NCAA 14 Xbox Online Dynasty

[Hank_Scorpio]

Starting a new thread, so we don't clog up the video game thread with the back and forth banter of the league.

Here's a list of teams. All invites have been sent out, except Matt Stephens. That will be sent Friday afternoon unless he can get in the other way with the password.

Get your preseason stuff (recruiting, red shirts, depth chart) done and we should be ready to play mid to late weekend.

We'll try to advance every 2-4 days depending how many user vs. user games we have that week.



XBOX NCAA 14 ONLINE DYNASTY
NAME POSSIBLE TEAMS
Hank Scorpio -- Washington State
Amraeder -- Ohio
Matt Stephens -- SDSU
Mystery Meat -- East Carolina, West Virginia
Jake and Elwood -- TCU
Rumpleforeskin -- Penn State

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

Excited to get this started.

Really not sure about this new recruiting system, but we'll see. And tackling is a lot tougher than I thought.

 

[JakeandElwood]

In and RTA. Looking forward to this.

 

[Mystery Meat II]

How is everyone doing in offline games? I'm still shaking off a ton of rust, having sat out the last two years, and I'm struggling to beat sub-75 teams at home with East Carolina (which I guess is my choice). I wonder if I'm ready for this yet, or if I should hold off and try to get better and join the dynasty in the second season maybe?

 

[amraeder]

Don't know that you're doing any better or worse than me, MM. I'm playing with UTSA offline, because, well, c'mon, Roadrunners. But, anyway, I can only beat really bad teams (c-, or c). I've lost to Vandy (B- and the best team I've played so far) and Marshall (C+ maybe?) and I got frusterated and quit last time I tried playing vs. Tulsa (C+)

 

[Mystery Meat II]

As ECU, I beat Rice and Ohio with late fourth-quarter drives and eventually pulled away from South Alabama. I tried Arizona State and won a high-scoring game against Troy, I think. West Virginia was outgained nearly 3-1 by Eastern Michigan and they still barely won because of three KO return TDs, bringing to mind the glories of my last season of 09. Cincinnati won a boring low-scoring game with one of the F_U schools, I forget which one, and I gave up on Rutgers-Central Michigan after my fourth INT of the first half. It's not instilling me with a lot of confidence, at any rate.

 

[amraeder]

As ECU, I beat Rice and Ohio with late fourth-quarter drives and eventually pulled away from South Alabama. I tried Arizona State and won a high-scoring game against Troy, I think. West Virginia was outgained nearly 3-1 by Eastern Michigan and they still barely won because of three KO return TDs, bringing to mind the glories of my last season of 09. Cincinnati won a boring low-scoring game with one of the F_U schools, I forget which one, and I gave up on Rutgers-Central Michigan after my fourth INT of the first half. It's not instilling me with a lot of confidence, at any rate.

My biggest shame was my loss to Marshall. I threw 5 INTs. Ended up losing like 53-47 when my 5th INT was returned for a TD in double-OT. Vandy and Tulsa - I just can't figure out how to stop these guys. If I have one bad drive (someone fumbles, I throw an INT, WR drops a pass at the wrong time), I have no shot b/c I can't figure out how to stop them. They just rip my line a new asshole running the ball, and my DBs can't cover them. I mean, probably accurate since I'm playing as UTSA. But still....

 

[Mystery Meat II]

As ECU, I beat Rice and Ohio with late fourth-quarter drives and eventually pulled away from South Alabama. I tried Arizona State and won a high-scoring game against Troy, I think. West Virginia was outgained nearly 3-1 by Eastern Michigan and they still barely won because of three KO return TDs, bringing to mind the glories of my last season of 09. Cincinnati won a boring low-scoring game with one of the F_U schools, I forget which one, and I gave up on Rutgers-Central Michigan after my fourth INT of the first half. It's not instilling me with a lot of confidence, at any rate.

My biggest shame was my loss to Marshall. I threw 5 INTs. Ended up losing like 53-47 when my 5th INT was returned for a TD in double-OT. Vandy and Tulsa - I just can't figure out how to stop these guys. If I have one bad drive (someone fumbles, I throw an INT, WR drops a pass at the wrong time), I have no shot b/c I can't figure out how to stop them. They just rip my line a new asshole running the ball, and my DBs can't cover them. I mean, probably accurate since I'm playing as UTSA. But still....

See, that's just it. I'm playing as teams in the 81-85 range against teams in the 65-75 range and barely holding on or in a couple of cases losing/ragequitting. Playing evenly-matched teams is still a bit of distance for me, much less teams in the 90s, and far far less human teams. Right now I'm still relying on Ask Coach, particularly on defense where I just switch to a defensive tackle and pray I don't **** it up for everyone else.

 

[amraeder]

I would be curious who people play with on defense. I usually do MLB.

 

[JakeandElwood]

Just keep grinding, Meat. You'll be fine ... I am just horrendous on defense so I've played nothing but close games so far ...

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

I would be curious who people play with on defense. I usually do MLB.

FS or DT. I'd rather let my linebackers do their own thing, then switch to them when necessary.

Is anybody else having trouble with tackling or am I just doing something wrong?

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

How is everyone doing in offline games? I'm still shaking off a ton of rust, having sat out the last two years, and I'm struggling to beat sub-75 teams at home with East Carolina (which I guess is my choice). I wonder if I'm ready for this yet, or if I should hold off and try to get better and join the dynasty in the second season maybe?

Stay in. Only way you can get better is to play more. This dynasty will help you there.

 

[amraeder]

Ohio's in. Recruiting board set up. Didn't see anywhere that I could set up my schedule. How's that work in online dynasty?

 

[JakeandElwood]

Hank will take care of that.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

I would be curious who people play with on defense. I usually do MLB.

I'm usually OLB or MLB. If not one of them, I'll start as a DE then switch as needed.

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

Hank, do you mind letting us know our OOC games?

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

I usually play as the RE, sometimes the LE. Like some others have said, I don't know if I am great on defense. Although I remember one of the past leagues, Jake did struggle somewhat to score against me until the WR (Benn?) got loose. (Was that Michigan vs. Illinois?)


This year, I seem to struggle stopping the pass. I've had some success at controlling the run. On offense, I sometimes struggle running the ball. I'm playing as Eastern Michigan, which has a decent RB, but I still struggle. Sometimes I'll try to run right and the defensive RE tackles me from behind for a 2-3 yard gain.

It definitely sounds as if we all struggle at some aspect of the game, so it should be pretty even.

 

[JakeandElwood]

I usually play as the RE, sometimes the LE. Like some others have said, I don't know if I am great on defense. Although I remember one of the past leagues, Jake did struggle somewhat to score against me until the WR (Benn?) got loose. (Was that Michigan vs. Illinois?)


This year, I seem to struggle stopping the pass. I've had some success at controlling the run. On offense, I sometimes struggle running the ball. I'm playing as Eastern Michigan, which has a decent RB, but I still struggle. Sometimes I'll try to run right and the defensive RE tackles me from behind for a 2-3 yard gain.

It definitely sounds as if we all struggle at some aspect of the game, so it should be pretty even.

Yes, I recall us playing a low scoring game that I won by maybe a TD, if that. I am horrendous against the pass so far against the CPU. And I mean horrendous. I've always (like most people) won because of offense, but this has just been absurd. And one of the reasons I liked TCU was the strength of its secondary relative to most of the other teams I was checking out ...

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Hank, do you mind letting us know our OOC games?

Hasn't been done yet. I'm hoping to get on tonight for a little bit. It's been a long week, so hopefully I make it up for a bit. I at least have to make it online to get an invite to Matt Stephens, so he can get his team set up.


As far as schedules:
I can't touch conference games, so that's locked.
The goal is to have at least one home and one away user vs. user game for each person. We'll try to keep the number of user vs. user games even for every team (probably 2-3 per team).
I am going to try to keep non-conference traditional rivalries for each team intact (something like Washington State vs. Idaho, etc.)
I'm also going to try to keep a FCS school for each team. That lets a user get an easier win and work on some different plays or styles.

I'm also going to try to match up user games with teams that are closer to each other in ratings. Obviously because of conference skeds, it can be tricky matching up teams.

Any schedule discussion is welcomed and encouraged.

I figure I'll be online between 10-11 EDT tonight for a bit.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Just went and looked up ratings for each team.

Team OVR OFF DEF
Penn State 84 86 85
TCU 84 86 85
E. Carolina 84 84 85
SDSU 84 84 83
Ohio 79 83 76
Wash St 81 83 80


So it looks like this could be a good first round:
Penn State vs. TCU,
E. Carolina vs. SDSU,
Ohio vs. Washington State

Maybe go regional with the second game
West: Wash State vs. SDSU
Midwest: Ohio vs. Penn State
South: TCU vs. ECU

Obviously this is not official and very preliminary and is based only on ratings. Not sure if it will be able to work in the skeds or not.