My opinion piece starts with optimism in the long haul. We are a good program with some limitations that could be overcome. It is very difficult to have 10 top 15 guys at the same time at their best weight and in their prime. We have almost always had a 'hole' in at least 1 or 2 weights even in our best years. Getting 10 top guys or even qualifiers is a huge challenge. We all get 9.9 scholarships and I believe we at times might offer more $ for a blue chipper than some of the others to get them here which can hurt depth, but needed to 'outbid' the bigger guys. Some of the blue chip teams get guys with less effort, less money because they want to be part of that program. We probably aren't quite there yet. If we get a guy who is a bust or just not excellent it can hurt us more than the big 3-4. I'm not crying the blues, we are in the middle of really good tier 2 type teams (5-14)..NC State, Missouri. If we 'hit' on most of the recruits or a top team has a graduation cycle that knocks them down a year, we can compete for a trophy. Other years we can drop to say 12ish. We have been consistently top 10 for quite a while now which is impressive with no significant down turn, even less than NC State and even through a coaching change. Speaking of NC State they are undoubtedly slightly ahead of us now. Dual wise its been super tight for years except this year, but many matches were close. ACC Tournament wise they have owned us for 4 years, its not really been close. They lose a lot but have hit on their replacement recruits really well and reload as much as rebuild. We have got to match them and with Henson and TJ among others it seems as if we hit it well this cycle. The top 4 ish or 'clemson' and 'bama' type schools for football reference like Iowa and PSU have earned it and many times have literal AA as backups or close. Ayala replacing Lee, Beard behind Dean, and I think Cassar was a national champ and a backup for a time. We have to hit on our guys with a little tighter tolerance. As far as the Covid free year we did not benefit nearly as much as some others. Yes, everyone got the additional year and we may reap the benefits in the future with Bryce, Sam, Mekhi etc getting an added year in the future. However, a team like Iowa got 5 starters back that would have been gone this year alone and all have been AA's at some point. (Eierman, Young, Desanto, Marinelli, Kem). When the dust settles and the extra year is behind us we will see a lot more where we are. We benefited some this year with Korbin who is a stud, and big Trax but everyone else would have been back regardless of the free year. We are a good program starving to be great. Blacksburg would be wrestling nuts with a title. We are a pretty big draw (top 10) in the country already for attendance and recruits wanting to make a name would benefit here IMO. If you are known for being in the program that goes from good to elite due to your skills its a big deal. I like our guys, I like our coaches, I love our program but we have some hurdles too. We can get there but not overnight. Congrats to all the qualifiers as well as Mekhi, Korbin, and Trax for their titles. I believe Mekhi earned the 2 seed, Korbin the 3 or 4 at nationals with those huge wins. Trax, my guess is 9-12 but a 2 loss conference champ with good wins could get a good seed...who knows. I am looking forward to NCAA's in 2 weeks.