Greg McElroy gives 'B' grade for Hugh Freeze hire

ESPN commentator Greg McElroy thinks Hugh Freeze can end up being a great hire for Auburn in the long run. But he isn’t ready to call it a home-run hire yet.

On his Always College Football show, McElroy said that the Freeze hire deserves a grade of a ‘B.’

“Hugh Freeze gets a B,” McElroy said. “Why does he get a B? Well, I think Lane Kiffin would have been an A. I’ll just say that. Hugh Freeze: well, he’s done a decent job on the recruiting trail. I think there’s a lot to be excited about. He did a great job at Liberty won eight each of the last four years. He’s back in the SEC now, has a familiarity with the league, the footprint and everything else, I think he’s positioned to do well. The one thing I would say and I do feel like the fan base is behind him, I think that is very beneficial, of course, right. You got to be able to play politics if you’re at Auburn. He’s equipped, I think, to rebuild the roster in a way that his fan base will be more comfortable.”

One of the areas McElroy is keeping his eye on is the recruiting trail. Freeze has a better repretation than previous coach Bryan Harsin, but McElroy wants to see results.

“Now people have said for a while now,” McElroy said. “Bryan Harsin couldn’t recruit Bryan Harsin didn’t know what he was doing. Didn’t have any interested in it. Well Bryan Harsin’s first recruiting class finished No. 19, according to 247. Everyone’s telling me that Hugh Freeze is doing an amazing job and look how great he’s recruiting. Well, there’s 17. There are two spots better than a guy that supposedly couldn’t recruit. I think that that’s something that needs to be acknowledged.”

All in all, McElroy believes Freeze can make a real impact at Auburn but it is going to take time before the long-term impact will be known.

“I’m very optimistic about Hugh Freeze tenure,” McElroy said. “I’m curious see what he goes with. I’m curious to see what he does with Robbie Ashford. I think it’s a good hire that it’s a good fit. It think he knows how to play the game. That is important at a place like Auburn, but ultimately it’s a B at this point. Because still, there were some things that went down at Ole Miss as far as how they played. I’m not talking about everything else. You can talk about all the other stuff, the low hanging fruit stuff, that’s fine. But I’m talking about how they played at times. That left me feeling a little bit less than I wanted to feel. I’ll be curious. I think he’s gonna do a good job there. I do. Is he ultimately going to win national championships? I don’t know. I hope for him and I hope for his fanbase. He gets a B right now.”

Greg McElroy gives Deion Sanders hire an ‘A’

While Hugh Freeze received a ‘B’, One coach who received an ‘A’ grade from Greg McElroy was Deion Sanders.

“Now, I’m not saying that Deion Sanders is just gonna wave the magic wand and win 10 games. I’m not saying Deion Sanders is gonna wave the magic wand and win six games. I’m not sure that’s the goal in year one, I’m not sure that it’s an attainable goal in year one,” McElroy said.

“There are way too many unknowns about the current state of the roster. There are way too many unknowns about the staff that he’s put together with Charles Kelly on defense. He’s obviously a great recruiter. Sean Lewis on offense. He was a great head coach, did a really nice job at Kent [State] there for a while, but I don’t know what they’re gonna look like. I think Shedeur [Sanders] is a good player, but this is a huge step up in competition and I really don’t know whether or not they’re gonna win a ton of games in the first year under Deion Sanders.”