Position coach at Directional Bo Didley Tech just isn't all that different to me than earning an HC job in terms of preparing you to coach at the FBS level. Both are basically paid internships.
Sitake's "internship" was 3 years at directional techs and a grad assistant year. Howell's was 4 years of high school coaching, 1 as a DC, 2 as an HC, and 3 years as a grad assistant. I'm just not seeing either "internship" to FBS coaching as glaringly superior to the other, but to each his own opinion.