Contrary to many on here, I was a fan of the Manny hire. There were flashes, and the kids played for him all the way to the end. He's a Cane through and through, and anyone who bleeds orange and green will be in my good graces. If I ever see him out and about, he can drink free on me.
That said, it was clear this year that he wasn't the guy. There would be years when we caught lightening in the bottle, and losing seasons when the stars lined up poorly. The following is my synopsis.
Coaching
The good - seemed to be able to make in game adjustments
The bad - team was underprepared often - especially against big names, we started out scared. This year was also the first time we collapsed on a few occassions in the 4th.
Staffing
The good - was able to move on from failed assistants, and brought in better people like TRob and Lash
The bad - seemed to take fliers on people (Baker, Enos).
Recruiting
The good - could put together a good class like last year, but plenty of stinkers in there too. King of the portal.
The bad - really bad at evaluating certain positions. Made the portal the centerpiece, which leads eventually to program collapse.
Results
The good - took us to bowls, winning records.
The bad - losses to teams we should beat. Worst of all is too many close games against bad teams. UVA he gets a pass on because of TVDs first game, but GT shouldn't have been withing 3 scores.
Long story shorter is that we were always going to be just ok. And that's not good enough. Will wish him well in his next endeavor.
