How to get the best recruits in College Football 25 Dynasty Mode

EA Sports College Football 25's Dynasty Mode is insanely addictive. Do you think the coach at your alma mater needs to get the heave-ho? Leap into that hot seat and show 'em how it's done! But whether you are at a powerhouse such as Notre Dame or Alabama or a one-star FCS school, you've got to keep a steady stream of athletes coming into the program. Sound daunting? Don't worry, I've been coaching (in video games) for decades now. Let's get started!

Signing On The Dotted Line

You can create your own head coach, or be either an offensive or defensive coordinator to work your way up to your dream coaching job elsewhere. Even if you pick a coordinator, you'll still handle head coaching functions such as calling plays and recruiting. The coaching tree offers a wide variety of skills to learn, RPG-style. EA's research indicated that most coaches fall into one of three categories: Recruiter, Motivator, or Tactician. Not even the best coaches in history are equally good at everything, so don't expect to unlock every ability on your coaching journey. Since this is a recruiting guide, we're going to pick the recruiter coaching tree. Abilities such as Always Be 'Crootin, which increases the amount of hours you have weekly to recruit, will give you the edge you need to get the best athletes.

Other than what kind of coach you will be, the most important choices for recruiting will be where you coach and where you place your recruiting pipeline. Obviously, a school such as Georgia will already be a top destination for five-star recruits. A one-star school will have to work way harder to get top players, and some of the biggest stars in the nation just won't have any interest in Off The Grid University. Still, coaching at an out-of-the-way location and building it into a powerhouse is a true RPG experience that I highly recommend trying at some point.

Each coach in CFB 25 dynasty has a pipeline, or a geographic location they have better connections in. Picking the right one can set you up for success - or failure. Some locations just produce more football talent than others. Texas, Florida, and California are hotbeds for great players. Rhode Island, not so much. The biggest and best states produce so much they are broken up into smaller pipelines such as Central Florida or West Texas. Tip of the hat to EA for some realism here. Not only do pipelines produce good players, the best ones produce specific kinds of players. California is known as a QB hotbed, while Texas is known for wide receivers. For that matter, Texas generates a certain kind of receiver in the game: the big-bodied, physical, back-up-off-me type of wide receiver.

You don't need to necessarily be in the same state, after all, Georgia schools can recruit well in Florida and vice versa. But you want to be close. That said, if you are a coordinator in Arkansas eyeing the head coaching job at Florida State, maybe you want to put your pipeline there. Each school also has its own pipeline, and they stack with yours. Schools prefer a coach that shares their pipeline, so if you know you plan to move on that's something to consider. Once you have selected your list of prospects, you can sort them by pipeline strength with the RT/R2 button.

You Just Made The List

You have 35 scholarships, so after checking your team's needs add all 35 prospects to the board. It might seem slightly overwhelming, but especially at the beginning of your coaching career you're not getting all these guys anyway.

The "instant recruit" feature from the NCAA 14 era is still a thing in CFB 25. If enough of a recruit's interests align with your program's offerings, they will sign right on the spot. No haggling, no visits, no stalking necessary. Those will be few and far between, however.

EA has patched this, but initially way too many four-star and five-star recruits went through early weeks with no scholarship offers. You should still check to make sure nobody has fallen through the cracks. If they have, then absolutely make them an offer. Even if you're a fledgling program, it couldn't hurt.

Coaches only get a limited amount of hours to work with, especially at small schools. So figure out who you want and start figuring out what they want. Each recruit has opinions on different categories ranging from campus life to playing time. Your job is to find out as much as you can before recruits lose interest in your program.

In addition to the overall limit on time, you are only allowed to spend 50 hours a week on any single recruit. There are talents on the recruiting tree that can increase this for you. As the season wears on, some of these students will decide they're taking their talents to some other campus. In most cases, once you are locked out that's it.

But each recruit has some "dealbreakers." These are conditions that aren't negotiable, and they are governed by how talented a recruit is. A five-star wide receiver will place a higher priority on things such as brand deals and how many players a coach has sent to the NFL draft.

A three-star recruit knows he's entering the fascinating world of air conditioning repair in four years. His priorities are more likely to include staying close to home, so Grandma can watch him hopefully play every Saturday.

In a cool feature, dealbreakers are dynamic. If a player's dealbreaker involves playing for a title and the school he has committed to goes on a six-game losing skid, he could decommit. This is really awesome and one of the many reasons I love this game.

Scout 'Em Out

Scouting allows you to learn about a player's attributes, special abilities and whether they have hidden potential. A green gem indicates a player is a diamond in the rough, and will play like an athlete one-star higher than his rating. A red gem is a bust.

In NCAA Football 14, a bust was a complete waste of a roster spot and you could stop recruiting right there. In CFB 25, just as a diamond is a star above his actual rating, a bust will play one star below. You've got to look at what your program needs.

I'm coaching at UNLV, so a four-star who is secretly a three-star is fine. At a small school, you probably don't need to scout four-star players since the worst they could be is three stars. Don't waste hours scouting students in the transfer portal. They've been through the scouting process and played at least a year at another school. They are who their rating says they are.

Let's Have A Visit

Once a recruit has narrowed it down to his Top 5 schools, you can schedule a visit. This is where you will hopefully seal the deal. You want to schedule them during a game week, and you'll get a bonus if you win the game. That bonus will be even bigger if it's a top-tier opponent. But don't have them visit against Alabama if you aren't 100 percent sure you'll win the game. Losing has the opposite effect and you want everything on a visit to go perfectly.

You also want to schedule complementary visits if possible. A running back and a wide receiver would be a good complementary visit, as they're both offensive players. But don't schedule two running backs at the same time. They won't feel you're really interested in either of them. We cannot have people seeing the college recruiting process for what it is on our watch. A great visit can bring the recruit on board right afterwards.

Recruiting is the most fun part of dynasty mode for me, and honestly one of my favorite parts of the whole game. Once you start, you are not going to stop. Good luck, coach.