To be clear "Bo's Way" had absolutely nothing to do with dominating defenses.
Yes, Bo's defenses were pretty crappy at times. But, you can't say that in 2009 and 2010, that Bo's defenses didn't "live up" to the Blackshirt Tradition. Let's not act like those seasons never happened.
Sure they happened. But let's not pretend Bo used those seasons as some sort of standard for handing out Blackshirts.
Bo's standard was contradictory. He'd wait for the defense to reach some arbitrary level before handing them out, a level that would then be mocked by a future performance. This, in turn, fed the narrative that the Blackshirts equal performance, and nothing else. This methodology also fueled mid-season distractions of when they'd get their shirts and what was good enough to get a shirt. Some fans would also end up wondering if the shirts would be pulled if they had a bad performance again.
It's totally understandable why this is a big point of interest among the fans, players and coaches. But, the Blackshirts became a sort of historical crutch over the last several years. Fans didn't have conference or national titles to hang their hats on, so, a lot of attention was aimed at a tradition instead. It makes me think of a bad magic track, like someone is waving their left hand high in the air to distract you while they try to slip something in their pocket with their right hand.