Weights and Film:
 

Ok, I had some free time today and decided to run some tests to see if we could isolate weight and film time and how it affects development. I definitely feel like we're on the right track here and I've got a heap of data that seems to support some of our ideas, but some surprises as well.  I've got eleven guys that are being redshirted this year on my team. Not all positions are represented, but it's a good enough mix to get an idea on the sort of trends we're looking at.   I think I'll just post some of the major points I saw, and if there is any interest to see what I drew these points from I'll post the numbers, but right now it just seems like it would only make this even more difficult to follow.
The test I ran only involved red shirted players. (I'm almost positive at this point that your coordinators ratings have an affect only on growth of players during the season that are actually playing, and I'm more concerned with the weight/film aspects at the moment.) What I did was this: I ran a season with all eleven players set with the weight/film values that are in parentheses in the chart for their position. Practice time was 21 for every part of this test and players with girlfriend's were given 25 relax and players w/o were given 20. The only thing that was changed to accommodate any of the later trials was study hall, which I figured wouldn't affect development.

So the first test was with the numbers in parentheses for all position groups. I ran the end season three times and checked the next season's current scout rating against the previous season's. The growth was different in each of the three trials, sometimes drastically for no apparent reason, so beorn is definitely right about a random factor.

The next was run pretty much the same way, except this time I added 6 points of weight training to every position group's parentheses number. Then in the next test I did this with the film numbers, still doing three trials for each test. After this... it gets a little more complicated (and probably more useless lol) still working with the 6 extra points I gave 4 to whichever aspect that position group had a higher number in and 2 to the aspect they had a lesser number for. (Example: De's are 23 weight and 15 film, so they would get 27/17... oh and some positions are equal so they just got 3 each) The fifth test was just the opposite of this, 4 for the lesser, 2 for the higher. And in the last test I subtracted 2 from the parentheses numbers of both weight and film, just for the fun of it. I hope that all made some sense... if not
These are the major conclusions I came to:
*There is definitely a random factor, beorn is 100% right, but there are trends.
*The numbers in the parentheses are a good place to start from, but what you should do with extra points after fulfilling the medium values doesn't seem to follow with the chart.
*To further explain the last point: Each position group responded a lot better to adding 6 points to the lesser aspect. To drive this home, my quarterback shot up an average of 28 points with 14/30 as his settings and had growth about the same as parenthesis numbers (14 points of growth btw) with 8/36, that's twice as much. The same was true of lineman, both off and def, adding 6 to the film was much more successful than adding it to the weights.
*Looking at the two split tests was difficult, sometimes it supported the theory above, sometimes it didn't. I think this has more to do with tweaking the chart better. There's obviously decreasing marginal utility, we just need to figure out where adding time is worthless. And there was a lot less variance from trial to trial in the split tests, maybe because they were more in line with some position proportion number?
*Didn't see much of a relationship between girls and happiness and growth, but I wasn't looking that hard.
*I hadn't been taking much of the height and weight of a player talk that seriously but it definitely seems to have a BIG impact for some players. One of my linebackers was 6-0 205 lbs and only responded well to a heavy weight training regimen.
Alright that's about it, I think I've said too much anyway. Anybody else seeing things like this, or has any questions or whatever please post them. And it wouldn't be that difficult for me to post the complete test results if anybody thought they wanted to see them. Alright, later guys, I think we're getting somewhere.

I might as well post my time management guidelines in case anyone is interested.
These are all the starting points. Everyone gets fit into these ranges unless they will flunk out. The rapid developers get points much higher in these areas.
QB's 10+ weight, 25+ film
RB's 11-13, 19-21
FB's 18-22, 11-13
TE's 18-22, 13-15
WR's 11-13, 21-23
C's 25+, 12+
G's 26+, 11+
T's 27+, 11+
P's 14-16, 14-16
K's 14-15, 18-23
DE's 21-23, 12-14
DT's 22-24, 11-13
ILB's 19-21, 14-15
OLB's 17-19, 16-18
CB's 12-14, 19-21
S's 14-16, 17-19

I have been assigning 17 points for practice. The stud OLB I have been talking about had 20 weight and 19 film study. An excellent Safety had 20 weight and 23 film, etc. The more I can go above these settings the better.
My OL guidelines may need work. This is a good base start for backups. For my development strategy, I am going to make sure they have at least 30 in weight training. Just figuring out how to have a cosistently dominant OL will translate to W's.
Edit: I adjusted my base settings to give QB more weight training and OL more film study. Miles has a post later on this thread that explains why.
 

I didn't have very many injuries at all last year. I had a ILB and DL out for the year after a game or two, but other than that it was pretty minor stuff. Now that I think about it, I haven't noticed a lot of injuries on this team. Maybe the extra conditioning is part of the reason?
I did a quick check on weights. You probably have a better idea than I do on this area. I gave one of my QB's 12 in weights. He went from 206lbs as a fresh to 228 lbs as a senior. His completion % went from 40-58 and his rating went from 76-132. He did gain weight, but he definitely improved.
Since that guy has been my starter for 4 seasons, I really don't have a guy to compare him with statisitically. I do know that assigning less weight training for QB's does lead to weight gain. My starter this next year had 9% in weight training. He's already gained 24 lbs in only 3 seasons!!
The opposite seems to be true for RBs. MORE weight training seems to lead to weight gain for these guys. I gave one RB a 16% and he gained 23 lbs in 4 seasons. Another got 10% and only gained 13 in the same amount of time.
The 10% guy rushed for 1200+ yards and 5.2 per carry last year. The other guy has never started, so I don't know what he can do.
Obviously there are positional differences based on how weight training affects weight. It would be interesting to know if there are ideals to shoot for. For instance, what is the ideal weight for a 5'8 RB compared to one who is 6'3? If you go beyond a certain level do they lose speed or power? Should we be maximizing weight training as underclassmen so these guys are up to speed as Jrs and Srs? And the most important question: Why isn't there a setting for the number of doughnuts your QB consumes in a semester?

Redshirting Freshman + their Development:

Want to see if this has happened to anyone. i had a center that was rated as
FR SO JR SR SR*
run block 5/84 42/84 64/84 100
pass block 15/84 22/84 85 100
end. 100 100 100 100
I redshirted this guy his freshman year and set his film study to the max I could allow. then, the rest of the years, i pumped up his weight training. I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this b/c this guy is amazing and I think that I might throw in that if we redshirt them.  Make them learn the team their freshman year, then they should use the next few maximizing out their skills and in the weight room. This isn't the only player that has happened like this. I have found that high film study their freshman year and then lots of weight training after that work well.

What does everyone else think about that?