I try to sign a couple players in session 1 so the team isn't trashed.
I also try to open scholarships on a bunch of late preference players but don't use any further recruiting effort on those players--doing so just screws over the potential next coach by using up HV/CV slots that then get reduced to a uselessly small amount, ie if I used home visits, they'd count towards the total amounts for a recruit for the next coach but do basically nothing. The new coach recruiting effort reduction is HUGE.