Successful college coaches don't always take a traditional (or conventional) route to their job.

Texas Tech Head Coach Mike Leach and Oregon State head coach/brother-in-law to the President-elect, Craig Robinson, are good examples.

To say the Red Raiders head coach, nicknamed "Mad Mike", is a non-traditional coach would be an understatement.

Leach's playlist is a crumpled sheet of paper with about a dozen of plays on it. He has a fascination with pirates and talks about them during his weekly press conferences. He gives out dating advice (Have you seen the YouTube clip?) and even quoted Winston Churchill after upsetting the No. 1-ranked team in the country.

Leach's quirks don't end there.

Short on kickers this season, Leach offered a roster spot to a student he saw kick a 30-yard field goal during halftime of a recent game. The pick paid off; Matt Williams hit all nine of his extra point attempts against Kansas a couple weeks later.

"I thought it was easier for him in the game than it was during the contest," Leach said after the game. "For that one, he came out of the stands in his shirt and street shoes and they said, 'Here, make it.' To me, that's hard."

A recent New York Times article talked about his unusual path to Texas Tech.

"Raised in Cody, Wyo., Leach took an unconventional path to the top levels of college football. He graduated from Brigham Young and earned a master's degree at the United States Sports Academy, which prepares students for careers in sports. Then, when Leach attended law school at Pepperdine, a classmate said he diagrammed football plays in his constitutional law class," Ronald F. Phillips, Pepperdine's vice chancellor and the law school's dean emeritus, told the newspaper.

Leach, one of four Football Bowl Subdivision coaches who did not play college football, is doing something right. His team is second in the country and in the hunt for a national championship.

Craig Robinson walked away from a high-six-figure salary, huge house and luxurious vacations to be a college basketball coach.

The New York Times reported "Robinson decided nine years ago while in a cab in Chicago to take an assistant's job on Bill Carmody's staff at Northwestern. He made a tenth of his previous salary, but said he felt whole again."

Robinson, a two-time Ivy League player of the year, graduated from Princeton with a business degree, and went on to a successful financial career. He spent seven years as a vice president for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter before deciding he wanted to be a college basketball coach.

He brought his business skills and education to the court, spending two seasons at Brown where he instilled discipline, a strong work ethic and a winning attitude. Last year Brown won a school-record 19 games.

Being well-rounded - and having a good vocabulary -- is important to Robinson. The New York Times reported that the coach keeps a dictionary in the locker room for players to look up the words he used.

This season Robinson takes over a struggling Oregon State team - not quite the global challenge facing his "relative-elect" but one that would challenge any coach.

For both Leach and Robinson, making their way to a head coaching job has been anything but ordinary, but maybe this non-traditional path is what has led them to extraordinary success.

Share your thoughts:
There are plenty of coaches out there with unique paths to the top spot.

• How did your coach get where he/she is?
• What unique stories do you have?

If enough people respond, we'll compile the most unique stories in another post down the road.