He socializes with them: plays golf and takes them out to dinner. He also leveraged ESPN being in Conn. to his own advantage. My sense is Muffet has kept the local media at arm's length. Recently, she has started to use her position as a platform for issues that she feels strongly about.

I am not making a value judgement about which is better, just an observation. My sense is there are pluses and minuses to each approach.

newspapers are notoriously understaffed today. At the South Bend Tribune, fair or not, ND football is the sport that receives all the attention. Even during football's off-season and while basketball is in season, it's not unusual to see more stories on ND football than women's basketball. In Hartford I suspect the priorities are flipped given UCONN's football program.

...MM obviously likes to keep specific recruiting ventures very much under lock and key (and we can guess a lot of the reasons ...). Like you say, Geno/Chris Dailey seem to selectively leak/use local media when it befits them. I suspect there are advantages to both.

In the case of Prince, why not let folks know they've been chosen for a visit: "after all these years, Ms. Prince still values our program." Even if she does not go there, there's a PR/branding element to it.

MM goes about it a different way...perhaps relying on a more private touch. ND tends to stand for itself. However, the ND social media team does release those photos of kids in uniform (which I've often felt is a jinx, but that's just me. Kind of like wearing a race shirt before you've run the race.).

Interesting to note the observations on the Hartford and New Haven papers and ESPN (which is just down the pike) being courted by Geno. If you were to read the Boneyard today in regards to MM's upcoming article in Sports Illustrated, you'd think ND had SI and Meredith Corporation in their back pocket.
I'm amazed at the capacity for self-victimization that is rampant these days...

For years. It’s infuriating.