I have always sort of felt we captured lightning in a bottle over and over again in 2006.
* First, the fact that Riley Skinner was a borderline NFL quality quarterback was totally lucky. His lack of size is why he wasn't an elite recruit, but he had elite accuracy and an incredible pocket sense/presence. You could almost say that Grobe was a 4-6 win a season coach for 13 years if it weren't for Riley Skinner.
* Then, our conservative field position strategy always worked in 2006. It is a weak strategy, IMO, in that in required getting turnovers to beat good teams. We just happened to just about lead the country in takeaways that year. But couple that with a great kicker and punter and that strategy worked every single time.
In 2007, it failed against UVa with a last second field goal and that was sort of the beginning of the end for that strategy. It failed a lot since 2007.
* The whole recruit a fast 6'2" 195 pound linebacker so he can become a 6'3 1/2' 245 pound beast thing worked via Curry but is not really a recruiting strategy that is going to consistently work, or it is certainly not predictable.
* Assistants as said above.
But I was sure we were going to lose that Georgia Tech ACC Championship because we played so fucking conservatively in the rain going against perhaps the least accuracte passer in the history of Div 1 football. We were, shall we say, fortunate.
We also had an awesome defense and a feeling of inevitability that comes along every once and while.