I once speculated that a major attribute of Manny's which could lead to his potential success as a head coach was his adaptability.
When he was our defensive coordinator, I thought his ability and willingness to identify what wasn't working and quickly rectify the issue was an exciting sign that he was a cerebral guy with a promising future. I think the example I used was his success in fixing his unit's failures on 3rd down in a single off-season by inventing the "striker" position for his defense.
In the subsequent season he improved from 75th in 3rd down defense to 1st in the country. This was extremely promising, as where some older gasbag coaches might just blame execution, Manny appeared to be operating as one of the more modern, analytics-driven type of coaches who is always evaluating without bias and is willing to find an answer to fix a problem or deficiency.
We saw another glimpse of this with the disaster that was the Dan Penos era. After telling the fans he wanted the same thing we did at OC -- uptempo, spread, aggressive, modern -- Manny turned around and hired a dinosaur instead. The rest is history, as Dan Penos and his 1970's playbook helped lead us to a horrendous and boring season filled with several suicidal moments for the taking.
Luckily (and thankfully), once again Manny's willingness to quickly recognize a mistake came into play, as he fired the ever living F out of that imbecile and finally made the correct hire most of us (and he) claimed we wanted the year before. Though he completely and utterly pooped his pants on that hire, his ability to not be stubborn and quickly fix his mistake and the situation was a promising sign.
We are now, however, watching a crucial moment unfold for Manny in this regard. This will be his most important test. He's passed smaller tests on this subject matter, but now he's hearing the boss music start to play as he faces his toughest challenge yet. This is a problem which has plagued several head coaches in the past, and even one particularly bloated piece of human garbage who once roamed the sidelines at Miami. Can Manny Diaz fire a "friend"?
Manny spent several seasons coaching with Blake Baker at La Tech and Texas. While Dan Penos was just some strange grifter off the streets somewhere to Manny, Baker is a colleague and former co-worker he's had a relationship with before bringing him to Miami.
Baker is also a coordinator that just won't cut it if Manny's goal is to lead a program that consistently wins a lot of games and championships. He's going to have to make the ruthless decision all championship coaches have had to at one point or another on their journey to building a juggernaut. Can he be cutthroat and put his feelings aside when he needs to make a necessary move? Can he tell Baker to pack his bags after the season, and find himself the equivalent to Lashlee on the defensive side of the ball? Or will he pull an Al Golden, and go down to the pits of the unemployment line all while holding his buddy's hand?
Does Manny Diaz want to truly win BIG? What he does with Baker will let us know.
*Note: Aside from this, Manny has to do a better job recruiting athletes on defense. That might also force his hand and require making other staff moves at the position coach level, as the recruiting misses rear their ugly head just as much as Blake's terrible calls and schemes. More of his guys need to see the axe on the defensive side of the ball if they continue being incapable of signing the quality of player needed to win titles.
