Seriously, they've done so well recently. They're consistently a force using mostly Virginia talent, it seems like. And they aren't the flagship state university--that's UVA, which hasn't been nearly as successful. They don't have quite the same depth as Oregon, but they're starting with much slower horses. I did a quick check of Athletic.net:
Peter Seufer was 1:58/4:10/9:22 in high school. Now he's 8:04/13:53/23:10 for 8k.
Patrick Joseph was 1:50/4:18/9:19. Now he's 1:46/3:59.
Vincent Ciattei was 1:53/4:10/9:10. Now he's 1:47/3:59.
Drew Piazza was 1:55/4:36. Now he's 1:46/3:43.
There are many more examples like that, especially on the women's side. I'm sure they recruit good athletes, and it's not like Seufer, Joseph, or Ciattei were scrubs, but their improvement curve is still very impressive. Letsrun wrote a really great article about Syracuse. Something similar about VT would be awesome.
For the record, I don't go to Virginia Tech. My school is over 600 miles away. I'm just impressed.