Recruiting, at its heart, is convincing teenagers to come play for your team. Selling your program to someone else is made easier when the program has a clear sense of self, and is able to communicate that clearly. And that leads me to the next Recruiting Rule:
Recruit to your strengths
There are several areas in which a team can know their strengths. And, while mainly focused on the field of play, other factors at the University count, because other things at the University could (and likely will) count for recruits as well.
If you remember EA Sports’ iconic NCAA Football video games (you do) (RIP), and you played dynasty mode (you did), you had multiple “pitches” you could use to convince a player to commit to your team.