The coaching staff strikes me as the types to under promise and over deliver and not lie, so I believe this leak from a recruit more than other sources, for whatever that's worth.

The thing about this leak is that it makes sense. If the program's thinking about moving up, it would be rational to push it out a few years (not announcing until 100% ready to avoid a Sac situation, getting stadium upgrades underway, and competing for FCS championships in the meantime) but drop hints to recruits who might stick around for the transition.

Yeah thats my summarized thought basically. I don't think this leak (or the recruit in general) would be giving wrong/false info, I think its more of a matter of the school wanting to try and maximize success while in the FCS to build momentum for that timely move.

And also having things in place to be competitive when they move up.

I agree with this, I think winning a FCs title in short term was especially important to them due to the previous fcs to fbs 2 year probationary period which was just eliminated. So hopefully they speed things up a bit.