Virginia Tech football recruiting is off to a fast start for the class of 2005. The Hokies have already picked up seven verbal commitments since July 3. The interesting thing is that Tech, known for the ability to recruit inside the borders of Virginia but not outside, has landed six players from out-of-state.

VT has gained commitments from OL Clark Crum (Ohio), LB Nekos Brown (Maryland), ATH Rashad Carmichael (Maryland), DE Mike Gee (New Jersey), WR Jacob Sykes (North Carolina), ATH Devin Radford (North Carolina) and DT/OL Darryl Robertson (Virginia). We’ve seen VT land players from out-of-state before, but never this many this early.

Before this year and going back to the class of 2001, Virginia Tech has only landed four early out-of-state commitments. To be clear, we define “early” as anytime before August. For example, for the class of 2006, anyone that commits before August of 2005 will count. For the class of 2005, anyone before August of 2004.

VT received early commitments from Kenny Jefferson and Robert Norris from the class of 2005, Antoine Rutherford from the class of 2002, and Kevin Hilton from the class of 2001. Rutherford was from Florida, while the other three recruits were from the state of Maryland.

So how in the world has the coaching staff managed to reverse their fortunes thus far for the class of 2006? We’ve spoken to some trusted sources and come up with some answers, as well as some more questions.

Remember when you looked at Virginia Tech’s class of 2000 and were a little disappointed, especially considering the Hokies were coming off a National Championship game appearance? It would seem like VT could have finished up with a great class after a season like that. I do think Tech could have done better in recruiting during the couple of seasons immediately following that Sugar Bowl run, but realistically, that season was going to pay off more down the road than immediately.

Welcome to the future. The kids that the Hokies are recruiting now were about 11 years old when Tech played for the National Championship. Young people are pretty impressionable. I remember when I was little, really little, and watching on television one of the first college football games I had ever seen. It was Texas and Texas A&M, and I don’t even remember who won, or what year it was. But I do remember it was on national television, and I was impressed. For that simple reason, Texas and Texas A&M always stand out to me in my mind. I’m not sure why, but they do.

It’s the same for these 16 and 17 year olds that VT is recruiting. Back on January 4, 2000, they had probably been finished with their middle school league season for a few of months. They’re flipping through the channels and they stop on ABC, where they watch Michael Vick rip through Florida State’s vaunted defense. That image sticks with them, sort of like the image of Michael Jordan hitting a key three-pointer and then just shrugging his shoulders like it’s nothing.

Since the Vick era, the Hokies have gradually established a reputation among kids in the mid-Atlantic region. The Hokies have been ranked in the top ten at some point in the season every year since 1998. Not all of the finishes for those seasons were quite as good as Hokies fans would have liked, but the point still stands…in the grand scheme of things, Virginia Tech has been consistently good for quite a while now.

If a program attains a certain status and stays there for a long enough period of time, people are going to notice. That’s what programs like Florida State, Ohio State and Michigan did, and although they’ve all been a known quantity longer than VT has, the Hokies are getting there. They’re not quite on that level yet, but the perception of Virginia Tech’s program is improving with each passing year. And the good news is that the prestige of the programs listed above isn’t going to get any higher. The Hokies, meanwhile, still have some growth to do before they reach their ceiling.

Massive media hype has played a big role for the Hokies as well. Every time you turn around, it seems like VT is on ESPN or ESPN 2, and I can still hear Mike Tirico screaming “This team is amazing!” after a special teams touchdown against WVU back in 2000. Little things like that build up, and today VT is a well-known program along the east coast.

Another thing that has helped the Hokies gain prestige is joining the ACC. The Big East was great for Virginia Tech and helped the Hokies accomplish a lot, so I’m not going to sit here and bash that conference. What I will say is that very few recruits in the mid-Atlantic region grow up dreaming of playing in the Big East. There were recruits who grew up dreaming of playing for Miami or Virginia Tech, teams that happened to be a part of the Big East, but the conference itself had little to no effect on Tech recruiting (other than the fact that winning it gave access to an Alliance/BCS Bowl).

That’s not the case with the ACC. Players from states such as Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina have grown up watching the ACC, and playing in that conference is very appealing. All of a sudden, a recruit can look at the situation and say “Hey, I don’t have to go to Virginia, Maryland or UNC to play in the ACC. I can go to Virginia Tech.”

Also, winning the ACC in their inaugural season certainly didn’t hurt the Hokies.

Another reason for Tech’s success with out-of-state recruits this year stems from a simple fact: a lot of Virginia recruits seem to want to head out of state this year, so if VT wants to land enough quality players, they have to head out of state as well. And the players that everyone is pretty sure will stay in-state don’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to officially decide. Darryl Robertson (VT) and Sean Gottschalk (UVA) are the only players off of TSL's list of top 30 recruits who have committed so far. Virginia kids just don’t seem to be committing early this year. That leaves the Tech coaching staff free to accept more commitments from out-of-state players.

As Virginia's talent gains more prestige in other parts of the country, more schools are coming into Virginia to try and pick up recruits. Some Virginia recruits sport a lot of offers from schools all over the country, and they have a lot more options now than they once did. The vast majority of these guys still stay in-state, but they have a lot more to think about now than they once did.

For example, Florida is attempting to establish a presence in Virginia. Nebraska came in and offered Greg Boone and Deveon Simmons this past year. Nebraska used to never recruit the state of Virginia.

Also, players at certain schools just have a history of waiting until the last minute to decide. Phoebus High School in Hampton is the perfect example. Phoebus sends almost all their players to Tech, with guys such as Nathaniel and Xavier Adibi, D.J. Parker, Steven Friday and Elan Lewis all coming from Phoebus. But most of these guys always wait until near Signing Day to officially announce. The Hokies are recruiting linebacker Matt Wright and wide receiver Brent Vinson from Phoebus this year, and expect them to wait before deciding as well.

Different teams have different approaches to recruiting. You go into the process knowing about how many kids you want to sign (21 or 22 for the Hokies in 2006). Some schools like to take a lot of early commitments, such as Texas. The Longhorns have gotten commitments from 22 players this year, including 10 four-stars and two five-stars. “Take ‘em when you can get ‘em” is Mack Brown’s policy. Florida State, on the other hand, generally waits until the very end of the process to get commitments from the majority of their recruits. FSU has only four recruits in the fold at this point.

It seems like Tech falls in the middle of the road. The staff always has players that they are willing to wait on and save scholarships for, but they don’t like to wait until the very end to get the majority of their class either. Generally it seems like the Hokies’ commitments are spread out from the beginning of the recruiting process to the end.

VT is also at the point where they can tell a recruit that if he doesn’t commit now, a spot can’t be saved for him. And some guys will bite on that, because of the high regard they have for Virginia Tech.

Another part of recruiting that doesn’t get much mention is assigning recruiting areas to certain coaches. The Hokies are starting to get much better at this. “Whammy” Ward has made huge inroads in the state of Georgia, and Virginia Tech is starting to become a factor in New Jersey with Kevin Rogers’ contacts in that state. The Hokies have already landed Mike Gee out of the Garden State, and are in on other top prospects as well, like DE Jason Adjepong and OL Lou Eliades.

So will early out-of-state commitments become a trend? Or is it just a fluke? Probably a little bit of both. With recruiting season just getting started, not all of the evidence has been gathered. Not everything is clear. Is the staff focusing more on out-of-state recruiting, or are those recruits just more interested?

I think it’s just a year where everything has come together for Tech with regards to early, out-of-state commitments. First of all, Tech has become a high-profile school along the east coast, and winning the ACC helped boost the Hokies’ reputation even more. Also, the coaching staff has done a good job in capitalizing on Tech’s recent gridiron success.