RChildress107
Well-known member
The argument that we DIDN'T underperform in 16/17 relies on believing that somehow Manning did a great job at team building, game prep, game management, etc, etc in 16/17, and that it was a major improvement over the two years previous, and that he forgot all that he had learned in the year immediately following. Manning has been the constant over the last 4 years. The argument for him when hired was that he was still learning and could grow into the coach we needed him to be, but we've seen little/any development of himself as a head coach. How often has he said that he needs to get better? Do we have any info that he's sought outside help or consulting? Maybe he has and I've tuned it out?
16/17 stands out slightly from the abyss of the other three seasons because of talent, but Manning was still the same coach through it all. He gets credit for the talent and talent development (things we knew he was good at from the start) that led to Collins and others having a great jumps in their individual abilities, but there's no evidence that he had one year where he suddenly became better at every other aspect of the job before regressing back to himself.
There’s also no one arguing that he did.