On the recruiting front, here's a couple things I figured out.
First, having the coaching style set to recruiter helps. A lot. You get more than 300 hours more each week than the other styles.
Next, pay close attention to the deal breakers and gems on the bottom left corner of a recruit's profile. Reds are unlikely to commit and green is more likely (or better suited for your program.)
Maxing out scouting for each recruit is important. It'll help with the motivations, as well as player/ scheme fit.
Pay close attention to needs and recommendations. Obviously the try to recruit more players in your pipeline. Also, it helps if all your coaches have different pipelines than where your school is located, giving you an additional pipeline. (Ex. Head coach for Texas-- Louisiana, OC-- south Florida, DC-- socal. Your added pipeline is the whole state of Texas.)
If you're like me and used to just play the game in older editions, you can switch up the "actions" each week to customize your pitch. Also, leaving actions on a recruit counts against your hours each week, so you want to adjust accordingly.
Finally, focus on "interest" vs the recruit time-line. Certain actions can speed up a commitment if the interest is great. Also, visits are key in this and do not count towards the hours spent on an individual recruit (but still count towards your hours overall.)
Hopefully that helps someone.