First off half of Gailey's years there wasn't an ACC CG so it's 1/3 and so that point is moot, especially since we backed into one of those 3 with Johnson as two coastal members were ineligible. Second, half of his years we only played 11 regular season games and if we added a lower end OOC game, because we still played UConn, Auburn, and ND those three, years and that number for Gailey goes up to 4/6 to 6/11 for Johnson. Not guaranteed but likely. For the ACC record, is 5-3 really that much more noteworthy than 4-4? Had gailey lost to auburn or nd and won an extra game in conference those two years made you look at him any different? Probably not. But Johnson had better years because he went 5-3 while losing to BYU, MTSU, or USF?
At it so often does it seems the main thing is just 2014 and beating UGA. Now I still think a large part of our fanbase is just too obsessed with UGA. Beating them 30% of the time shouldn't be some huge deal imo. That should be expected. Gailey was terrible in that regard, and Johnson isn't terrible. But I don't view being not terrible as a particularly strong argument. And as good as 2014 was it was a recruiting cycle ago, and Johnson really hasn't don't much to make me think that 2014 was anything but an outlier that isn't likely to happen again. When people talk about taking the lower lows to get the higher highs, I don't think that argument holds if the higher highs is just going to be winning 8 or 9 but not even winning the division, if the lower lows means missing bowls.
