It only took us 20 (conference championship) and 50 years (OB appearance) to replicate those milestones, but sure - it’s bound to be the normal under new leadership sooner or later.
0 conference championships.
0 OBs.
O'Leary had 5 consecutive AP Top 25 final finishes. You did not see anything near that from 2008-2018. 2008, 2009-then without mostly Gailey recruits-one more AP Top 25 finish in 2014. So don't talk about "milestones". O'Leary did better from 1997-2001 (within the last 25 years) than the so called milestones of 2008-2018. He also had 3 consecutive victories over UGa, not 3 in 11 years.
We were the second best team in the ACC those O'Leary years when FSU was a powerhouse (like Clemson now) but FSU went to the Orange Bowl as the ACC Champs. There was no playoff to give us an Orange Bowl bid (like in 2014) as the runner up. Apples and oranges comparison for the years you cite, pun intended If FSU had not gotten into the playoff in 2014 there would have been no Orange Bowl for Tech. The premise of your post is completely void of factual and logical underpinning.
Show me one conference championship trophy presently at Tech from the last 50 years--other than 1990. There is not one. I'll show you a national championship trophy that is at Tech, However, it wasn't won since 2008, nor was it won more than 50 years ago.
There were no division championships for most of the years you cite because there were no divisions in the ACC until 2005.
Essentially, we've been a mediocre program since Homer Rice (and his hires) departed. Yes 2014 was a good year, but that's been about it. One "milestone" aberration surrounded by years of mediocrity, including a division co-championship and an ACC championship game appearance with a 6-6 regular season record in 2012. Talk about mediocrity!.
2010-2018 were years of mediocrity surrounding 2014. Milestones indeed. Your post has an absence of factual basis or logical conclusion.
Did you learn to roll your eyes at The Citadel when you put forth such misleading hypotheses? You should know better. Fall and give me 20.
Keep being satisfied with the mediocrity we've seen for the last 20 years. You won't be disappointed. I'll continue to expect us to get back to where we were at the turn of the century. Like Kim King did, Geoff Collins, Stansbury and I will keep believing. We can do it, but not when the fanbase is happy with the results of the last decade and are thrilled with a couple of "milestones," each of which are tainted with an asterisk.