Reality is, Manny is one year behind schedule where we'd have hoped he would be by now. He's done everything in 2020 that I would have liked to have seen him accomplish in 2019: change the culture disease; bring in new talent; upgrade the staff; instill a winning mentality. Instead, 2019 was a disaster and the changes weren't implemented until 2020.
Manny's failure was allowing Year 1 to spiral out of control which made him appear clueless and incompetent. Hard to change people's initial perception of you once you've been labeled.
Not a deal breaker, but now he must do in Year 3 what he should have been in position to do this year: complete the staff upgrades; infuse more talent; and show the CFB world that we can at least compete with the Clemsons of the world and not get slaughtered.
That said, what has saved him has been his willingness to be humble and make painful changes. If he can upgrade the D staff with a strong DC and just keep doing what he's done this season so far (recruiting and winning), then he can prove to everyone next year that he is legit as a HC. But he must know that all eyes will be on him next season to see if 2020 was a lucky fluke or something we can expect each year. He's got to show that we will win consistently year after year before he is anointed a top CFB HC.