Here's a pretty interesting graphic depicting how schools make use of their recruiting classes. You can read the original post at Chart: Which NCAA Football Teams Outplay Their Recruit Rankings? or SBNation's take

The chart plots out "on-field success" vs recruiting rankings from 2009-2013. The on-field succes was based on a composite index that "averages dozens of rankings including the six computers used in the BCS." The recruiting is from Rivals.com, using the class ranking instead of the average stars. I think it would've been more accurate to use the stars personally since the gaps between the rankings aren't necessarily linear. VT was 22nd overall here, even though our average was 24.4 (only 0.8 std dev for you numbers lovers!).
Our beloved Hokies do a good job with getting the expected results from our recruiting classes, just a hair on the underperforming side of the line. Which actually surprised me since we typically feel that our coaching staff does more with less, so to speak.
Make sure to laugh at our Hoo friends when you find them! (hint: the farther down and to the right you are the more you should be ashamed of yourselves)

Comments
Picked a few poor years for us. I'd like to back that up another decade and see what that comes out to.
Run the same graph from 2000-2009 and we are much better.
Agreed, with the last two years in there, it drags us down a lot.
I got bored at work one day and ran a quick regression comparing Rivals recruiting rankings to end of season S&P+ overall ratings 3 years later. Tech fared pretty well.
UVA always underperformed...
Already posted.
Dangit.
Surprised I missed that one when it was posted, must've gotten lost in the mix. Scrolled down on the Tracker and didn't see it, must be on an earlier page. Thanks!
Don't worry about it. I never saw the other one either, so this was useful to me. Not sure how I missed the other one, since I love stats and am on here roughly 20 a day. (There's a metric I probably wouldn't want to see, no. of times I visit TKP per day).
LOL UVA. Low results, average recruiting
still stole 2-5 5* recruits from VA
VA recruits need to realize how their talent will be wasted at uva. Still confusing how VT didn't pull the best talent by default.
We are straddling the line during the era when our OL has been in shambles. If you back this chart up pre-Newsome, I'm guessing you would find VT well above the line in the "over-performers" region.
So we need to move towards Oregon.
Also, it appears that Old Miss has fixed their issue...