The Zeitgeist List · coordinating

Chris Ash

Defensive coordinator across 3 programs, 4 stints, before and after wearing the head-coach hat — every season measured on the same axis, whether he personally ran the unit or someone else did.

100th — best in the country90th — elite — top 10%75th — top quarter50th — national median25th — bottom quarter0 — worst in the countryHis unit’s national rank, by season’14’15’16’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26Ohio State · DCRutgers · HEAD COACHTexas→ BECAME HEAD COACHRutgers, 2016← RETURNED TO COORDINATINGTexas, 2020Ohio State 2014: 80th percentile nationallyOhio State 2015: 84th percentile nationallyTexas ranked 53rd percentile the year before he arrived○ what he walked intoTexas 2020: 63rd percentile nationallyNotre Dame ranked 94th percentile the year before he arrivedNotre Dame 2025: 95th percentile nationallyNotre Dame ranked 95th percentile the year before he arrivedNotre Dame 2026: 79th percentile nationallyRutgers 2016: 37th percentile (Jay Niemann ran the unit)Rutgers 2017: 40th percentile (Bill Busch / Jay Niemann ran the unit)Rutgers 2018: 47th percentile (Jay Niemann ran the unit)Rutgers 2019: 13th percentile (Andy Buh / Noah Joseph ran the unit)95th, career bestNotre Dame, 202513th percentile
How to read this. Coordinator seasons come from coordinator_journeys(); head-coaching-era seasons are the same unit's FBS-relative percentile for those years, regardless of who coached it, read directly from staff_assignments. A role change (a “hinge”) is a fact, never a performance verdict — only the season-by-season data itself is colored by outcome.