I have been thru the hoops with lower level Dl teams, and you need to manage expectations with a C- prestige. My thoughts, and some of these are from several salty dog mentors who have been kind enough to help me out over the years.
1. You don't have the money or prestige to battle a SIM (unless of course you want to take the advice listed here, and its good). If you see guys considering SIMS after the first cycle, drop them to LOW on the priority list. Forget about it. With your prestige, you want to target guys in the 550-575 rating range, with as many high-high potentials as possible. Its work. But there are so many of them out there, that's why it makes sense to move on from the guys considering SIMs. That being said, if you have a 1 or 2 star guy within 100 miles that you love and have the money to go out big and run off the hyenas, by all means go for it. But, if you are smart, you ease into this thing with "modest" targets and build your program that way. The big 6 guys are not coming after those types of targets, most of the time.
2. Best advice I ever got....go out easy on a handful of targets you really like, guys who fit your program and style and will be solid contributors later. At Riverside, you need 11 guys that can contribute, win you some games, and boost that prestige. So, "easy" meaning 3-5k on a handful of guys....2-3 scouting visits, 2-3 HV, 1 CV. If you are recruiting guys at the level I mentioned, they will consider you with that kind of spend (MOST of the time). Then you gotta sit on your hands....let everyone get out there and spend. Let the big money hit the market, which will happen at 7, 10, and overnight into the next morning. If your guys you hit up are still considering you, then hit then you need to spend and lock them down, all the while moving guys who are committed elsewhere down the list, and moving non considered guys up the list. Dig into your 2nd and 3rd tier recruits. Avoid battles. You are in fertile recruiting ground. Watch Arizona, USC, UCLA, Stanford, Cal etc as they fill up their spots. Go for the guys just beneath that tier (550-575 guys).
FSS California and any of the southwest states that have players that fill your needs. How far do you cast your net? For now, you don't need to go further west than Colorado. Cal, Ore, Utah, NV, AZ, NM, etc will give you a great recruiting base, and you don't have to go flat broke building your team. Dl recruiting is very frustrating, but if you can put together an "off the radar" type of plan, you can succeed. Don't be afraid to take the 90th or 100th rated PG that has monster high-high potentials and RS him. One last tip, and I apologize if this is TMI, but get your last recruit considering you, but don't offer that scholly. Let signing day come and go. Check back and see who may have gotten dropped at the alter and is now on the open market. One man's trash is another's treasure, as I was once told. You can upgrade that last spot big time. Its not fool proof, but why not try it right? Plus you paid good money who wants to be done recruiting after day 1? :)
Good luck, again sorry if too much info but I don't think any of what I said can hurt your process.