Evaluating recruiters isn’t as easy as it once was.  The area recruiter meant so much to recruiting back in the day, and guys like Jim Cavanaugh and Bryan Stinespring were arguably the two most important recruiters in Virginia Tech history, thanks to what they were able to accomplish in the 757 area of Virginia.

These days, Virginia Tech is recruiting a lot out-of-state and in some cases, they are recruiting in states where they don’t even have an area recruiter.  In that case, the position coach is the lead recruiter.  In fact, the position coach is involved quite a bit in recruiting these days whether the prospect is from his area or not.  Justin Fuente is also heavily involved with each prospect and Bud Foster is “rejuvenated” on the recruiting trail.  More on that later.

In short, there’s a whole lot of gray area in recruiting.  It’s hard to say exactly which coach is most responsible for each recruit.  However, I did research on this class and I feel like I’ve been able to get a pretty good idea of which coaches shouldered the load for the Hokies this year.  I’ve divided them up into four categories: top level recruiters, good recruiters, too early to tell, and needs to improve.  This is a new staff, so those categories and who is in them could change on a year to year basis as we gather more evidence.  But this is what I’ve come up with a little over one year into the Fuente era.

Let’s start at the top and work our way down.

...