If you believe HS coaches are irrelevant, you are not in the process. Common sense dictates that the coach you are PAYING is going to be biased in a positive manner toward the player. Basically a HS coach has no axe to grind with a kid, unless there is something going on, such as a disaster of a parent or the kid is a cancer on the team.
If the college coach already knew about these players why did he bother with the call to the coach? Sounds like he knew all he needed to know. The HS coach gave him his opinion and the college coach didn't like it? Sounds really odd to me. What HS are we talking about here?