Anyone who follows wrestling recruiting understands that its not entirely comparable to football recruiting. With only 9.9 scholarships available for a team of 30-34 guys, it's not unusual for teams to move up and down in the recruiting rankings from year to year - except the big guns: PSU, Iowa, Ohio State, Oklahoma.

Overall, having classes loaded with top 100 recruits (and the higher the better) corresponds with success at the big dance. Teams like Nebraska and Iowa State were anomalies because attrition undermined otherwise good recruiting.

VT's 2018 class is not highly ranked, but many publications are already touting the 2019 class as one of the best. What's interesting to me is how well the team has done on average over the past decade - as reflected in an article by Willie Saylor on Flo. I attached a link, but it is a Pro article, which you might not be able to read without a subscription.

He has Tech's recruiting ranking over the past decade at #10, with the team's points total at the NCAA's at 9.

Here's what Saylor had to say about Tech's recruiting over the past decade:

Overall Observations: If it wasn't for an unranked class this year, Tech would have edged Iowa State for the 9th best average recruiting class ranking in the country over the last decade. The Hokies scored ranked classes in eight of the ten years of the period, propelling them to new highs in their program's history, including their first podium finish in 2016.

Hits & Misses: Tech has been very efficient. The ranked recruits they've brought in almost all worked out. The only exception is probably Ty Mitch back in 2010. What it says is that when kids get to campus, they're enjoy the culture. So get more kids on campus! They have done just that. Their 2019 class is already shaping up for a very high ranking.

In-State: The drop off of Christiansburg has really hurt the in-state talent. Joey Dance, Devin Carter, Zack Epperly were all products of that program. They were all lay-up recruits to Tech, and they were all multi-time AA's.

The good news is that Tech has done a tremendous job making in-roads to PA, OH, and NJ, grabbing AA's in Brascetta, Walz, Chishko, McFadden, and Zavatsky.

Top 50 Recruits From the State of Virginia

2018 - Zero

2017 - Borst, Bolen (Tech got both)

2016 - Zero

2015 - Dylan Wisman (MIZZ); Patrick Grayson (NEB)

2014 - Zero