Before you jump in, I need you to play a normal game. Just play a quick game against the computer. You be a great team and play a decent-enough team. If you win by a lot (20+) then please go to the game options and up the game difficulty. Play another game and if you still win by a lot, play another quick game on Heisman. If you win, and not even by a lot, but if you win a game on the hardest difficulty, you are pretty good.
You can play more games, figure out the controls, get to know your team, get to know how the game of football works, and play until you think you’re ready to invest some time into this game.
Now, if you plan to sim through this dynasty, then it doesn’t matter how well you can play the football portion of this game. But if you want to play, if you want to feel what it’s like to win and lose, if you want to know what it feels like to kick a walk-off field goal in the BCS title game, please find the difficulty that is right for you.
*NOTE: Be aware of what caliber of team you are good with. If you are barely winning games on Heisman with a top school, then you can only hope to play dynasty with a top school. By picking a low school on a hard difficulty you will probably taste defeat a few more times than you think. Then again, if you truly are good, it shouldn’t matter – okay, it matters if you take on Georgia with a crappy team.*
Pick a School
Your first choice should be easy. If you are an old pro of these football games then you should probably get a lower level school. If you want to play your favorite team, do that too. And if you want to have an easier time, pick a powerhouse school.
Colleges are ranked by stars. The best ones have 6 while the weaker ones have just one star. If you scroll through the conferences (which should be a shoulder button as you are selecting a team) and go to the Independents, you will see a one star team – Army – and a six star team – Notre Dame (laugh at that 3-9 record while your at it!).
You have a ton of teams to choose from, and the decision is purely yours. Since this is your first dynasty, or you’re just brushing up on your skills, then pick a 3-6 star team that you don’t hate and go with them to make things easier.
I shouldn’t have to say this, but the reason why Oklahoma has 6 stars is because high school kids want to go there, and each star less than 6 means that team/school is not going to have as easy of a time as OU at recruiting or even winning games. Of course if you play the games yourself as a 1 star team and you win the BCS title, then things will get better in a hurry.
Keep in mind, this is a DYNASTY mode. If you just want to play the games, you can let the CPU handle the recruiting, but you play this mode to see how well you can build up your team’s reputation, not to just play the games. You can always change from hands-on to hand-off or vice versa at any time.
Pick a team and press start. I know you can control up to 12 teams, but why? Be sure to let the game make names for your players, because HB #12 will get old real quick.
Pre-Season
Pre-Season Recruiting ———————
First we need to select some high schoolers that will be your targets to join your team.
Create a Player —————
*NOTE: If you are into cheating, there is a section in this guide for it to help you in recruiting great created players.*
One of the fun things you can do is make your own player when you start recruiting. You can make a lot, 25, but you should only keep it to one or two at the most as it is quite time-consuming. If you are just starting out, you may want to skip this as it doesn’t mean you add this player to your team, but more on that later.
Creating a player is easy. Pick a position, name, hometown, appearance, and stats. The stats is the main thing to keep in mind as the stats you choose affect the two stats at the top: tendency and overall rating. You should, out of good faith, reduce the stats he does not need at his position and then increase the stats you want him to have. I have not tried it, but I imagine making him 100 in all or the main stats he needs will make him a 5-star recruit and harder for you to grab. So make him good at what he does, but don’t overdo it.
Some things to keep in mind. His hometown relative to your school’s location may have an effect on your ability to recruit him, maybe not, but something to be aware of. You may want to turn him into a senior, as these guys are coming from high school, so it depends on how long you want to wait to get him, on top of if you even win him over or not. And when you make a player(s), be sure to put them on your board in the next step, otherwise all the work you did on him was for nothing if another school gets him.
So if you are a bad school, it’s possible to get a 5-star player, but it would be easier if you made slightly-above-average players so you can get them easier.
Recruiting Central ——————
So now you’re at the Recruiting Central screen and there are a few tabs to open up. Most are not needed, at least not now. At this point in time, I want you to decide if you want to be fully hands-on with this recruiting, or if you are at a 6-star school and you just want to play ball. If you got a top school, you can pretty much let the CPU handle all your troubles. But if you are one of the low teams you should probably do all the work yourself.
By default the CPU can do all the work for you, so just press start and be on with it. But if you want to turn off the computer help, go to the Recruiting Strategy tab and turn all three options off, or leave the “Recruiting Board Assistance” one on as it is the most important one.
My School ———
I go to The University of Oklahoma / OU / Oklahoma, so I know my school is tops in most of the areas. However, if you have picked a school with lower than 6 stars, you probably need to open this window to view the info. One star doesn’t mean your team is terrible in all the values, it just means you’ll have a few poors and fairs in there. Look it over, get a feel for what you got, and then exit.
Picking Prospects —————–
You have three tabs to add prospects to your board: Russell Top 100, Search, and Database. All three are options for picking recruits from around the continent (because even though I’m sure it’s legal for someone in Canada to go to the American Army college, it still looks weird).
All recruits are listed from top to bottom in best to worst order. I don’t like using the search because it will spit out athletes (ATH), and though they may work, you want guys for the positions you need to fill. The Russell Top 100 is nice for late in the season, checking where the top guys went, but it’s not a good way to find guys you need.
I say just use the Database. You let shoulder button should filter between the postions, while the right one filters by state and Canada; not much reason to use state filter unless your team is that desperate and needs anyone, which may happen.
First, you need to press the button at the bottom by your school’s name which will bring up the team needs (you can also find these in many other areas). If you need six players, then recruiting will be easy; if you need ten, your job just got a lot harder. Keep in mind you can flip between offense and defense, and don’t let a kicker or punter go un-noticed if you need one.
*NOTE: Remember, if you made a recruit, go find him. Too bad if you forgot his name.*
Just stay on offense, and if QB/HB/FB/WR/TE are needed, go and filter the list to each position and pick a handful of guys from the list. Be sure to scroll through the list for any guys will green dots under “status” as that means they kinda want to go to your school. But also keep in mind of their star rating; if worst comes to worst, you will find tons of 1-star guys that will go to any team. You want guys as high up the list as possible. To make sure you are picking guys that will be easier to grab, look at their “Interest” guage to see if they are willing to play for you at all. If the bar is about a third full, tag them.
Of course go through all your positions on offense and defense. You can only have 35 guys, and no matter how many want to play for you, you only have 25 scholarships to offer. MAKE SURE you have at least two guys for each position, and be aware that you may need more than one for any position – in which case go get more of those guys. Once you have a couple of guys for your needs, if there is any more space, go find some top recruits and get them on your board too. You probably won’t get more than a few top recruits, but you can at least try.
One last thing before you tag a ton of 4-5 star guys, if you are a lower school you will notice that your green-dot guys are only 1-3 caliber players. This means you are more-than-likely out of the running for the 5-star kids, but you may target a few 4-stars, and mostly you will need to set your sights on 2-3 stars for now.
Look, if you are a lowly school, this is not a sprint. It’s called a DYNASTY, and no one expects you to take Army and make them the national champion this year. You can do it in one year if you manually play all the games, but even then it’s an up-hill battle. And before I go too deep, just know that you can only recruit players that want to play for you, period.
Recruiting Board —————-
In the pre-season all you can do is change the ranking of players on your board. I want you to look at the INT, interest, value and see where that player has your school. Put all the guys that say 1st on the top, and then 2nd and 3rd and you get the point, I hope. Then take the kids with N/A interest values and stick them on the bottom, unless you really really want them, in which case you keep them at the top since they will be hardest to win over.
The interest means how committed the player is to your school RIGHT NOW, not when he is deciding a school or where he will go. At this momemt it is just what he is thinking about with no schools coming after him. So guys that already think highly of your program are easy to get, and also possible to lose to higher powers, but at least they already like you.
So change the ranks of the 35 guys on your board in descending order of their interest, excluding anyone you want really bad (keep them at the top). You don’t have to get their ranks perfect, just move high interest guys up to at least the top 20, and the N/A guys to the bottom. Of course lowly schools will probably have boards of ten or so guys that want to go to your school, and then a bunch of guys who are N/A. No matter how many you have, please order your N/A guys in descending order based on their caliber. Remember, you should have all the guys you need on this board, so any order will work.
You must also be aware that you will not get all of these kids. Sure, with smart recruiting you can get most, but the higher your standards, and even targetting 3-star kids, the more likely another school will scoop them up. Even on the low level, it’s bottom-feeders against bottom-feeders, so you’ll have to be smart if you want the guys you want.
*NOTE: You may be thinking, what about higher ranked players and better stars and all that. There is no way you can think about a players caliber when your school stinks. Heck, even top schools can’t win over all the top players. You need to stick with interest on their part, not yours.*
Once your board is ready, exit this screen and go to redshirting.
Redshirting Players ——————-
You may be like me where you’ve heard of redshirt players and kinda assumed it meant they sat out a year. Yes, that is what it means, but there’s a bit more to it. For one, you need your best players on the field, especially if they are seniors. You also need backups at each position, 5-6 WR’s, 4-6 CB’s, 1 kicker, 1 punter, and then at least two of everything else.
So if you have a lot more than you need players at a few positions, then you can redshirt some. However, it’s best to only redshirt freshmen or sophmores. Why? Well because redshirting means that player cannot play this year, but they can still play for four years, meaning they are on your team for 5 years max. So the perfect redshirt candidate is a freshmen (FS), that is in the low 60’s or is just not needed to backup.
A bad situation is when you have 5 HB’s, most seniors or juniors, one low year guy, and all of them are in about the 70’s. Keep the best guy if he’s a senior and then redshirt any of the 1-2 year guys. It’s best not to redshirt more than two players at any position, and you can usually redshirt a guy at each position, usually; not if you only have two on either line.
If a player has a (RS) next to their year, then they’ve already been through this and cannot be redshirted again. Keep in mind you can take off the RS of any player during the season, but you can’t put it back on them again.
If you’re not so keen on the positions, here are my minimums for each:
QB – 2 HB – 2 WR – 4 TE – 2 FB – 1 LT – 2 LG – 2 RT – 2 RG – 2 C – 2 LE – 2 RE – 2 DT – 4 LOLB – 2 MLB – 2 ROLB – 2 CB – 4 FS – 2 SS – 2 K – 1 P – 1
You don’t want to redshirt juniors or seniors, but you can if don’t need that players skills, or he’s just not that good. You don’t redshirt freshmen when they are extremely good for that position. But if a freshman is 76, the second best at that spot, and a junior below him is 74 or so, then it doesn’t make a big difference if you redshirt the new guy; unless you really need his skill- set, the junior is fine.
One key thing to keep in mind is that there is such thing as special teams, the team of players that hits the field between possessions. These squads are made of the second and third stringers, with top players in there too. So sometimes you may want to keep more than the bare minimum, but it’s hard to tell who makes the special teams. It’s not a big deal, just something to consider.
It’s tricky, and each team and each year is different, but you need to keep a pulse of your future. Again, keep your best, redshirt the extras and new guys.
Depth Chart ———–
Should be a shoulder button to auto-re-order, which is wise if you’ve put the redshirt on some players. The guys at the top will be your starters, with the guys below them as backups or as the next in line (such as the WR). Redshirts are out, and you’ll see them in your substition list at the bottom. For the open slots you can fill them yourselves. The only position I worry about is whether or not the fullback (FB) is fast. I would replace a slow one with a fast TE if there were extre TE’s, but that may not be the case for you.
Again, just let the computer fix things up and you’re good to go.
Custom Schedules —————-
Most of your games are set, the ones will locks by them, but you can select any other game and change it to another team that is free for the week. By pressing left or right you will change whether it’s a home (vs) or an away game (at).
The main thing to keep in mind is the “Strength of Schedule” rating at the top. Any A means that if you win 10 to 12 of your games, you have a good shot at playing for the national title. Anything less means you depend on the season and going 12-0 in order to play for the big prize. Please make an A schedule if you are a good team.
If you are a bad team, you should shoot for a C- at the least. Your goal is to make a bowl game, which doesn’t mean you can be the #1, but at least you’ll have had a good year. Of course you still have to win those games, so don’t think you can schedule top teams and walk into the title. Your default schedule should be about where you want to go, but feel free to put in a team in the top 25; maybe a 20-25 school at the most. Please, don’t put in the Bulldogs or OU unless you want a game you are sure to lose. Set your sights low and things should work out. As a low team, you just want to make a bowl game, no matter which one. Let you skills as a football player decide which top 25 team you select.
Also, if you know nothing of college ball, most of the teams not in the top 25 are still pretty good. Then again, teams in the top 25 may turn out to be terrible. All you can do is play the teams you play, what those teams do is out of your control.
Now exit, save your changes to the schedule, save your game (should be the left stick), and then start your season.
