Let's get this out of the way: fire himself, drive off a cliff, pull his mask off and reveal that he is actually Terry Porter coming back to finish the job! Also, this assumes we don't get a COS (like Highsmith) with any power.
Actual football talk - what can he do to get to 10 wins this coming season? I think he's "probably" safe with 9 wins, but with 10 wins, there's no way in **** Flake or the BOT's fires him.
I'll start it out with these points:
- Fully take over the D and make Blake his assistant essentially. Don't care if Blake retains the title and makes the same $$. We need Diaz to do the one thing he does well. Also realize that many teams have caught up to Manny's scheme, so provide more specific game schemes and don't wait until the half to make an adjustment. Every game, Venables has a "new scheme." Which is one of the reasons he is the best DC in the country. Despite what many have said on here to diminish any of Manny's accomplishments, he is one of the better DC's in the country, statistically speaking. Let him do that one thing he's good at and spend a fortune on the best OC available, which would NOT be Ponce.
- Stop only rushing 3rd and longs and 4th and longs with 3 guys. Apply pressure in those situations. On the infamous 4th & 17, we sent 3 guys and the UNC WR was still wide open. In general, it feels like we went into a shell on these crucial plays that get the O off the field. We need to attack on those longer downs.
- Hire a talented OC with actual and recent, successful playcalling, give him achievable numbers for each game, and then get out of his way. By numbers, I mean things like how many times did pass on 1st down. and how involved did we get our TE's, and how many pass rush negating plays did we call (slants, screens, draws, 3 step drops, rolling the pocket, etc.)?
- Whoever takes over PK must be competent. Have no idea what happened to Bubba, but with all of Diaz's buffoonery, we still win at least 2 additional games minimum, if we have a kicker who mostly completes reasonably length kicks and XP's.
- The portal needs to be big for us this year. We need to bring in no fewer than 2, and I wouldn't be opposed to as many as 4 OL transfers. Since we've done such a **** poor job of developing OL, we need some guys who have been trained properly, to come in and give us an average OL. With a good OC and an average OL, Manny should win no fewer than 9 games. Worry about the future of the OL with reaches like Zion, later. He needs to win NOW. Bring in enough competent guys to give our QB enough time to release the ball and enough holes so we can reintroduce our running game.
- Bring in at least one more RB. We're gonna need it and you can't go into this season with 4 guys and two of whom have never taken a snap. With our bad luck regarding injuries (see TE's last year), we could quickly find ourselves in a position to start freshmen and pluck guys from other position groups to fill in as back up RB's. With Lingard gone, one more ought to do it and I'd be more interested with the transfer RB's blocking and catching than I would with his actual ball carrying.
- Finally, be as ruthless with his own hirings as he was with Mark's. He says he's going to study all aspects of his team and make adjustments. If that's REALLY true, and if he is really committed to the Canes rebounding, then he will not be precious with his hirings, even though it exposes him as a newb (which everyone already knows at this point). Literally, every single coach and staff member needs to be able to answer one of these two questions in the affirmative, or they lose their jobs: 1. Am I the best at what I do in comparison to other personnel that UM can actually hire in my place? 2. If I'm not "the best" do I show enough growth and potential to be the best that UM can hire at my respective position? Anyone who cannot honestly answer one of those questions in the positive, whether they be a coordinator or the guy who sprays Lysol in the cleats after a game, Diaz needs to replace them.
