I think you all are letting your opinion of Manny influence what should be a fairly non-disputable point--any coach with more financial resources and support will fare better.
As an example, I recall (either an article or segment) on OSU when Ryan Day took over. Essentially, that school is so financially and emotionally invested into the football team that they refused to let Day struggle. Too big to fail (so to speak). So they did everything they could to ensure an easy transition. Look, Manny would've capped (for all the reasons set forth above) but envision this school and AD going out of its way to make Manny's first head coaching gig easier--it would have been a better product. (How much better? Who knows. But a little bit better. He'd probably still have a job I'd guess.)