Okay, so here is my small school recruiting itinerary. Again, this is Ball State I'm doing. It's cheesy/gamey, but this is a game. Plus, there just isn't many recruiting hours to throw around at this level so you have to be picky or you're going to end up with a LOT of 1 or 2 stars just to fill a roster.
1. Never recruit 2 stars or below. Just don't need it.
2. Preseason, scout all of the 3 stars with interest in you to try and find gems. Offer any 3/4 stars you can with any interest, focusing on the gems and the 4 stars.
3. Week zero - Bring the house to any 3 star gems and 4 stars ONLY IF THEY DON'T HAVE OTHER OFFERS. Max you're doing this for is 7 guys if you only have 350 recruiting hours.
4. Week 1 and 2. Repeat. Immediately drop any recruiting hours you're putting in on a guy if they get any other offer. As a 1 star program, you'll get beat I promise you. You'll probably get really close to a commit or get a commit on a few of them.
5. Week 3 you're starting to find guys that don't have other offers. NEVER SCOUT DURING THE SEASON. Not enough recruiting hours. Just find 4 stars with no offers, hopefully in your pipeline, and offer them and bring the house. Can probably start breaking up some of the 3 star gems, only doing the 25 hour friends and family to start expanding the offers.
Rinse and repeat. There will probably be even 3 star high school recruits with no offers in the offseason. Offer, bring the house.
I got I think two 4 star recruits in year 1 and I've got a few 4 star recruits in year 2 so far but only a few games into the season.
I do some gamey stuff with the schedule - I schedule road games at ND, Purdue, Indiana and beat them all because screw those other Indiana schools. I sim most of the the rest of the games minus the two rivalries. I only went like 7-6 in year 1 so it's not like I'm totally cheesing out and winning the natty to get the program prestige way up.