level athlete. I don't think that you should be selective about who should coach based on who played college football. Its like saying that the POTUS needs to have been in the military to lead the military. Plenty of guys out there are smart enough to coach football without having played. This is not a defense of Howell whatsoever. If he is not a good coach, it has little to do with the fact that he didn't play college football, he just isn't able to earn the respect of his defense. I didn't play even HS football, and I can tell that Pikula had horrible tackling form on many plays last year.