VT's location, history, and fanbase are always going to be a hit on it's potential as a football power.

We have a small fan base, limited alumni, and those that we have aren't very financially supportive. The school's history is much more akin to ECU than it is to UNC. VT's remote location makes it very difficult to drum up local financial support without lots of sponsors. We FAR out-recruit the schools that are our "geographical peers" (OKST, Kansas St, Texas Tech, WVU) and we don't even have an alumni or local as coach like Gundy.

We do have a good football brand and a great atmosphere, but that's not particularly unique among top-25 football programs which is where we fancy ourselves recruiting. We basically expect to be Nebraska on the recruiting trail without the money, support, history, tradition, and local legend coach.