His description of the transition as "monumental" is a matter of opinion, and he is not alone in that opinion, if you read any articles or previews of our upcoming season. Truthfully, he is using "transition" to avoid saying "rebuild" because he is going out of his way not to shade the former staff or current players, which is something people should kind of appreciate, IMO. If we got brutal honesty from him on this topic, believe me, people would be mad.
In talking about Tech's past glory, I have mostly seen him referring to the O'Leary years, in which we were, in fact, ranked at the end of the season for 5 straight years, though it was top 25 rather than top 10.