Probably the easiest way is to use .htaccess to redirect the index.php to /recent

Try adding this to the bottom of your .htaccess and see if it works (I have not tested this). If not, then just open .htaccess again and delete the line and you'll be OK.

Code:
Redirect 301 /index.php http://yourdomain.com/recent
The only drawback is that people will not be able to access your frontpage, as they will be redirected to /recent each time.

Another thing you could do is remove the call for "right.tpl", which will totally eliminate the right side boxes from the front page OR just erase everything in right.tpl....I guess it's just a matter of experimenting till you find something that works, these are just ideas that I'm tossing around.

To get rid of the "featured" box from the front page, just remove the entire section from index.tpl

In admin panel, where it says how many videos to show on the front page, put some outrageous number in there.

OR you can change index.tpl and use the code from this article http://docs.buyscripts.in/Show_videos