You don't have to win, win big, win championships, be a great coach, or even a likeable guy to win on the recruiting trail. There is so much historical evidence to prove this point I don't even understand why people still argue any of them. Muschamp couldn't win a game of tidly winks but he always recruited well. College football is littered with coaches who suck on gameday but always get good talent. You also don't have to be a nice guy; saban is probably the biggest prick in CFB and followed closely by Harbaugh but they kill it on the trail.
Please lets stop pushing the false narrative that you have to win BEFORE big recruits will come, its just nonsense. Does winning help sway them? Yes. Is it a requirement? No. You are either a good recruiter or you are not, some of these other elements can help but you sink or swim on the trail based off your ability to connect and pull in players, not your coaching record, not your schools tradition, or anything else.
Facility upgrades, cool uniforms, sexy school locales... all these things are great and can help but at the end of the day the gross majority of the effort is placed solely on the coaching staff's ability to connect with and persuade guys to come. We have kids leaving the beautiful southeast and all the bikini coeds to go to freaking cold, wet, dreary ohio or freaking freezing, sh*tty Michigan. Let's just be honest about the situation please.