Had Auburn football hired Lane Kiffin as head coach — which seemed an inevitability in late-November until the rug was pulled the day of the Iron Bowl — former Alabama/NFL quarterback Greg McElroy would’ve given the hiring an ‘A’ grade.
He revealed as much during an episode of the Always College Football show during a segment in which he was grading AU’s actual hire, Hugh Freeze. He gave the Freeze hiring a ‘B’ and gave the 53-year-old Oxford native plenty of praise.
Here’s the excerpt from the Always College Football show via On3 Sports:
"“Hugh Freeze gets a B. Why does he get a B? Well, I think Lane Kiffin would have been an A. I’ll just say that.”"
Auburn football hiring of Hugh Freeze robbed of celebration due to backlash
Hiring Freeze wasn’t all too different from Alabama hiring Kevin Steele as their defensive coordinator. Familiarity in the SEC on the recruiting trail and in big games were the primary qualifications, not public opinion.
Freeze doesn’t have the biggest name, mainly because he was banished from the top conference in the country and joined a college football independent that wasn’t a nationally known program until he built it from the ground up at the Division I level. Now, many know Liberty as the school that made the most out of former Auburn football QB Malik Willis.
The primary reason celebration of the Freeze hiring didn’t start until an otherworldly recruiting effort to bring the 2023 class into the top 20 nationally is because of the local media’s libelous coverage of the hiring. Not only was he accused of doing things he never did by the likes of AL.com, but national media outlets with merely passing knowledge of the situation rolled with it.
Once the games start and the Tigers start winning, the coverage will have to shift away from the lowlights. Right? Either way, those focused on the football aspect of the hiring are now overjoyed, and those who are hung up on his past aren’t going to change their minds anyway.