They were really solid coaches but it was more of a pack mentality then what's good for the individual.
Schedule to make the conference stronger. It was strongly suggested which teams they could not schedule in non-conf.
The ACC coaches also were pretty much working together during recruiting. All inner-conference recruiting was non existent after the second recruiting cycle. If they battled within the conference, the self proclaimed commissioner issued a verbal beat down.
They basically chased off all the other human coaches within 500 miles (including an entirely empty SEC). You could be sitting 700 miles away with 3-4 good recruits and within a single cycle each of those recruits would have a single ACC team battling with the coach for them. Never two on a single recruit. Quite a coincidence?
Their methods were key contributors behind seeing most of the new recruiting rules we see today.