Actually many programs, Nebraska is a great example, target in state kids.
Georgia won its only national championship when they convinced an in state RB to stay at home and not go to USC.
Ohio State considers it an insult to lose a player to Michigan and vice versa. Both recruit their in state players heavily and both use in state pride as a selling tool.
And there is this.....Connecticut's best chance to land an elite player is to land an in state elite player.
That's well and good, but Connecticut kids are not cutting it.
Jordan Reed
Aaron Hernandez
John Sullivan
Scott Lutrus
Matt Shaughnessy
Dan Orlovsky
Dwight Freeney
Tebucky Jones
Donald Thomas
I count 9 players (please add any that I've missed) over the past 15+ years that have gone on to play at the next level and STUCK that are from CT. The talent level is not there. Not even close compared to the rest of the country. If you want to build the program by just CT kids, we might as well just go back to playing URI.
Recruiting is about getting the best players to come to your school, regardless of where they are from. Should a superstar come along, ok keep him home. But if we are talking mid-level players vs highly developed players, we go the highly developed route. Edsall made it by developing the lower level players, helping them mature and making them better. That way of recruiting is not going to lead to long-term sustained success. We need the freak athletes, the guys that stand out among great players. CT doesn't have that. We need to go elsewhere.