By such logic, there are never any recruiting setbacks, or recruiting gains.
If you pursue a player as a priority recruit (such as contacting a transfer immediately after his release, as the hawks did), then fail to land that player, that is a setback insofar as you have failed to make the program and the coaches enticing/desirable enough to attract the talent that you want to bring in. Likewise, if you lose a valued player -- who could raise the perceived value of the program, and raise the results of the program, to a rival conference school, that is a setback.
Recruiting, like any other form of marketing, is always either progressing or regressing with every pitch; you are either raising the brand image* and the market share, or you are losing: there is no stasis.
* and college recruiting is largely image -- the emotional level on which the recruit perceives the program. Unless you coach at legacy program that sells itself, you need to be able to sell and close.
