If they are basing the grade solely on a belief that Ken N was the first choice, and Sitake was the second choice. So the second choice should mean a lower grade - then I think they need to re-evaluate.

All that aside - Sitake is a great unknown.

At Utah it looked like he was a pretty good DC. However, he was a pretty good DC under a coach known for defensive football and running that coach's defense. So you can't really be sure how much is him, and how much is him not screwing up what KW is doing.

He went to a train-wreck of a team at Oregon St. and was only there one year. So he barely had time to install the defense. Only one off season to teach it to the players. Only one recruiting cycle to get the right players to be able to do what he wanted to do with them. He needed at least another year or 2 to see what he does as a DC on his own without KW to lean on.

So I would say C is probably a fair grade for now. But I'd be curious to revisit these grades 5 years from now and see if they all stand where they do now.