An important thing for a college football coach is credibility with his players. There are many ways to get it, but one is to have a successful playing career of his own to show players that the coach knows what he is talking about.
ESPN's Adam Rittenberg recently ranked all 129 Division I football coaches for their playing careers and local coaches were scattered across all of those spots.
But one former Texas Tech coach bottomed out the list --Mike Leach. Currently at Washington State, Leach never actually played college football. He played rugby instead after being a career-backup at a Wyoming high school.