College football's rise of the small-school coaches

Kansas State's Chris Klieman and Alabama 's Kalen DeBoer bring championship pedigree to the highest level of college football.

Coach Lance Leipold and his coaching peers must fight for what they want in college football's lower divisions.

They've helped shift the hiring patterns in a sport that had often ignored those on the fringes.

Coach Willie Fritz , who spent more than 30 years in small colleges and high schools, got his first FBS job as Georgia Southern's coach.

A hands-on approach shapes the style in which Fritz , DeBoer and others lead major conference programs.

Fritz describes himself as "not a big-time micromanager," but said there are nonnegotiables in his program around academics, athletic training and strength and conditioning that he must handle.

Leipold once had an assistant who played and coached for a major conference program.

The 12 -team CFP will require teams to play as many as 17 games to win a national title.

"They're relentless and they don't want to lose," coach DeBoer says of coaches like Klieman , Leipold and Fritz .

The profession is packed with "double -[Type]A personalities".