thats a good question Lion. My son is a freshman in college so I don't know specifically what his coaches believe about pitch counts. Maybe we should have had that discussion about pitch counts.
What we did discuss in length was philosophy and training. How each pitcher was put on a specific training based off his job on the team. I know of several of his teammates that were limited in fall because of how much they pitched last spring and summer. 2 were basically shut down all fall. These were returning players. According to my son, he was / is monitored closely on everything he is doing pitching wise (probably everway wise 
).
The converaation about a summer team has already been decided where he will go based off the philospohy that teams pitching coach has that is similar to his PC on college team and there is a threshold of if he pitches X inning, he will just work out next summer.
DK did not pitch the summer after freshman year because of the amount of innings he put in (highest amount for a freshman). That was a decision recommended by pcoach.
IMO the only time a pitcher should pitch summer league is if he needs the work or his draft year.
You are correct after a full summer most of the pitchers take time off fall. The good part of DK not pitching that first summer is that he got to work on improvements on pitches that sophomore fall. Most of the top programs work this philosophy, but IMO every program should do the same.
Most frosh starters on staff begin as relievers, its their way of breaking into the game and build up their innings.
Enjoy!!!
Problem is that the recruiting climate has changed. It's the rare pitcher that can expect to be recruited from only playing in the spring. Which (and not that I'm agreeing with it) might be ab argument for getting rid of high school ball and moving it all to clubs and then trying to limit the season to May - October.