board based on the players that were interested in me; Tulane isn't good enough to really create interest because a "good" recruiting session is about +300; at UGA I typically had +450-500. I also know that my classes will continue to get better because I'll keep winning, so I'm not too worried about having to land great players in this class; my team is frankly so bad that any 3-star is an improvement.

[Atmosfear]

Just landed my first recruit... 3-star Athlete with good speed that I think will either be a DB or a Linebacker. I basically run defense out of Nickel, using man coverage and mixing in linebacker blitzes and line shifts to get to the QB. I need speed/acceleration across the board, since my LB is often in man coverage against a WR in 4-wide sets. I also sometimes run Punt Block Man as a base defense, which leaves my corners on an island in man coverage and only my return man (controlled by me) as a safety--great for getting to the QB and destroying run plays, but leaves a lot of room to get burned deep if your CBs are fast and good in man coverage.

[Atmosfear]

Also landing that guy in Week 3 is huge because I'll save more time and will be able to recruit further down my board longer. It doesn't seem to progress as fast for 3 and 2-star players, but at the top end of the recruiting spectrum, it's such an arms race that getting a couple guys to commit in the first couple weeks can basically guarantee an extra 5 star in your class, since other teams only have a 2-3 week head start on you.

[Atmosfear]

Well 3 offers have gone out and 2 commitments in Week 3. Another 3-star Athlete, so I now have the #66 and #77 ATHs. My board is down to 11 players, so I'm going to add a bunch more to go ahead and start gaining some interest.

[Mr. E]

Good.

[sponge]

I refuse to play NCAA11 because they orientated our stadium with the basketball arena in the west while it should be in the east (either that or NCAA11 plays all its games in the morning).

[sponge]

Also my Madden Superstar is currently stuck on the Steelers so I basically hate all football games right now maybe next year.

[Atmosfear]

lol

Well I defeated FCS East 63-14. My defense is so painful with slow players, poor play recognition, and missed tackles that I resorted to just using super sim for defense. I guess I'll start playing D in a couple seasons when my players are tolerable.

My offense is hilarious because the speed of FCS/CUSA games is so much slower than SEC games... so my 86/88 speed/accel RB is fast enough to make moves against bad opponents. I have one receiver who has decent speed and acceleration, but he drops passes left and right.

[Atmosfear]

Also since my only real games on the schedule are Houston and Tulsa, I should be undefeated until my bowl game... then I'm going to end up in a shootout that I probably can't win.

[Atmosfear]

Well Tulane is currently ranked #17 after 7 straight wins, including over #10 Houston. My schedule is a joke at this point (including winless Memphis and winless Tulsa--apparently the game tanked Tulsa over the last 9 seasons, because typically they're a decent team.) I'm averaging over 40 points per game and the simming my defense hasn't hurt me too bad. My WR and my QB are both at the top of the Heisman list, but I'd be surprised if either can win... if they do, it's clearly a case of "if you throw 50 times a game..." because neither is particularly good at the pitch and catch.

One thing that's definitely becoming clear in NCAA 11 that wasn't true of previous games is the importance of Acceleration. A 99 speed was fast as fuck in previous games, regardless of having an 80 acceleration or a 99. Now that I'm playing with players where I have to make a tradeoff between the two, it's very clear the difference in a player with good acceleration and without. Only one of my WRs have decent speed and acceleration (both in the 80s.) He is so much more of a deep threat because press coverage doesn't destroy him; my other receivers are dead if they are pressed at the line (80s in speed, high 60s in acceleration, mostly.) My RB is by far my fastest player and he can leave defenders in the dust because he has both speed to outrun, but also the acceleration to make moves without slowing too much (high 80s in both.) Even though he's not great, and will likely because a 5th receiver and not a runner in the bowl game, he's definitely able to break ankles in C-USA play.

Recruiting is coming around. I've signed a 1 star punter (to fill the roster spot) and I've got 7 or 8 three stars committed, with a couple more soft commits. Recruiting is very slow at this level, but that's good for loading up the recruiting board. Part of the problem is that my recruiting stats just aren't very good... since there's a random mechanism to selecting pitches, I can't guarantee I'll be able to pitch my A+ stats. My strategy thus far, though, has been to try and sway as much as possible to boost interest in my strengths; with UGA I never had to sway because my only weak stats were the variables (proximity, early play time, etc.) Fortunately, I haven't been recruiting head-to-head with any BCS schools for the most part, so I'm not getting hurt too bad by the fact that I average +200-300 per 60 minute call. Also, it's nice that I can just stop calling a recruit and not worry about falling behind for him too much; I imagine toward the last couple weeks of the season and the off-season, I won't have that luxury.

Since most of the BCS programs don't start talking to 3-stars until later in the season, I've been able to snake some big upgrades at a couple positions. I've really been looking for speed, so I'm hoping a lot of these guys will be faster and will be able to come in and play immediately. I'm currently in the lead for 3 three stars from Alabama, which will give me the pipeline next if I can close them out. I just added 5 three stars from Florida, so my goals are to close 7 or 8 of the 11 three star guys left on my board, and then start flooding my roster with 1-stars from Florida, Alabama, and Georgia to establish those pipelines. With any luck, I'll be able to cut the one-stars next season after recruiting new players from those pipelines to maintain them.

[Atmosfear]

Also, UGA has lost its first game and has dropped to #10 in the polls (behind 5-1 Michigan and the remaining undefeateds not named Tulane.) I was a little disappointed that the computer couldn't close out the decade of championships, but when I look at their game stats, it's kind of sad. The automated depth chart realigned all the players that I had exploited for their strong speed stats, so they were All-Americans and Heisman frontrunners to start the year but have since become 3rd or 4th string. My offense is all about scheming match-ups (your fastest guy on their 3rd or 4th best DB, basically) and the computer just doesn't simulate that for shit

[Atmosfear]

Well I've survived to Conference Championship Week. I got a little screwed... I ended up making it to #3 in the BCS rankings, but neither USC (#1) nor Penn State (#2) play Conference Championship games. I do get to play #19 UCF, so that'll help a little, but it looks like I'm going to be left out of the big game.

Still, a #2 finish overall will be good for my resume and recruiting. Thus far I've got 14 3-stars and 1 1-star, so recruiting should yield some upgrades across the board. I've also got 4 players from Alabama, which will give me a pipeline. I'm working on Florida and Georgia, still, and while I am at the top of a few players' lists, I will have to make some big strides in the off-season in order to get either of them pipelined for next season.

One note for next year is that I definitely need home games to close out my season, because I will definitely need to be recruiting late into the year; while 5- and 4-stars tend to move off the board quickly when chased by top programs, the guys I recruit (especially while I try to build pipelines) are much slower. I had to burn a couple visits on Bye Weeks which is no way to be successful.

[Atmosfear]

Also, for next year, I think I will be focusing on recruiting DBs over Linebackers. 3-star linebackers are just too slow for my tastes and even if they aren't sure tacklers, having the recovery speed on a converted FS or SS will be way more valuable at the level of competition I'm playing.

[Atmosfear]

I can't help but feel like I just got jobbed in the Rose Bowl game. I was wrong about Penn State... They were actually #7, and West Virginia was #2. So I played PSU in the Rose Bowl, and lost my Heisman-winning WR for the game, as well as lost my QB for about a quarter. I ended up throwing 4 picks... 1 was a bad decision and the other 3 were the "blitz pressure fuck up" throws that basically went directly to a defender, including twice in the red zone.

Down 21-19 with the ball and 2:30, I marched down the field to the 17 and about 30 seconds left on the clock. I ended to run one play to center the ball, let the clock run down, and then kick the game-winning FG as time expired. I end up breaking off a 10-yard run, but then the RB fucking fumbles on a routine tackle. Penn State recovers, gets a first down (I hadn't used any time outs yet), and the game ends. Worse, I didn't even get one of the "Great Game" ratings for it.

This shouldn't affect my recruiting, but it does end my win streak at 139 games. Pretty frustrating outcome considering the game was fucking me left and right and I still had a chance to win. I wound up 6th which is a good finish but it's not exactly what I wanted.

[sponge]

lost my Heisman-winning WR

don't worry he will just go play for the dallas cowboys next year

[Atmosfear]

Speaking of, I cut a guy named Adam Jones who was rated a 59 CB. Seemed eerily accurate so I almost kept him.

Signing day went well for Tulane. I filled up 25 spots, including at least 4 players from Alabama and Florida. I got three from Georgia, and one of them is a starter this year, so that means I'll only need 3 GA guys next year to guarantee the pipeline (I'm worried about cutting accidentally, and Georgia isn't as good a recruiting state as AL and FL in the game.) I ended up cutting a lot of LA and TX guys from this class, but I have so many on my roster it won't affect my pipelines there.

My team is definitely getting better at the top... I now have 4 players rated over 70 (though just barely.) Overall, my speed at each position is improving, especially at WR. I know have multiple receiving threats, and improved catching stats, so I'm confident this season won't be as frustrating. My starting QB is returning (69, Senior (RS)) which is good, but I also signed a decent freshman QB who has great throwing stats, who will redshirt and take over. I've got a bit of a downgrade at HB this season, but next year I will be pretty solid. I'm redshirting a fast HB to get his acceleration up, but I'm young at the position. I'm a little worried at DT, because I have 3 seniors and there's going to be a big dropoff next year, even if I can recruit decent Freshmen.

I've moved up to a 2-star program now, with 1 A+, 2 As, 1 B, 4 C+, 3 C, and 1 D+ ratings in the fixed categories. It's not a big improvement, but I'm going to look at landing a 4-star or two this year out of a pipeline state, and look at top-end 3-stars primarily. Getting rid of the D+ ratings is going to be huge, as I don't need to run away from them when recruiting; since I spend so much time swaying, I often end up with numerous Very High and Most stats, and the C+s will actually be pitchable ratings.

I once again start the season unranked, but I'm hoping some stronger non-con games will help me get into the BCS Championship game. I'm still pretty pissed at the outcome of the Rose Bowl, because I can't help but wonder if things would be different.

[Atmosfear]

I had to take a break for work, but I finally got back and it's time to setup my recruiting board (pre-season.) The first thing I've noticed is that I have tons more recruiting interest to begin the year. Last season I had maybe 80 guys interested in me, and there were only 4 or 5 3-stars. This year, I've got 184 who have me in the Top 10, and at least 30 of them are 3-stars (probably more but I'm not scrolling further.)

Unfortunately, the top players with interest are in Texas and Louisiana, so I need to do some work to maintain my pipelines to Alabama and Florida (these won't necessarily be so beneficial this year, but when I have access to 5-star players, they will really pay off.) The best player with interest in my is ranked #390 overall, which probably would make him the highest rated player in my program. Unfortunately, he's a B- Speed, C Accel WR, so I won't be recruiting him.

For the first time in forever, I've actually loaded up my recruiting board pre-season, but there's a number of players I want to monitor. My plan to to try to get into the top 10s of some 4 stars early, and cut then quickly if they are moving through the process without me. I'm probably not going to focus on 3-star players until a week or two into the season, as they don't move through the process as quickly.

[Atmosfear]

Well season 2 is under way. I may have spread myself too thin with recruiting, but I'm still in the hunt for two 4-stars so hopefully I can land one of them. I'm undefeated (4-0) with a win over LSU and currently in the middle of playing #12 ranked Houston on the road. Rainy conditions, but I forced them to go 3 and out on their opening possession and then scored a 57-yard TD on a HB Counter out of the Ace Big formation on the first play.

I know this is going to be a shootout because Houston is a much better team than I am, so I'm going to have to go to the air soon and hope to outlast them. My goal is to get a two score lead at half time and chew clock with my ground game and hopefully hang on. I'm much better playing from the lead than from behind.

[Atmosfear]

17-6 at half time. I threw a pick in the first half that didn't cost me any points, but they scored at the end of the first quarter and missed the extra point. Overall, I'm able to move the ball with some consistency, but they are definitely cutting out my big plays that have thus far powered my offense.

[Atmosfear]

After trading punches on our first two possessions of the second half, I just ripped an 85 yard TD run using my freshman backup at RB. I think I'm going to have to disappoint my Heisman hopeful receiver and QB and keep the ball on the ground, as that has been a much more productive strategy thus far.

[Atmosfear]

Well Houston came back with a shot of their own, marching 60 yards on 4 plays to score their own TD. Midway through the 4th, I scored what seemed to be the icing TD, after rolling down the field running both my backs in both directions, I scored on an outside slant from 8 yards out to Hunter, the current Heisman frontrunner, bringing him to 108 yards and a TD on the day. That won't be great numbers for his campaign, but it won't hurt him week to week, and if we get out of here with a win, it'll be worth it.

With 1:29 left, Houston responds and scores the 2 point conversion to make it 31-21. Fortunately, we recovered the onside kick. My first play went for 14 yards, but then I proceeded to go three and out. Rather than kick a FG with the ball on the 26 (with 9mph wind in my face and a terrible kicker), I went for it on 4th and 9 and failed to convert.

Fortunately, with all their TOs expended, Houston couldn't use the minute remaining on the clock to any effect, and Tulane carries to day, 31-21.

[Atmosfear]

I've now progressed to 10-0, but unfortunately failed to land a single 4-star in recruiting. I lost a heads-up battle to Louisiana-Lafayette which is just a kick in the dick. I'm currently ranked #10, but with 3 games remaining in the season, I'm looking like I'll be shut out of the title game another year. At least I've got two Heisman front-runners to take home some post-season hardware.

I'm really disappointed by my recruiting this year. I just don't have the stats needed to really compete for 4 stars yet... I'm hoping I'll advance to a 3-star program this year and that should greatly enhance my ability to compete, but it's still frustratingly slow work. I also find it utterly comical that my Coach Prestige is a C and my Coach Experience is an A, considering I've won 9 consecutive National Championships and have 1 loss on my all-time coaching record. By comparison, ULL had an A+ Coach Experience because the game does not simulate head coaching changes, which is just a joke.

[Atmosfear]

I got beat up by Georgia pretty bad in my bowl game and finished #6. Recruiting was pretty miserable and I couldn't close on any of my late-season targets. I've continued making strides in the off-season, and my team continues to improve as I gained a third star for my program, and I have an opportunity to start multiple freshmen this year, but overall I'm disappointed with the season as a whole.

I'm going to be putting this on the shelf for a while because Tiger Woods 12 is fantastic and I'm loving the Masters.