Robie should get a lot of the credit for where the program is because he was side by side building it with Dresser, and he was key to recruiting in those years too.

But even more importantly (in our "what have you done for me lately" world), like others said, he then went heavily into freestyle with his first assistant hires - which is what the top recruits now want to see because freestyle success is the track to a post-college career in wrestling where there's no equivalent to the NFL or NBA. So you can't get the top 5 types if they don't see that path with your program. (That was not the case just 10 years ago.)
Credit Robie for picking up on that trend and going all-in just as that trend was starting to solidify. And PS, the guys love working with Frayer and Molinaro.

And yes, he pushed hard to make SERTC much bigger, which is needed to support the freestyle ambitions.

I really think (and hope I'm right) that Robie made a bunch of shrewd decisions about the program's direction at just the right time that VT will now be pushing top 5 just about every year. And success breeds success. More recruits will notice when young men like McFadden and Lewis inch closer and closer to the top of the podium. I'm sure a lot of young HS wrestlers - the type at the top of the podium at Fargo, Powerade, etc. - just took notice of how high Lewis climbed so quickly after coming to VT. And not that Walz was an unknown before, but his own remarkable international success was not a given: he's exceeded expectations too.

All signs point toward continued success. Robie and his assistants have this program heading in a great direction, breathing hard on the neck of the top 4, hopefully, for many years to come.

My apologies for the rampant optimism.