Power Pros Forum

They are definitely not real names. Think about it: putting all these college kids into a video game? There are major issues with that, both in terms of licensing, privacy, and ethics.

OSU is Ohio State, OK State and Oregon State.

Thanks, I was really thrilled about the comeback. I definitely adjusted my gameplan to stop throwing the deep posts and start going more West Coast, which got me the first TD, and then that pick six changed everything. /I/ could definitely feel the momentum shift, and then that 5 minute drive for the GW TD (5 minutes is an eternity in these games) was amazing. Had a 4th down conversion or two there that was really clutch. Gonna play AZ State now, shouldn't be too bad... also, Brian Williams (CB recruit, 4 star, Canadian) now has us as #1 on his list by a decent margin, and Paul Parks has us TIED FOR #1.

You can download rosters with all the real names (just like AgentP did with his Hoosiers log)

Seriously? Dayum.

Yep, I remember getting Pastapadre's for NCAA09 where Tebow was a 99.

Washington beats ASU 36-13. It was 13-7 heading into the 4th quarter. Best play was with 8 seconds left, ASU QB gets hit as he throws, blitzing nickelback catches it easily and runs 50 yards for a TD.

Nothing more to report other than lots of great passes by Johnson, yet several INTs again. Washington never trailed, however.

Nice job getting the win

Your play style seems very similar to mine. I like to rely on West Coast passing and up-the-gut runs, only throwing the deep ball when the opportunity presents itself on a play action or whatnot.

Yeah, in the OSU win my absolute favorite play was one with 3 WR and had the flankers on slant routes. Absolutely destroys man coverage, and it netted me a lot of 6-8 yard gains (or longer) and first downs, plus a key 4th down conversion. I do a lot of West Coast, low and mid-length routes and mix up the runs a lot (I love off tackle plays, or just runs where I can easily bounce it outside if need be), though my favorite of all is a Corner route by a great TE. That's my money play for sure.

Might try to get something tonight, but for the time being I'm cooped up in my room, sort of doing HW and sort of not.

I think I use the same play you're talking about. I line up in singleback with the #3 WR lined up in the weak-side slot. A quick pass on a slant route almost never fails.

My go-to big play is a play action out of I-form. The fullback runs a flat, and the tight end goes deep on a corner. The cornerback playing in front of the tight end is almost always pulled in by the fullback, and my tight end almost always gets separation from whoever is covering him. It's good for 20 yards nearly every time if you don't overuse it.

"Jesus... Jaxon! Get in here!"

Cole Marceau had his laptop in front of him, a highlight video queued up of a new prospect he'd come across (albeit one that a lot of other schools had as well); Sean Veney, a halfback out of Sedona. He'd gotten a reputation as a bruiser, but this...

"Yes sir?"

"Look at this video of this kid! It's just... awe-inspiring. Almost like that one scene from The Blind Side, how I'm just instantly caught by a tape. Seriously though..."

Marceau dragged the video back to the start, then let Jaxon in on Veney's skills: the sheer tackle-breaking, his surprisingly great juke move (and his speed)... it was a Steven Jackson-esque combination of power and speed, although with his stature a more apt NFL comparison might be Ray Rice. After a minute Cole looked over at his assistant, and found him almost entranced.

"Uh-huh. That was my thought too. Even better than the scouting reports give him credit for... this guy's a 5 star recruit easy, in my book."

"Th-that's great, Mr. Marceau, but... it's not like we can just jump into this and be the frontrunners, right?"

"Oh no no no, of course not! Texas and Air Force seem to be pretty high on his list, and a few other powerhouses are semi-seriously checking him out, but he's really undecided. Which means if we step in, especially with a scholarship offer, we could at least crack his top 5 I'm thinking..."

"I thought we were going for Jacob Bell though...?"

"Of course we are. And I know, that old adage, chase two rabbits you catch neither. But this is recruiting, Jaxon. Better to have great shots at two elite guys than putting all our eggs in one basket and then spilling them all over the place in the end, eh? And hey, either way, we're still looking at a few elite guys anyways: Parks is colored very interested at this point, that Canadian Cornerback, Williams, seems to be leaning towards us over anyone at this point, and some guys like Sam Nelson [Athlete, profiles as DE, probably] or Nick Payne [Center] are definitely in the hunt. Although I'm in last-ditch effort mode on Jeff Wilson... he's got a visit next week, but we're out of his Top 3 at the moment and that's bad news. But, I sure as hell didn't expect to catch them all... I'll just reel in as many as I can..."

The Washington Huskies have established themselves as a team that can bounce back at any given time, in any amount of time, as the stunned Stanford Cardinal just found out.

It took #23 Stanford just 5 plays (thanks mostly to a 55-yard bomb that left the Cardinal at the 1) to strike first on a touchdown, immediately putting pressure on visiting Washington, now ranked #21 in the nation. However, the Huskies responded, in their own style. Their drive took 12 plays and a good 4 minutes [Keep in mind, 6 min. quarters], their West Coast-style offense keeping momentum with runs and short-medium passes, finishing with a quick-and-easy toss-and-catch TD to a slanting Buckley.

Stanford drove once again, though, with a FG, and after a very quick Washington drive down that left them a couple yards short of the red zone, Tim Johnson's interception woes continued, as he forced a ball into double coverage looking for a 22-yard TD pass, and instead getting the ball handed over to Stanford, who gleefully scored themselves a touchdown to make it 17-7. Not only that, but they netted a sack on Washington's first play on their drive, leaving them on their own 13 with a minute left in the half.

On 3rd and 18, Johnson dropped back to pass in a shotgun set with 4 receivers. Pressure, like the first two plays, came fast and hard, but this time he was ready. Immediately seeing a hole, he fired a bullet to the 4th WR, Deonte Williams, who hauled it in at the 33 for a first down. But he wasn't done. He took off towards the sideline, his cut back to a vertical direction making the man covering him dive and miss. The other 3 members of the secondary were in hot pursuit and seemed to have an edge on him, but he weaved back and forth, back and forth, and within seconds, it was now a one-possession game off an 87-yard touchdown pass.

Stanford looked to be piecing together a scoring drive to close out the half themselves, though, working their way up to the 25. However, Vincent Cason forced a ball towards the end zone (where all the other receivers were, though he found the solitary man-on-man deal on the right side), where the SS Davis was lurking yards away. As soon as the ball was thrown he broke towards the target, picking it off with a leaping catch in the corner and taking off rather than kneeling it to let the half expire. No, he saw a LOT of green down the sideline, and with the fastest players all on the other side of the end zone (it was a no-back set by Stanford), all he had to do was avoid the Tight End (which he did) and run 106 yards for the touchdown. Suddenly, miraculously, within 70 seconds Washington led, 21-17, heading into the half... AND they were getting the ball.

Washington scored on the opening drive of the 2nd half, finishing with a beautiful 24 yard pass over the middle to Sam Sampson, who darted in off the deep in route for a score. However, Johnson threw a bad pass after being pinned deep in his own territory on the next drive, and Stanford capitalized with an effortless touchdown to narrow it to 28-24. They headed into the 4th quarter that way, with the next touchdown probably deciding the game. Stanford got the ball once near their own goal line with 4 minutes left, but ball-hawk extraordinaire Joe McCarty was there for the fantastic jump-ball interception. Washington could do nothing on their next drive to punctuate it, though, and a bad punt gave the Cardinal great field position with 2 minutes left... on which they promptly went 4-and-out. Three runs and a shanked FG attempt later, Washington had improved to 4-0 in a nailbiter over their Pac-12 rivals Stanford, starting a 3-game stretch against the best of the best in the West on a high note.

1st: 7-7
2nd: 14-10
3rd: 7-7
4th: 0-0
Final: WU --- 28-24 --- SU

That was intense!!!

What exactly is your recruiting strategy?

In my Hoosiers log I went after everyone who had me #1 or #2 and threw in a couple positional needs. In the 2nd season I decided to just go after 10 players (that's 10 players total, not just at a time) and I've snagged 2 punters and a 4-star cornerback so far.

My recruiting strategy is evolving constantly because I'm never played a Dynasty in NCAA before, but the wall of text below is a decent summation of it all thus far.

I definitely go for positional needs a bit (because it's a contractual obligation), and in this case I do want MLB's a lot because I'm running a 3-4 defense. With all positions I try to target two types of people: one or two really big names I think I can get, and a few underlying guys who're 3, maybe 4 star and a bit underrecruited, and usually who somewhat matches my plusses (in this case, it's an A in Academics and a B+ in Conference Prestige, then a couple varying ones like Playing Time/Style and Proximity). Proximity is great, and I utilize it a decent bit, but I don't stand strictly by it (especially not now). Really, it's just the best players I think I can get, and several guys who either fit my scheme well or will just be good filler in the future (like how I'm aiming for a T, a G and a C, only the latter of which being a need). It lets me aim for the stars, and from there I'll either miss and get some cloud action or I'll actually snag 'em. Both are happening.

The best way to show an example is my MLB scenario. In this case I already got a recruit, Barry White (3-star) to commit. This allowed me to slim my MLB choices down from about 5-7 to around 3: two guys who are 3-star as well and still very much in the running, and Paul Parks, the 4-star WA native who, after my aggressively recuiting him, has us #1. He's obviously the one I'll need to call more, offer a scholarship, etc, but if I snag him it's worth it.

The other thing that the strategy has me doing is switching around the board a lot. I'm constantly cutting and adding players because of how their recruiting shakes out, especially compared to others'. At one point I had 10 new people on the board, or 29% of it. As the recruiting goes on I slim down my expectations a little to try and make sure I can get players I need, and cut some of the dream players or just 3-stars whom I ignored and had fall off the list, but at the same time I try to find new diamonds in the rough.

An example of this is RB. It's not actually a need, but for my scheme I definitely want a great, balanced halfback. Thus, I targeted one man: Jacob Bell, the top-ranked (iirc) RB in the class. I actually worked my way up to 2nd for him, but he's almost got a soft commit to Georgia, so two weeks ago I looked at two new guys: Roy Washington (started 71 OVR) and Sean Veney (started 74, scouting sent him up to 80!). The latter had 6 teams on his list, with Texas being his top choice yet only about halfway to filling up the bar, and Washington had just 2 teams on his list. I made sure to enter their lists aggressively, with figuring out how he matches the school as well as offering him a scholarship (then later showering him with promises). It's a short-term-ish strategy, but it's working quite well: within 2 weeks I was first on Roy's list, and Veney just moved me up to second (which is also great because then I can focus the "Compare Schools" argument for one or two traits on that one school). This gives me the flexibility to drop Bell if I need to, losing a 5-star for either 4-star (although Veney should be moved up to 5 if the updated scouting reports hold).

Last thing: Promises are great. Playing in their home state (esp. if they're from, say, CA, WA, or OR) is easy, not redshirting them is another solid one, and after that I go for either a winning record against rivals or solid playing time, depending on if they need any more promises, what position they'll play and how much do I need it, and how much do I want this guy/need to gain interest.

Sorry about the wall of text, but I love talking about this stuff~

Well, this game had drama, but in the reverse of what one would expect for the Huskies this season.

The Huskies, who moved from 21st to 14th in the nation after beating Stanford, started out with a well-constructed, 10 play drive that ended in an effortless-looking score, Tim Johnson firing a perfect pass to Pierre Bush on a deep out route for a 13 yard TD. After an Oregon punt around midfield, Washington got away with murder, almost, when Johnson fired a risky pass over the middle to Morris, the TE. However, the defender misread the ball, and Morris hauled it in for a 22 yard gain... however, UW fumbled it plays later off a nice pass to the flanker. Oregon had it just outside Washington's 40 when McCutcheon fired outside, and Grant, the #2 CB, cut in front of the in route and snagged his first INT of the year. Washington drove all the way for another score (this time to Buckley), and it was 12-0 at the half, thanks in part to another Grant INT on a poorly-thrown deep ball. (A/N: I actually missed the XP the first time, and just went for the 2 pt. conversion every time after other than the last TD. )

After an Oregon 3 and out, Washington ended up with their quickest scoring drive of the season, a 3 play one with the TD being the most bizarre of the year. Johnson had thrown a terribly-read pass deep over the middle, but the free safety could only tip it... over towards the weak-side LB, who had dropped back into coverage. However, it literally bounced forward off his helmet, where Bush turned around, snagged the still-live ball, and darted 21 yards for the score! (The video for this is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgDwZ5c0-Uc) All of a sudden, #14 Washington was leading the #1 team in the nation 18-0!

However, this was when the tide turned. The now silent Autzen stadium suddenly roared to life again after a 3 play drive by the Ducks, culminating in a 55 yard score thanks to Joe McCarty tripping on the coverage, letting Anderson tiptoe down the sidelines to narrow the gap to 11. 3 consecutive 3-and-outs led to Oregon getting the ball back and scoring right as the 4th quarter began, with the score now 18-15 after the conversion.

Washington roared back with their own big play, though, in this case a toss to Pierre Bush for his second TD of the day, this time down the left hash marks. Their defense then proceeded to let the opposing QB, not exactly the fastest guy, run for 13, then 45 yards, setting up a touchdown to make it 24-22. A Husky 3-and-out led to Oregon getting the ball back with 1:50 left, down 24-22. Just a FG could win it for the Ducks and avoid the upset. It started with a clutch 3rd down conversion by a McCutcheon run up the middle to avoid pressure, then a 4th down completion to get to the Washington 43, but with 27 seconds left it was 4th down in the same spot. McCutcheon, faced with tight-as-glue man coverage all around, fired a bullet to Davis down the middle, but Grant, the defensive MVP of the game, tipped the ball up, then Davis dropped it right before getting drilled by the defensive tackle.

And then, just to seal it, on a play action pass Johnson fired a long ball to Sampson, the slot receiver, who easily zipped by the nickelback and thrust a dagger into Oregon's coffin. Shockingly, Washington pulled off an upset of the top-ranked team in the country, and their meteoric rise will continue, with a top 10 spot almost guaranteed.

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES:
Tim Johnson: 20-28, 370 yards, 5 TD's, 0 INT
Pierre Bush: 9 rec, 188 yards, 3 TD's
Freddie Grant: 1 TKL, 2 INT's, 1 DEF (deflection)

P.S. I totally tried to blow the game a bit later. I'm playing on All-American (a step below Heisman) and didn't expect things to work out this well. I seriously thought Oregon had me on the last drive, but their playcalling was stupid and I just said "F*** it" and won.

1st: 6-0
2nd: 6-0
3rd: 6-7
4th: 13-15
Final: WU --- 31-22 --- OU