When I was doing preparation for the Bear Bryant Award interviews, I noticed that South Carolina coach Shane Beamer was a Wide Receiver, but then in his Senior season he exclusively became a Long Snapper. Then my brain got to wondering how many other Division I coaches were Long Snappers in college? Couldn’t have been that many, right? Well in FBS, there was only one other Long Snapper turned Head Coach, newly hired Ohio Bobcats coach Brian Smith.

I wanted to know more, but I know that The Commish, aka myself, couldn’t do this alone. I tagged in some of our spread-sheeting help here from our Shippensburg section of the Committee. Fellow Committee member Mase created a database in a few days for this and was able to plug in all the information for all Division I Head Coaches! (Thank you so much, Mase) Then The Lord of the Spreadsheets, Kevin, came in and sorted everything into a master list with full stats and a positional breakdown of all coaches.

Now, I likely know that you would know what position your favorite team’s Head Coach played in college. Also, I think it is safe to say most of, if not all, of us know that Nick Saban played safety for Kent State.

Currently, we have 136 FBS teams and 128 FCS for the upcoming 2025 season, for a total of 264 Head Coaches. I have to warn you in advance, the number is not going to match the 264 perfectly because some coaches in their playing days, such as Shane Beamer, are going to be listed at multiple positions. We credited Shane with the Wide Receiver and Long Snapper positions here, and if the coach’s Wikipedia entry listed more than one position, we counted it. These are the high journalistic standards you come to expect from the Sickos Committee. I will break down the positions that current Division I coaches played by most to least. You can likely guess the most popular positions to produce Head Coaches, so these will get more and more interesting as you get further down into the post. One final note: I don’t care where the coach played; any level of NCAA College Football played, we counted it. DIII, FBS, FCS—whatever, we counted all NCAA*** levels!

Quarterback - 64 former CFB Quarterbacks are current CFB Head Coaches

If you had to guess, you’d likely guess Quarterback would lead to most of the Head Coaches, and you’d be correct. This number does include Bowling Green’s former coach Scott Loeffler, even though he just left for the NFL to become the Philadelphia Eagles QB Coach. Over 24% of all Division I Head Coaches played QB in College.

Defensive Back - 50 former CFB Defensive Backs are current CFB Head Coaches

This one surprised me a little bit. Also, this includes CB and Safety. Wiki wasn’t always descriptive enough, so we combined all of these into the Defensive Back category. If you think about this position, you’d think Safety is a bit like a Quarterback of the defense. Also, the nature of the Cornerback position. Playing one of the toughest positions in the game, being on an island all game long could turn you into a leader. It makes sense to me. Over 18.75% of all Division I Head Coaches played DB in College.

Linebacker - 35 former CFB Linebackers are current CFB Head Coaches

Now, this is another position that is like the Quarterback of the defense. Trying to set the defensive line, direct traffic, call out the audibles, set the coverage and so much more falls on the Linebacker in the game. It always feels like your team’s defense has a linebacker captain that is the heart of the team, much like safety. The indispensable captain/leader of the defense. If they get hurt or have to sit out for a play, the entire unit suffers. Naturally a ton of leaders come from here. Over 13% of all Division I Head Coaches played LB in College.

Wide Receiver - 27 former CFB Wide Receivers are current Division I CFB Head Coaches

This one threw me off a good bit. Like Wide Receiver?? Really. But my brain is likely poisoned by this tweet that lives in my head.

Why would you want a Head Coach who says things like the enemy speaks kindly and holds a knife? Ohhhhh, I get it now; this is the master motivator coach. They say strange things that seem to motivate a team if you don’t really think about them too much or maybe think about them way too much. Also, really good Wide Receivers understand coverage really well; they find the little holes in zones and could always find a way to win the 50/50 ball and one-on-ones when needed. A Wide Receiver, who demanded the ball, would love to be the coach to show you how it’s done. Over 10% of all Division I Head Coaches played WR in College.

DID NOT PLAY COLLEGE FOOTBALL - 24 Current Division I Head Coaches did not play any level of College Football.

This is a pretty big number of coaches here. Some coaches played other sports, like Auburn’s Hugh Freeze, played baseball in college.

This group includes Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham, who tore his ACL in his senior year of High School and just said I’m a Coach now and has been coaching since he was 17 years old. This group also includes Coastal Carolina’s Tim Beck, Central Michigan’s Matt Drinkall (who also lost his career due to injury before playing a single snap for Iowa), and Lincoln Riley, who was a QB for Texas Tech but never got on the stat sheet by seeing game action, so he technically didn’t play just practiced. We included LSU’s Brian Kelly here. He was listed as a linebacker on a club team at Assumption, and he played for four years. This was not NCAA football, so Brian, we can’t count it. Ok, Brian, please don’t get mad at me. I will put a picture here though to give you some sort of credit, and I hope that is ok. About 10% of all Division I Head Coaches did not play college football, but some played other levels (like Brian Kelly, I hope you’re happy now) and were around the game, etc.

Offensive Lineman - 23 former CFB Offensive Linemen are current Division I CFB Head Coaches

Defensive Lineman - 15 former CFB Defensive Lineman are current Division I CFB Head Coaches

People will read this and say, Hell Yeah. Nothing like a big lineman roaming up and down the sidelines with a headset on, looking like they want to get out there and smash someone on the field. Nothing like having some BEEF on the sidelines, leading your team. About 10% of all Division I Head Coaches were Offensive Lineman, and about 5.5% of all Division I Head Coaches were Defensive Lineman. Hey, look below; it’s Bret Bielema.

Running Back - 10 former CFB Running Backs are current Division I CFB Head Coaches

Would you prefer a smashmouth runner or a shifty running back as your Head Coach? North and South coaching style or some more East and West running with a bunch of jukes, breaking ankles in the process? Maybe a bit of both? This group includes Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George, currently at Tennessee State, and also NIU’s current head Coach Thomas Hammock. About 3.5% of all Division I Coaches were Running Backs.

Tight End - 9 former CFB Tight Ends are current Division I CFB Head Coaches

Well, we have to go back to this tweet that lives in my head again. Let me look at this list here.

We got Dave Doeren at NC State, Dan Mullen at UNLV, Jeff Traylor at UTSA, Brent Vigen at Montana State are the most notable here. Oh yeah, we can count former Center/Tight End Bill Belichick too here. I don’t think these coaches match with the tweet here that much at all. Dan Mullen has most of the “derpyness” of the group, I’d say. About 3.25% of all Division I Coaches were Tight Ends.

Special Teamer Plus Another Position - 8 former Special Teamer Plus Another Position are current Division I CFB Head Coaches

This category gets a little tricky here. Most of the Special Teamers played another position along with being either a Long Snapper, Kicker or Punter. We have six current FBS Head Coaches that were Long Snappers, along with another position. We mentioned Shane Beamer being the Long Snapper/Wide Receiver Combo, and he’s the only particular one of this position combo. Ohio’s Tim Smith is a Center/Long Snapper Combo, along with Eastern Washington’s Aaron Best. Harvard’s Andrew Aurich and Mercer’s Mike Jacobs are the Offensive Lineman/Long Snapper Combo. Mercyhurt’s Ryan Riemedio is the rare Linebacker/Long Snapper Combo.

Miami Ohio’s Chuck Martin - played Safety and Placekicker for DIII Millikin, along with playing basketball too! He averaged 9.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.2 assists as a senior!

North Carolina Central’s Trei Oliver - played Defensive Back and Punter. He’s the only former punter to be a current Division I Head Coach.

About 3.0% of all Division I Coaches were Special Teamers Plus Another Position.

FULLBACK - 4 former Fullbacks are current Division I CFB Head Coaches

OH YEAH!! The glorious FULLBACK. We’ve only got four of these as Division I Head Coaches. We have two currently in the Power Four, and they both play for their Alma Maters. Kelani Sitake was a Fullback for BYU and Clark Lea was a Fullback for Vanderbilt.

Holy Cross Coach Dan Curran and Southern Utah Coach DeLane Fitzgerald are the former fullbacks on the FCS Level. I could not find pictures of either of them in their glorious Fullback get-ups. About 1% of all Division I Coaches were Fullbacks.

Long Snapper - 1 former Long Snapper is a current Division I CFB Head Coach.

Northwestern State’s Blaine McCorkle was a Long Snapper exclusively at LSU in his playing days. He’s the only one of these in all of Division I. LSU, I know he was snapping in the Gerry DiNardo era, but I could not find a picture of Blaine in action long snapping. Find me a picture please.

Placekicker - 1 former Placekicker is a current Division I Head Coach.

Charleston Southern’s Gabe Giardina was a Placekicker exclusively at Alabama in his playing days. He was listed at 5-6, 172 pounds, and a walk on kicker for Alabama in the Mike Shula days. I couldn’t find a record of a kick attempt he made. He was mainly the holder in 2003. I was able to find a nice little newspaper article from his Wikipedia on Gabe’s playing days.

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