Ya, but, and it may be my own inherent bias here, the more successful ones seem to start HC at smaller programs. Granted I guess SC could be considered like Miss State and Mullen, but idk, I think SC is slightly more high profile. Regardless, time will certainly tell with this hire and given lack of any HC history I don't think you can say its a slam dunk hire.
It's a crap shoot either way.
Let's look at Brian Kelly (ND) and Butch Jones: Brian Kelly left Grand Valley State (D3 non-scholarship school) and took the Central Michigan job....won there and took the Cincinnati job. Butch Jones gets the Central Michigan job. Both coaches win at their new jobs. Kelly gets the ND job and Butch takes the Cincy job. Butch Jones wins at Cincy and gets the UT job....and is a colossal failure.
UGA's last two head coaches were former assistants who had never been a head coach: Mark Richt won 2 SEC titles at UGA and was never a head coach. Kirby Smart was never head coach.
Tenn: hired Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones, and Pruitt - that's 2 coaches who were previously a head coach and two who were assistants = 4 failures (although Kiffin's tenure was too short to really gauge).
FSU: hired Jimbo Fisher, who had never been a head coach....wins a national championship. They then hire Willie Taggert, who was a 3x head coach at 3 D1 schools (WKU, USF, and Oregon) = massive failure.
Miami: hired two assistants in a row in Coker & Shannan = failure. Then they hire a proven G5 coach in Golden = failure. Then they hire Mark Richt = failure. Now they Manny Diaz, an assistant who was never a head coach.
I can do this exercise all day long. It's a complete crap shoot.