During the second phase of the recruiting process, college coaches rank the athletes on their list in order to determine who to extend an offer to and how much time to spend on each recruit. This is the time when coaches create a recruiting board with all of the ranked athletes divided by position. Each team has a limited number of roster spots available or scholarships to give out. Where athletes rank on the recruiting board determines how heavily they will be recruited by that staff.
Coaches will have more athletes on the recruiting board than there are spots available on the roster (for example a list of 10 athletes for 2 roster spots). Not every athlete they recruit will commit to their school, this way they are prepared when they lose an athlete to another school. This means that you may be getting recruited by a coach when you are still just a backup option.