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bruin228's NCAA 14 Dynasty

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
Inspired by @Wolfman21's, who reminded me that Avid is a thing.

I've started with Ball State as an OC and will move my way up the coaching ladder. Started with them because their roster is pretty solid for what I want to do and I wanted to play with a MAC team I've never played with before. Ideal trajectory is to coach here for a couple years, move to OC at a smaller P5 school, maybe stay there or bounce between P5 OC jobs for a while, take a G5 HC job and coach them until I take them to a BCS bowl, and then take a smaller P5 job. I have a few in mind (Northwestern, Vandy, Minnesota, UVA, Cal, Wazzu, Missouri). Will probably stray away from taking the UCLA or CU jobs if I'm offered them because I just did a dynasty where I coached both of them for a decade, but we'll see. Once I get my corch established, I'm going to create a few others. I tried starting out with three different corches, but it gets too hard to deal with in one week. So once I'm a HC, I'll create a defensive guy and maybe a pro-style guy to give me competition. I'll do their recruiting so their talent level is always good, but I won't play with them much.

Recruiting restrictions: I can only recruit one star above my team prestige. Ball State is a two star, so only one, two, and three star CROOTS. I'm thinking up some geographic restrictions right now, will probably have to do with pipeline states.

I beat Illinois 34-17 the first week because they are trash. Onto UAB at home. As you can see from looking at the Avid, EA went full EA and destroyed my schedule, so I have five home games in the first six weeks and then six straight road games.

We were picked 5th in the MAC West. I'm guessing we finish 8-4 or even win the division, because the schedule is easy since I based it off of their real schedule. I'll need to make it harder next year.
 

NML

Well-Known Member
Nate Davis is one of the dumbest people I ever met - and that's saying something. We did this skills competition thing at a middle school my senior year of HS and he was barely literate. Liked couldn't carry a conversation.

What I always heard was that's why he had to go to Ball State. He's a legend back home though.
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
Yep. If you're an OC you can only play your side of the ball, but I usually only play offense anyway.
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
Well, we are bowl eligible in the minimum amount of games. 6-0, with 6 straight road games to come.

Things of note:

  • Riley Neal threw for 6 TDs this week in a 59-14 win over Kent State, which is a new school record. He also ran for a TD, so I assume he set a program single game total TD record as well with 7. Better than Nate Davis already! @Yankee151
  • Starting RB Darian Green is in the top 5 in the country in rushing with 691 yards.
  • I signed my first few recruits of the year: a tackle, a guard, and a corner. The guard and corner are three stars and the tackle is a two. All from Indiana.
  • I'm first in the division at 6-0(4-0), but I still have to play the three next teams in the MAC West (CMU, NIU, WMU), all of whom are slightly better than me. It looks like NIU will be the best defense I play in conference all year at 82. Toledo was picked to win the division, but they've sucked and are 2-4 (0-3). I slipped by them on a TD with 12 seconds left to win 34-33 last week. For cross-divisional opponents, I get both sides of the coin with Bowling Green, who's in first at 4-1 (2-1), and Miami (OH), who's winless.
  • To illustrate how god awful Illinois is, every single team I've played has scored more on me aside from an awful Kent State team, who scored only 3 less on me in Muncie. They are 2-5, because Lovie Smith sucks at his job.
  • #1 Michigan State was upset this week by Indiana 29-7 @Wolfman21
 

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
Just like those days, I will roll through a terrible schedule and then get murdered as soon as I play anyone with a pulse!

hokewelp.gif
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
At 9-0, we finally move into the top 25 at #20!

Just beat CMU 34-29 to move to 10-0 and all the way up to #12, the highest ranked Ball State team ever. I lost Green, my starting RB, for 5 weeks just before a tough road game against rival NIU. If I win, I clinch the division. If not, I will need to beat Miami (OH) and have NIU drop one of Toledo or WMU, or I can have EMU win out, which will cause a three way tie that I'll win due to BCS ranking.

#1 UCLA just lost 32-31 to Zona, so now Okie State is the only other undefeated left. That unranked IU team that upset #1 MSU is all the way up to #9, while 2 loss Michigan State is at #7 :silly: Title game right now would be Okie State-Ohio State, but Okie State has #3 OU left and OSU has IU. #6 UDub and #11 UCLA the big game this week.
 

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
Just hypothesizing, he probably blew his chance with the MACtion Championship presented by Marathon Oil with that loss. So, probably the International Bowl or GoDaddy Bowl.
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
Correct, that was in the MAC title game. I beat that BGSU team by 24 earlier in the year, but I lost my starting RB the week after and my team scored 17, 13, and 6 points to close the regular season.
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
Unlike Corch Hoke, this Ball State team finishes strong with a 45-42 win over #17 WKU to set a new school record for wins at 13. Still MAC Shampshipless since '96, but first bowl in eight tries for the Cardinals.

Things of note:

  • Riley Neal added on to his one school record by tying the legend Nate Davis' mark with 30 TD passes this year.
  • Ball State finishes in the top 10 for the first time in school history by finishing #6
  • Ohio State won the national title over Oklahoma
  • Okie State gonna Okie State as they got all the way up to #1 and then lost 3 of their last 5 to finish #17
  • I was offered the Ball State HC job, as Mike Neu left to corch BC. This complicates things a little, since I was planning on taking my OC game elsewhere. I will probably still do that, but I do like the narrative of taking the HC job and for whatever reason, I don't seem to get as ridiculous of results on defense when simming them as a HC. The G5 always seems to be way too easy, doe. I will think about it as I do stats. I also have offers to be the new OC at OSU, Okie State, Oregon, UCLA, BC (would also be nice to follow Neu, but I hate BC), IU, Mizzou, NCSU, Northwestern, UVA, SMU, Illinois, KU, UK, and others. So a lot of options.
 

Yankee151

Hot Girl Summer
Also stupid question, but how do you check offers? Just save before the carousel starts and see everything you're offered? Is it always the same set of offers?
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
Also stupid question, but how do you check offers? Just save before the carousel starts and see everything you're offered? Is it always the same set of offers?

Yeah, it'll only save after you take an offer, so you can keep skipping to next offer until you go through all of them, back out, and then take whatever job you want. I did get some HC job offers outside of Ball State (Kent State, Ohio, UMass, even CU), but I think it's a little ridiculous for a one year OC to be a HC, even at LOLorado.

Sorry @goblue96 and Tankee, but I ended up taking the BC job. I've never had the opportunity to follow a HC somewhere and that NARRATIVE was too compelling to pass up. I considering UK and NCSU due to the intriguing talent they had, but BC has good talent as well and I figured it only made sense for an OC with this little experience to get a P5 job if he's following the HC that hired him. I will use the BC job to eventually get hired as UConn's HC and destroy them for a decade.

Funnily enough, this was posted today: Steve Addazio's Boston College desperately needs an offense

Time to bring BC an offense! Boston College Golden Eagles
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
Coaching changes of note:

  • In what will probably mirror real life, OSU lost both coordinators to HC jobs. Kevin Wilson went to Colorado and Greg Schiano went to Illinois.
  • Jeremy Pruitt is the new Ball State corch.
  • Kansas hired Willie Fritz and will be running the triple option. Given this is NCAA 14, they will be dominating the Big 12 in a few years.
  • Wyoming hired Tweet Master Marcus Arroyo as their corch.
  • Lane Kiffin did Lane Kiffin things and left FAU after a 9-5 to corch...UTEP.
  • OU hired Mike Yurcich, Okie State's OC. Okie State hired Malzahn.
  • Ohio State hired BC's old OC in real life, Todd Fitch, best known for wasting the number one defense in the country with his worst offense in the country.
  • Speaking of old OCs, Scot Loeffler is still somehow employed, getting hired at WMU.
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
BC's recruiting class was complete ass coming in. Ranked #64 after Signing Day, but trust me, it is way worse. They did sign a couple okay backs and I signed a 74 OVR MLB, but that's about all that's worthwhile.
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
I just got blown out by Pitt, which sucks because:

1) With a 1-3 start and Miami, FSU, VT, and Clemson all left on the schedule, I'm going to have to upset a ranked team just to go bowling. Chances don't look good given how we've perfomed against teams we can't just out talent.

2) That was a big recruiting week. I still signed 3 CROOTS, but this 71 OVR gem WR only got 200 from the visit and I'm battling IU hard for him.
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
And we follow that up by getting smoked by Louisville. Lamar Jackson had over 400 total yards of offense and 5 TDs. This team is really frustrating. Most of it is due to the fact that Darius Wade is one of the worst QBs I've ever played with. He's a good runner, so I thought I could use his legs a lot, but he hasn't run that well; we have a top 10 rushing offense, but most of that is due to the backs and our offense being very run heavy. He's also absolutely terrible passing wise - lots of poorly thrown balls, quite of few of which get picked.
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
0-1 against winless teams, 2-2 against top 15 teams lol.

Still fighting for bowl eligibility after upsetting #14 NC State in Chestnut Hill 23-20. I'm practically running a triple option offense at this point; 60 of my 69 plays were runs. I lost my best running back for two weeks, though and we have to play shitty but extremely talented FSU at home and then a top 10 Clemson team.
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
And just like that, our hopes are snuffed out with a 30-27 OT loss to 2-7 FSU! I coached my ass off with way outmatched talent, but I knew when we settled for the FG in OT, we were screwed. My freshman RB fumbled inside the 10, so we could've taken the game in regulation :(
 

bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
After a 34-27 OT loss to #5 Clemson, we close out the year with a win over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome thanks to 331 rushing yards and a FG with 5 seconds left. We finish the first year in Chestnut Hill 4-8 (3-6).

Positives for the season:
  • We closed out strong. With the exception of the 38-7 loss to VT that I simmed (I was down 17-9 when my Xbox died and I didn't want to replay it and completely alter things), every game in November was either a win or an overtime loss to a vastly more talented team.
  • The run heavy offense I shifted to the last month worked well. I was already run heavy at BC, but I really turned it up in November and it worked well. We ran for 200+ every game. I don't have the stats for the NCSU game, but we ran for 217, 290, and 331 the last three weeks, with that 290 coming against a top 5 Clemson defense.
  • We recruited well. Our class is currently sitting at #23 and we managed to sign two 4* guys, including a 4* gem DE to replace the 5* I couldn't recruit.
  • We punched above our weight a lot. We took down two top 25 teams, including a top 5 Miami team, and took the national champs, Clemson, to the wire. We also competed reasonably well with SC and ND and the FSU team we took to OT had the talent of a top 10 team.
  • We held up fairly well against a brutal schedule. We lost 8 games, but more than half the schedule finished in the top 25, with a third of it finishing in the top 11. Considering FSU was ranked in the preseason and incredibly talented, the only really bad loss was Wake, which I guess was made up for by beating Miami and NCSU.
  • Clemson saved us from a horrible sim and beat unbeaten Penn State in the title game 27-26.
Negatives for the season:
  • Our red zone offense was terrible. Hilliman, my starting RB, had 1303 yards and yet only 4 TDs because we couldn't punch it in in the red zone, especially inside the 5. I had to rely a ton on the QB run game here and even that only worked a little, as Wade only had 9 rushing TDs. We had a top 15 rush offense and yet we only had 22 rushing touchdowns on the year. We finished with an awful 66% red zone TD percentage. To be fair, a good portion of the blame for that can be attributed to my awful kicker.
  • We had almost absolutely no big play ability. Another reason why we couldn't score TDs through the ground game. We only had 14 runs of 20 or more yards. I can't check passes but it was pretty low, too. Despite the Syracuse game probably serving as our best offensive performance of the year, it also serves as the paragon of this issue. We had 331 rushing yards, but only two rushes went for more than 20. If we got down by 10+ in games, it was almost always over, because it would take me 12-15 plays to put together a drive that often just got me 3. Both our offensive line and backs need to get better next year. Wilson, my backup RB, only had one rush of more than 20.
  • We punched below our weight a lot. We lost to a 4-8 Pitt team by a larger margin than SC, ND, and Clemson, all of whom finished in the top 20. We took Clemson to OT and yet lost to Wake, their only win of the year.
  • UCLA, who was 12-0 and #1, stepped on their dicks in the Pac-12 title game and lost 38-33 to an unranked Oregon State team. It was almost '98 all over again, but they did end up beating #8 BYU and Heisman winner Tanner Mangum in the Rose Bowl and finished #2 @bruin
 
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