The basic idea is that is an overture of interest, but reading more into it than that is just to over-analyze the matter.
You recruit kids as hard as you can, generally speaking, and you sort out things later (i.e. overall numbers, contingencies, etc.). Boards tend to be very, very fluid, and even for a top program like ours, realistically you are going to miss on a lot of kids on your board, and you're going to end up taking some kids lower down the line. Also, injuries, camp/game performances, off-field issues, and academic concerns are obviously going to invariably cause some substantial changes to your general pecking order. And, of course, you also want to maintain strong ties to certain schools and regions, even if you do not intend to sign a particular kid.
So, basically, you express general interest to the prospect, discuss the possibility of playing for the school and how he would be utilized, but you don't necessarily push for a commitment in any immediate sense. You just let them know that you are aware of them and that you are seriously interested in them. And, of course, if the cards fall just right, you are hopefully in position to pounce and not fighting to make up ground against schools who have made the kid a priority for several months.
