Offbeat football note about Tracy Claeys

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Coach Claeys graduated from K-State in the mid-nineties when Snyder was building some great teams in his epic rebuild there - but did not play for him. Someone told me Claeys did not play football at the college level, but did at the high school level. If so, he must be one of the very few head coaches in that boat. Doesn't seem to have hurt him any, though, as a coach.
 

Mike Leach is the only other active FBS head coach I can think of that didn't play college football. I'm sure there's more, but probably not many.
 

Mike Leach, Dennis Franchione,Charlie Weis,George O'Leary,Paul Johnson,(Georgia Tech), Butch Jones (Tennessee),Sonny Dykes (Cal), Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss), David Cutcliffe(Duke)James Franklin (Vanderbilt)(Penn State), Jimbo Fisher (Florida State),Brian Kelly (Notre Dame)

Wouldn't have guessed, had to Google it.
 

Jerry Kill himself didn't play college football either did he?
 

Belichick didn't play NFL ball and I think he played center on his flag football team at Wesleyan. Hasn't stopped him.

I suspect there are many coaches at the NFL level that didn't make it to the league. Point is, probably a non-factor for most of the players if he can perform as a coach and game planner.
 


Iceland12 said:
Mike Leach, Dennis Franchione,Charlie Weis,George O'Leary,Paul Johnson,(Georgia Tech), Butch Jones (Tennessee),Sonny Dykes (Cal), Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss), David Cutcliffe(Duke)James Franklin (Vanderbilt)(Penn State), Jimbo Fisher (Florida State),Brian Kelly (Notre Dame)

Wouldn't have guessed, had to Google it.
Click to expand...

Huh, way more than I thought. :drink:
 



Gustavus had a Hockey coach for 32 years that never played any level of hockey.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 



Hard to believe Claeys didn't play with his Adonis like physique.
 



Although not active, Lou Holtz never played college ball so this won't be a first for the U.
 



He played lacrosse in college.....good training ground.
 


Iceland12 said:
Mike Leach, Dennis Franchione,Charlie Weis,George O'Leary,Paul Johnson,(Georgia Tech), Butch Jones (Tennessee),Sonny Dykes (Cal), Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss), David Cutcliffe(Duke)James Franklin (Vanderbilt)(Penn State), Jimbo Fisher (Florida State),Brian Kelly (Notre Dame)

Wouldn't have guessed, had to Google it.
Click to expand...

Franklin played QB at a DII or DIII school in Pennsylvania (East Stroudsburg).
 

And Richard Pitino didn't play college hoops either for that matter.
 

Iceland12 said:
Mike Leach, Dennis Franchione,Charlie Weis,George O'Leary,Paul Johnson,(Georgia Tech), Butch Jones (Tennessee),Sonny Dykes (Cal), Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss), David Cutcliffe(Duke)James Franklin (Vanderbilt)(Penn State), Jimbo Fisher (Florida State),Brian Kelly (Notre Dame)

Wouldn't have guessed, had to Google it.
Click to expand...
Thanks - that's an amazing list. Who would have thought?
 

Wasn't there an NFL coach recently who never played football at all?
 


gophmeister said:
He played linebacker at Southwestern.
Click to expand...

I think you would find a ton of coaches that played at small schools. In most sports but especially football it seems like most of the coaches were not star players, they are the guys that were a step slow or not big enough but have the extreme drive it takes to be a coach.
 

Iceland12 said:
Mike Leach, Dennis Franchione,Charlie Weis,George O'Leary,Paul Johnson,(Georgia Tech), Butch Jones (Tennessee),Sonny Dykes (Cal), Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss), David Cutcliffe(Duke)James Franklin (Vanderbilt)(Penn State), Jimbo Fisher (Florida State),Brian Kelly (Notre Dame)

Wouldn't have guessed, had to Google it.
Click to expand...

Not quite sure where you got this list but it's only half true.

Butch Jones played at Ferris State.
James Franklin set a number of school records as a QB at East Stroudsburg (division II).
Jimbo Fisher was Division III player of the year as a QB at Samford.
Brian Kelly played linebacker at Assumption College.
Sonny Dykes actually played college baseball and started as a baseball coach before switching to football.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Not quite sure where you got this list but it's only half true.

Butch Jones played at Ferris State.
James Franklin set a number of school records as a QB at East Stroudsburg (division II).
Jimbo Fisher was Division III player of the year as a QB at Samford.
Brian Kelly played linebacker at Assumption College.
Sonny Dykes actually played college baseball and started as a baseball coach before switching to football.
Click to expand...

Yeah, looks like the second list was Head Coaches who never played D-1 football. My mistake. The main Google page read:

Ranking the 8 Best BCS Coaches Who Never Played ...
bleacherreport.com/.../1660795-ranking-the-8-best-bcs-c...
Bleacher Report
Jun 3, 2013 - The following men have such a passion for football that they have become head coaches at BCS programs despite never playing college ...

And that's where it ended on the page. Just clicked on it and looked for coaches and added the new ones to the first list of coaches who never played college ball.

The 10 on the first list were:

David Cutcliffe, Duke
Hugh Freeze, Old Miss
Mike Leech, Washington State
George O'Leary, UCF
Sonny Dykes, Cal
Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech
Bobby Hauck, UNLV, fired last year
Charlie Weis, Kansas
Dennis Franchione, Texas State (before at TCU, Alabama)
Bill Clark, UAB (when it existed and again when it comes back)


http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2038878-top-10-college-football-head-coaches-who-never-played

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-coaches-who-never-played-division-i-football
 

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