By "high caliber recruits" I'm assuming you mean JJ Bass and Sed Johnson. Because there really weren't any others.
Yeah, that particular myth is wrong. It'd be the same as pointing out the Rhoads' recruits are what got Campbell to his first bowls here--because they were, Matter of fact, Rhoads' recruits are still all across the two deep.
I just looked back, and Chizik's 2007 and 2008 classes had a 247 Composite of .8068 and .7999. That's with Bass and Johnson bumping them up. For comparison, Rhoads' final (2015) class stood at .8237, and Campbell's 2019 class (the current frosh) finished at .8533.
Good thing Rhoads' staff did a good job of developing those players Chizik signed.