Join me as we venture all the way back to the year 2010. It’s the start of the calendar year and West Virginia is two seasons and a  1-1 bowl game record removed from 13-9 and 48-28. Nobody really knows where this is going, and the Mountaineers are loitering in this odd place as the kings of a so-so conference with a penchant for beating big-time opponents in regular-season and postgame matchups. There needed to be shell with a bomb, a way to announce the program’s presence with authority, if not for staying power, then for steering power to push the star ship into a desired direction upward and onward.

And then along came national signing day and what was hailed by experts or “experts” as the Greatest Recruiting Class in School History. Proclamations in the moment are somewhat silly, but there was cause for celebration: This was a great haul for the Mountaineers. WVU wasn’t insisting this to be true in the news conference that day, but there were no indications the Mountaineers disagreed. The reviews were in and the Mountaineers were being hailed for the recruiting efforts. There’s no question this was a special class with lots of skill position athletes for the Mountaineers.

“No question…” bit much. We have answers now, and it’s sort of interesting. With the 2015 NFL draft now complete, the 2010 class is gone from WVU. Two players are in the NFL. One was drafted. One signed an undrafted rookie free agent deal. The former was a junior college player. The latter was a high school recruit. Nineteen players signed. Twelve never made it or never finished — and another not included ended up taking quite a ride.

All in all, a much different look for the Greatest Recruiting Class in School History, though the point is not to jump out from behind a column and yell, “Aha! I told you recruiting ratings are not to be trusted!” For all of WVU’s (honestly inarguable) praise that day and for the way WVU gets patted on the head for high school recruiting in spite of obstacles, the Mountaineers are nailing junior college recruiting and the wooing of college transfers, which makes them a destination on two fronts and on two levels of recruiting.