He has no reason to be nervous. He’ll find a place to run if that’s what he wants.
A lot depends on his track times and what schools he’s targeting. Did he qualify for the championship section at Nike? If so his times are probably good enough to get interest at a lot of places now. If it was the EE or frosh sections then maybe not.
As mentioned, coaches look at track times more than XC times. They know courses and conditions aren’t uniform. Not every recruited kid gets to run at Woodbridge every year. They care more about placing at big invites, state meets, NXR.
I don’t think I’d sacrifice performance in the important meets to travel far for a fast XC time. It’s fine if it fits in and works with the overall plan, but most kids only have so much in the tank. Definitely try to get to NXR in your region, focus on the state meet, and if a big invite works out then fine. But it’s the track times that’ll drive recruiting interest for the most part.
Anyway, he’s not behind at this point and a lot of guys aren’t even thinking about this until they see where they are after junior track season. (Yes, recruiting in track has moved up for some programs and some athletes but for the vast majority it’s still a fairly late recruiting sport).
If you can provide a sense of what his track times are like (keep it rough to maintain anonymity) and what sorts of schools he has in mind we might be able to give more tailored advice.