Sarge

Hey Coaches! This has been one of my side projects I was charged with by the Dev Team and one I'm personally proud of. Some back story as to the why before we dive into it:

I think I've been one of the more vocal 'complainers', if you will, about how linear the draft feels. With Tuscan recently adding a 'fuzzy' to the draft overalls of players, this helps, but why not go a step further in adding depth to our draft journeys? This depth, will be created in tandem with new schemes as mentioned in the previous dev diary and now Out of Position (OOP) stuff. 

A lot of hand wringing will happen because people will see the word "malus" but I'd like people to focus on the bigger picture. Yes, a player will receive a malus but these maluses (mali??) will not all be created equal. i.e. - an OG playing at OT or vice versa will likely have the smallest malus applied to them in comparison to a CB playing FS or a LB moving down to play at DE. 

Below, you will see charts that have positions by archetype broken down into positions they can feed into and what archetype will be produced.

Yes, you read that correctly! After meeting the requirements outlined below, a player will gain the new position (and best transferable archetype) they're playing in and will LOSE any negatives or malus associated with playing Out of Position. Not only that, they'll get to keep their old position (and archetype) and play that position as well without malus.

Out of Position Rules to acquire NEW Position:
A) Players that get starter snaps for a full year OOP will gain new position and are provided secondary position identifier.
B) Players that are on the bench/ST or non-starter snaps must accrue two years in OOP before gaining it as their new position. (Backup Snapcount for two years, essentially)
C) After players learn the new position, it is permanent and will follow them through their football career. (CFB to NFL)
D) No penalty will be applied AFTER the player earns their new position. For their old position, there will also be no penalty.
E) Only one additional position can be learned per player.


EXAMPLE OF THE RULES ABOVE:




This alleviates multiple things not just for the NFL Draft by introducing far more player diversity and intrigue, but also assist with new scheme mechanics and recruits that have found themselves useless other than Special Teams heroes. Scrambler QBs can finally fully convert to running backs and PROGRESS as a running back.

One thing that will need to be clarified though, is that the player that is playing OOP will NOT receive progressions to their old positional attributes UNLESS they overlap with their original position. ADDITIONALLY, if you move players around multiple positions, they will only receive progressions to the position they pass backup level snaps (roughly 20 snaps per game) equivalent in. [This is subject to change but don't expect it to change drastically]

Example for above: -
(1) a RB (receiving) will still likely hit a lot of the same progressions as them developing as a WR. A RB (Power) playing at WR will balanced out with WR progressions but will not necessarily progress as a runner aside from agility/speed progressions all skill position players get.
(2) If you play a QB (Scrambler) at WR, QB, RB, TE throughout the season, and they pass the Backup snapcount threshold for WR, they will progress as a WR only.

Some positions you may have noticed will take steeper maluses than others given the nature of the positional transition than others which is self explanatory. For now, there won't be any defensive players going to offense and vice versa. I hope this update brings excitement and variety to all the schemes and personnel decisions that impact recruiting and the new scheme update. If there's any questions at all please don't hesitate to ask!

Up next will be a Dev Diary by @Rocketcan covering some new attributes!

Okay coaches check it out, this is simCFB’s 2022 Coach of the Year SARGE’S method to gameplanning and how I approach it. This is not by any means:

A) All inclusive of information, meaning: I don’t know MUCH about Double Wing and Pro but a lot of these philosophies can be applied to your respective schemes
B) THE way to do it. Gameplanning is my favorite part of the sim where recruiting is the favorite thing for others. That doesn’t mean I know everything and have everything solved.

I hope this guide enables a discussion for coaches to help each other out.

THIS GUIDE WILL CHANGE OVER SEVERAL ITERATIONS IN ITS LIFE AS ENGINE UPDATES ARE APPLIED!

It’s time for your next opponent what do you do first, Sarge?

The very first thing I do is open up my Depth Chart on the interface, my opponent’s Depth Chart in another tab, the Gameplan Guide https://www.simfba.com/topic/1926-simcfb-gameplan-guide/#comment-6206 and my opponent’s last 2ish games. This includes scrimmages if we’re talking about Week 0/1 of regular season.

Having all of this in front of me we start accumulating data, consolidate it and begin making our determinations on how we want to approach the game.

Order of how I work:

1. Opponent’s Depth Chart
2. Opponent’s last couple of games
3. My Depth Chart
4. My Gameplan

STEPS 1 and 2

My opponent’s depth chart is going to have a significant impact on my decision making for the roster going into the game. But before we start addressing their depth chart, we need to see what kind of offense and defense they're running.

Knowing that Vanderbilt is running the spread option, I can sit down and know what personnel groupings they're limited to.

Spread option can AT MOST have these on the field but not all at once:
4 WR
2 TE
1 RB (but can have RB2 get some carries)

So here, I'm looking at a few things. (not gonna do a singular image for the QB but will talk about it).

So we know that Spread Option mandates QBs get 10% of the carries MINIMUM, whatever the Run to Pass ratio is the opponent has selected so I'm checking to see if the QB is a running threat, which Daniel VanVleet (all-time name btw) is with a B+ in Agility and A- in Speed and I'm simply taking a mental note of it.

Next I'm looking at the RB room. Pedro White is good but not incredible anywhere and I couldn't give two shits about Artavis Baynes here just by looking at his D in carrying alone. Then I take a look at the WRs. I'm looking at speed first. I try to matchup my guys where they're similar in Speed relative to their positions. So if I have a CB with an A in Speed, in theory he should be somewhat as fast or faster than a WR with an A in Speed. If I have DBs that are faster than the WRs, even better. After that, everything else is kind of out of my control. My thought process on the WR/DB matchup is this ultimatum: if the DB can't keep up with the WR then there's no point in bothering with worrying about coverage rating vs catch/routerunning rating. This is probably a wrong thought process but it is what it is. If all of my guys are similar speed I'm going to put my best CBs on the best WRs obviously and so on and so forth.

TEs I look at a little bit but they aren't necessarily a force in the sim unless they get true playing time at WR. Tim Therrien is a savage it looks like and quite honestly is better than any receiver on Vanderbilt's roster but this decision making on the TE will play itself out when I start breaking down their DC further.

Vanderbilt's O-Line is kind of a dumpster fire at the moment especially with pass pro. 

That wraps up my personal analysis on Vanderbilt's offensive difference makers so now I start looking at their last game's Box Score against ULM.

VanVleet throws the ball 57(!!) times against ULM which is somewhat an outlier for Spread Option offenses but this is likely due to them playing from behind and they also ran the ball 35 times. So about 40%ish of the time Vanderbilt ran with the other 60 going through the Air in a large deficit scenario. From that, I can discern that Vanderbilt typically tries to actually keep their offense 50/50 but the game got out of hand. This is good information for gameplanning. Target distribution is important here too, noting that their RB led the team in targets so I need to make sure my LBs are on their game and Toliver is boom or bust with explosive play ability but terrible at doing what he was recruited for, catching the football. This lets me know I have some margin for error with my DBs since they're focusing their offense on their RB and their WR1 is on paper great but in game kinda middle of the road.

So we learned:
- RB main focus of a balanced offense
- WR1 not as imposing as initially thought
- Given first two pieces of information, this gives leeway on CB/WR matchup
- OL leaves a lot to be desired
- QB is not a passing threat

STEPS 3 and 4

Now we're going to look at our own Depth Chart and begin gameplanning for our opponent. I know that I want to slow down their RB, but I also know that their OL isn't superb at pass protection and their QB struggles with his completion percentage. I also know/"assuming" that they play a balanced offense so I don't need to over commit any formations.

Selfishly, I don't want to post my Offensive/Defensive gameplan because I have some rivalry/big games the rest of season and I can't tip my hand to these opponents just yet but what I will say is as long as you follow these guidelines you will have a markedly improved team performance:

1. Stop trying to commit your defense to another team's offense.
Example A)
Tennessee runs Air Raid and often goes 4 to 5 WR sets. Your CB1 and CB2 might be able to hold off their WR1 and WR2 but because of how Tennessee's recruiting has gone, their WR3, 4 and 5 will be infinitely better than your CB3 and CB4.  Instead, trust your safeties and linebackers to cover (if they're proficient in it).

You need to put your best players on the field at all times for OFFENSE AND DEFENSE.

From the Gameplan Thread:

4-3
Base 4-3 (Better for stopping the run given the added linebackers)

Defensive Line: LE1, DT1, DT2, RE1
Linebackers: LOLB1, ILB1, ROLB1
Secondary: CB1, FS1, SS1, CB2

[*]Nickel 4-2-5 (Balanced)

Defensive Line: LE1, DT1, DT2, RE1
Linebackers: ILB1, ROLB1
Secondary: CB1, FS1, SS1, CB2, CB3

[*]Dime 4-1-6 (Geared to stop the Pass)

Defensive Line: LE1, DT1, DT2, RE1
Linebackers: ILB1
Secondary: CB1, FS1, SS1, CB2, CB3, CB4

So look man, if you have all galaxy CBs and your LOLB is kinda ass? Just run a bunch of Nickel. It's balanced, you're not gonna get burned for running Nickel especially if your DLine is stout.

Always put your best OLB at ROLB because they're on the field the most. This is important and just an example.

2. Run the offense that puts the most best players on the field!

If you have stud WRs and stud RB but a statue at QB? Run Pro
If you have a lot of great WRs, a stud RB and a mobile QB? Run Spread
If you have a lot of great WRs, a mediocre RB and a statue at QB? Run Air Raid
If you have dumpster WRs, an elite RB and a mobile QB? Run Double Wing

3. PERSONNEL GROUPS MATTER.

I run 50% of Pistol 3WR and Pistol 4WR. Why? Because Pistol 2WR doesn't get as many good players on the field for me.

4. Your player's attributes matter for what you want to do.

Runs:
Strong thicc Power or Balanced RB? - Inside/Power runs
High Agility Speed or Balanced RB? - Outside, maybe some Power

Pass Distribution:
Speedy WRs? - LONG BALL
Decent speed route runners? - Short
Possession guys? - Quick

Play Action is literally useless for Air Raid so highly discourage.
Play Action Short and Long should be 30/30 a piece for Double Wing, in my opinion

5. Put your guys in positions to succeed for the team

I run Coverage Linebackers against pass heavy teams and I send Speed guys and Run Stoppers to crash the run. This is just a small instance of manipulating your Depth Chart.
I would not swap archetype players in the same position if the OVR grade dropoff is more than 1 letter grade, i.e. B+ to C+ isn't worth the scheme fit for defense but B+ to B good. B+ to B- is kind a rough but still manageable. 

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This about wraps it up. I hope this encourages discussion and gives people a little bit more insight on how to approach gameplanning!