Unpaid parking tickets led Texas Tech's Kingsbury to coaching job

Other than being known as "Coach Handsome," Texas Tech's Kliff Kingsbury is also one of the most brilliant offensive minds in the country, but there was a time where a coaching career didn't seem likely.

After a prolific career as a quarterback for the Red Raiders, throwing for a mind-boggling 12,429 yards and 95 touchdowns, Kingsbury was taken in the 2003 NFL Draft.

After toiling in NFL Europe and the Canadian Football League for a couple years, Kingsbury was looking at attending graduate school to pursue an MBA. During this time, Houston coach Dana Holgerson offered him a position on the team's staff. When it came time to make a choice, the 37-year-old was swayed by an interesting dilemma.

"I called Texas Tech about having to get my diploma or transcript," he told Don Williams of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. "I had like, $1,500 worth of parking tickets. I couldn't get it out. I was really looking into getting my MBA, looking at different grad schools, but I was like, 'Well, I'm not paying that.' So yeah, that deterred the MBA, and it kind of worked out from there."

The parking tickets proved to be a major blessing for Kingsbury, who became offensive coordinator of the Cougars after Holgerson left for Oklahoma State. Head coach Kevin Sumlin entrusted him with the play-calling and he won the 2011 Offensive Coordinator of the Year.

When Sumlin left for Texas A&M, Kingsbury followed him and was tasked with coaching a young quarterback named Johnny Manziel. The rest is history, and following the 2012 season, Kingsbury took the head coaching job at his Alma mater.

With an annual salary over $3.7 million, it's probably a safe bet that Kingsbury can afford to pay off those parking tickets now.