A new head coach gets to mold his staff in his vision. And generally, that means hiring coaches that he knows or has worked with previously.

There is a comfort and familiarity there, for obvious reasons. In the cases of new Pitt coach Paul Chryst and new Rutgers coach Kyle Flood, each reached out to men they know well. But it is safe to say there is a difference between the way these two coaches assembled their staffs.

Flood went the added step of not only hiring coaches he knows; every single coach he hired has ties to the New York/New Jersey area and one in particular has major ties to South Florida, where Rutgers built a pipeline under former coach Greg Schiano. Chryst has hired several coaches with ties to Pennsylvania and Pitt itself, but there are those who lack a familiarity with the recruiting areas Pitt tends to rely on the most.

How all this translates on the recruiting trail will be important to watch in the coming years. But it appears as if Flood put an added premium on continuing to own the "state of Rutgers."

"The most important thing to me is the quality of the person," Flood said recently. "It can sound cliché when you say it over and over again, but when I sit with the parents of the recruits, and I tell them about the quality of the person and they say when we sat with your coaches we felt that, we agree with you, there's no better feeling as a head coach. That was first and foremost. I know the quality of the coaches. The three things that don't change -- the quality of the person, quality of the football coach, and the natural ties to the state of Rutgers. You can't undervalue any of those three."

Especially at Rutgers, which hopes to build on the success Schiano had. The Scarlet Knights are losing several of their key recruiters in Jeff Hafley and Brian Angelichio, who helped bring in a top-25 recruiting class. The top recruiter now could very well be offensive line coach Damian Wroblewski. With Syracuse in particular looking to make inroads into New York and New Jersey, maintaining the advantage Rutgers already has there is of paramount importance.

At Pitt, meanwhile, Chryst has never been known as a top-notch recruiter so this is an area that had to be addressed with his hires. First, start with those with major Pitt or Pennsylvania ties. Offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph came with him from the Badgers. The great plus with this hire -- Rudolph is from Belle Vernon, Pa., so he has natural ties to the area, and he was a stud recruiter at Wisconsin.

Chryst hired long-time Mt. Lebanon (Pa.) High school coach Chris Haering, which also should help. New running backs coach Desmond Robinson played at Pitt in the 1970s. New player personnel director Dann Kabala is a Pittsburgh native and former grad assistant on the staff, who most recently focused on recruiting, eligibility coordination and academic support at Arkansas. All those hires are an absolute nod to recruiting.

But his other hires seem to have limited or no ties to Pennsylvania. Defensive line coach Inoke Breckterfield has spent his career on the West Coast; secondary coach Matt House has no ties to the Northeast; receivers coach Bobby Engram went to Penn State, but he has never recruited. Neither has quarterbacks coach Brooks Bollinger. Offensive line coach Jim Hueber most recently worked in the NFL. Defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable coached for several years at UCF, so he has ties to Florida -- but none to the northeast.

You get the point. Right now, there are 15 prospects in the class of 2013 considering Pitt who have the potential to be ranked in the ESPNU 150. In the way that Chryst was able to keep ESPNU 150 running back Rushel Shell to his commitment for 2012, he has to make a huge effort to sign many of these other players for 2013.

What helps is having Bob Junko and Chris LaSala returning to their administrative roles. Both helped salvage the 2012 recruiting class for the Panthers.

In the end, there is no doubt there are proven recruiters on both the Rutgers and Pitt staffs. Now we have to wait and see how every single assistant adjusts to his new role.