#H2P... PITT IS IT! - A Pitt Panthers Dynasty (NCAA 14)

[moose141]

Panther Cubs: Pitt Seals Perfect Signing Day
Report by Matt Schmidlin | February 5, 2020

After losing 8 starters to graduation and the NFL Draft, Pat Narduzzi had a tall order in front of him to replace the score of defensive talent that roamed the Pitt Panther defense. He made sure to do so, with a number of defensive studs helping to comprise the 2020 Pitt recruiting class.

The Panthers signed 8 defenders in their starting class, with four or five potentially slated to receive immediate playing time. Pitt also brought in a pair of highly ranked receiving targets after losing three senior receivers as well. Not often do teams recruit solely for need, but Narduzzi made sure that he filled in any holes in the Pitt squad heading into the 2020 season.

Pitt secured a few gigantic signings going into Signing Day as WR Jordan Pugh and DE Mike Lee both spurned interest from in state rival Penn State to sign with the Panthers. Both players are expected to have the opportunity to immediately compete for playing time, with Pugh providing a big body with excellent jumping ability and speed that can work on the outside and Lee being an excellent pash rusher and player in pursuit, though he does need to work on his body control. OT Nick Harris also signed with the Panthers on signing day, picking Pitt over interest from BYU and Washington in order to stay close to home.

The signings netted the Panthers the 6th overall class in the nation, with 13 signings and 5 preferred walk ons choosing Pitt (interestingly the walkons seemed to just disappear into oblivion). The biggest key in this class will be the defensive backs that should make an immediate impact, with Billy Jacobs, Bill Butler, Bryan Fisher, and Scott Whaley all expected to have significant chances throughout camp to win a starting job. DT Ryan Jacobs should also contribute as well after the departures of both of the Panthers' starters on the inside from last season.

For a full look at the incoming recruits, check out the table below.

[Deuce2223]

Commented my pick on Youtube. Would love to take over Mr Whaley on offense as well.

[Tearz49ers]

I like what you did with the higher overall players, it makes sense to have those. I do a similar thing, but I use Mjavon's tool that is on here, it doesn't give out as high OVRs like that but it normalizes recruit AWR so I have seen 86 OVR freshman QBs straight out the bat, it is the AWR that brings down the recruits OVRs.

It also changes players' names/faces so you don't have James James, or Jacoby Dixon with a white face.

[moose141]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tearz49ers

I like what you did with the higher overall players, it makes sense to have those. I do a similar thing, but I use Mjavon's tool that is on here, it doesn't give out as high OVRs like that but it normalizes recruit AWR so I have seen 86 OVR freshman QBs straight out the bat, it is the AWR that brings down the recruits OVRs. It also changes players' names/faces so you don't have James James, or Jacoby Dixon with a white face.

I did remember looking into that a while back, but there was no TB Editor at the time so I wasn't able to use that tool. Now that I have a working teambuilder dynasty editor, maybe that is something that I will incorporate this season to get some diversity in the recruit names, especially since we are now getting to the seasons where there aren't any real players left in the dynasty. I do like the AWR adjuster too, though I probably wouldn't use that only because I wouldn't want to create some unfair advantage for the newer recruits since I hadn't used it for the last 4 classes. Everything else editing wise I have pretty much been doing manually whenever I come across something weird, so like I will edit players to give them more fun numbers or change their faces or their gear (have to give out Revo Speed helmets to most players so those wild looking old Revos aren't still in use), but having a more diverse crop of player names would definitely be awesome to include. I remember SportsGuru's UConn dynasty always had some awesome player names that would be cool to replicate. Maybe I'll tinker with my dynasty file right now to see if I can get the tool to work with it so that I can put it into effect for this coming season!

[Tearz49ers]

Quote: Originally Posted by moose141

I did remember looking into that a while back, but there was no TB Editor at the time so I wasn't able to use that tool. Now that I have a working teambuilder dynasty editor, maybe that is something that I will incorporate this season to get some diversity in the recruit names, especially since we are now getting to the seasons where there aren't any real players left in the dynasty. I do like the AWR adjuster too, though I probably wouldn't use that only because I wouldn't want to create some unfair advantage for the newer recruits since I hadn't used it for the last 4 classes. Everything else editing wise I have pretty much been doing manually whenever I come across something weird, so like I will edit players to give them more fun numbers or change their faces or their gear (have to give out Revo Speed helmets to most players so those wild looking old Revos aren't still in use), but having a more diverse crop of player names would definitely be awesome to include. I remember SportsGuru's UConn dynasty always had some awesome player names that would be cool to replicate. Maybe I'll tinker with my dynasty file right now to see if I can get the tool to work with it so that I can put it into effect for this coming season!

Ahh yes, I forgot you used a teambuilder version for this Pitt team that will be an issue then as his app only works with the CSV files being exported and imported through the dynasty editor not the EA DB editor.

Or at least to my knowledge, it won't work with the csv taken from the DB editor

[moose141]

[Careless Whisper]

That's how you close out a signing day! Loving the matchup with Maryland, seems like a natural non-conference fit that should provide a challenge.

[moose141]

Quote: Originally Posted by Careless Whisper

That's how you close out a signing day! Loving the matchup with Maryland, seems like a natural non-conference fit that should provide a challenge.

Absolutely, some gigantic signings to reload the defense on the back of a solid season. Gonna reassess the recruiting house rules that I have in place to just make sure things aren't too easy, as even though I've had a few good seasons, Pitt still isn't a true blue blood like an Alabama or LSU even though we do have a good national history, so I want to keep recruiting challenging. I do have the rule where I can only use 2 upgrades per each 1 win I had in the season before, so even though my coach is Level 25 I can only use 22 upgrades this season. I may explore lessening that in the future further, but I'm good with that so far. I did also make it so that I can only go after guys either from a pipeline or that have initial interest in me otherwise, so that limits the pool right off the bat. One thing I may explore is only being able to scout 50% of the way, and making it so that rather than the no scouting policy that I had implemented, that I can scout guys who are 3* or below in my pipeline to 50% or something like that. At least helps to find some 3* gems rather than me just trying to sign 4* and 5* players cause they have a higher base overall.

I'm also very excited about the Maryland matchup! I was surprised at little Pitt had played them, but knew we hadn't seen them at any point that I could remember. I'm more excited for the color matchup, as Maryland has some of my favorite uniforms in the entire country and I can't wait to see those Flag helmets against us. I want them to do well, also, so it's a shame they've struggled so much because I like the school a lot; I had considered going there for undergrad and did take a tour and whatnot.