I'd say coaching hire grades before said coaches have coached at least a season are pointless and don't mean anything. To revisit ESPN's grades following the 2016 season (gives coaches 3 years to get their systems in play and their recruits in the program) These are the ones that were way off in hindsight, but they did hit on Geoff Collins at Temple, PJ Fleck at Minnesota, Luke Fickell at Cincinnati, Lane Kiffin at FAU, and Matt Rhule at Baylor. All those coaches received B+ or better grades

Tom Herman (Texas) A - Two 7 wins seasons in 3 years at Texas. Just fired his offensive and defensive coordinators. Don't think Texas expected to be 7-5 in year 3 with Herman, nor would that equate to an "A" hire

Jeff Brohn (Purdue) A - have gone 7-6, 6-7, and 4-8 in three years. Pretty big fail there with an "A" grade

Ed Orgeron (LSU) B - has gotten better each year with a 38-9 record at LSU and is in the CFP in year 3

Willie Taggart (Orgeon) B - stayed there 1 year, fired at FSU in the middle of his 2nd season

Tom Allen (Indiana) B - Led Indiana to 8 wins for the first time since 1993 and their first winning season since 1994 (they went 6-5 in 1994)

Jeff Tedford (Frasono St) B- - rough year this year but went 10-4 in 2017 and 12-2 last year, retired this year due to health concerns

Jay Norvell (Nevada) B- - has led Nevada to 8-5 and 7-5 records the past 2 seasons, which is as good as or better than they've been most years since they joined D1 football in 1993

Butch Davis (FIU) C+ - FIU was 17-43 in the 5 years preceding his hire with no winning seasons. He has gone 23-15 in 3 years with three straight bowl appearances. FIU had two bowl appearance all-time before his arrival.

Shawn Elliott (Ga. State) C - Ga State has only been a D1 program since 2010. Elliott has led them to two 7-5 seasons in 3 years as coach