Fact or Fiction: Hugh Freeze should top South Carolina's board
National recruiting director Mike Farrell and national recruiting analyst Adam Gorney tackle three topics daily and determine whether they believe the statements or not.
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1. Hugh Freeze should be choice No. 1 for South Carolina.
Farrell’s take: FICTION. Give me Billy Napier, who has done a great job at Louisiana and has ties to the state from his days at Clemson. Napier wants the South Carolina job, he’s a young coach who doesn’t have baggage like Freeze and he’s the shot in the arm needed in Columbia. The Gamecocks already tried an SEC retread with Will Muschamp and it didn’t work out. Give Napier a shot.
Gorney’s take: FACT. I’m not against Napier because he has done an excellent job at Louisiana but Hugh Freeze is the offensive shot in the arm South Carolina desperately needs. There is no doubt he would be able to recruit or use the transfer portal to his advantage to get playmakers to Columbia. The recruiting territory would also be outstanding since he has ties throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Which playmaker wouldn’t want to play in his system? Freeze definitely has some baggage but that’s in the past and I’m not going to hold it against him moving forward.
2. The Urban Meyer Texas rumors are hurting Longhorns recruiting.
Farrell’s take: FACT. Tom Herman said the rumors of Urban Meyer replacing him at Texas hurt recruiting because they are unsubstantiated and hard to shoot down and he’s right. The Longhorns are back to winning games and have a chance to win the Big 12, but it appears most in the media have given up on Herman and his chances to survive. And that talk definitely hurts recruiting because other schools use it against him.
Meyer being the name doesn’t specifically hurt except for one thing — he’s such a huge name that every rumor he’s mentioned in gets front page billing. And that’s why Meyer being linked to Texas, rightfully or not, is a nightmare for his old coordinator Herman.
Gorney’s take: FICTION. I don’t see how it could possibly hurt Texas recruiting. If Herman stays, then the prospects will get the coach they wanted to play for. If Herman is gone and Meyer comes in - which still feels like an unbelievable stretch to me - then who wouldn’t want to play for Meyer?
Tommy Brockermeyer didn’t pick Alabama because of Herman hot seat rumors. Nor did Donovan Jackson pick Ohio State or Billy Bowman flip from Texas to Oklahoma or Quinn Ewers decommit from the Longhorns because of any chatter. Higher-profile programs are coming into the state and landing top players. It’s been that way for a while and I doubt it’s because of Meyer rumors.
3. The college football playoff will have to expand with all the cancellations.
Farrell’s take: FICTION. They should expand to eight teams but they won’t because college football isn’t nimble and no one can agree on the same thing. As fewer and fewer games are played the teams playing the most will obviously be rewarded, but it becomes puzzling. Texas A&M loses a game, Alabama loses a game and so on and suddenly you have one division winner in the East playing more games than the division winner in the West. How is that fair?
College football is a mess right now — a wonderful mess we are blessed to have — and expanding the playoff would make the most sense to me. It just won’t happen.
Gorney’s take: FICTION. My feeling is that the powers that be in college football are just hoping to keep the season going as much as possible and get through the playoff without any serious consideration at all of actually having more games with more teams in a playoff scenario. Unless something really drastic happens in the coming weeks, that should be possible.
The SEC champion (presumably Alabama) will be in alongside Clemson and Notre Dame (presuming Clemson beats Notre Dame in the ACC title game) and then the fourth team is still up for grabs. That’s how it’s going to go and then we will see you for the 2021 season when things are hopefully much more settled.