A coach can't know every recruit everywhere, but he should at least know who the top 15 - 20 are in his own state, and he should know a fair amount about the top 10 or so. An in-state kid should have the scales tipped slightly in his favor for a number of reasons: future recruiting, fan involvement (like winning new fans), and fewer will leave because they got homesick or have distant family issues to deal with (Hobbs?). I'm amazed at Embree's apparent blindness to these things. Hoping NewMac follows through on his promises. We've missed out on so many good CO players in the last decade.
While I agree with you in principle about not being about to recruit everywhere if you are going to reach out to a kid via one of your assistants even as a PWO you should know who they are when they call you and introduce themselves. I hope MikeMac and his staff are alot better in this regard and that they can repair some of the instate damage done by the last 2 staffs.