Chris Creighton
Followed Ron English. Chris Creighton moved Eastern Michigan from Regional Program VI to Regional Program IV in 13 seasons.
In his own words
Awaiting signal — no quotes collected from this staff yet this cycle.
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Regional Program in his 1st career season — faster than 20% of the 925 FBS coaches who have ever reached Regional Program (rank #1 of 925 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
8–16 against his rivals. Winless in 5 tries against Rod Carey.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
6th-best Eastern Michigan tenure of 13 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Followed Ron English (2009–2013).
| Season | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||||||||||
| Record | 2–10 | 1–11 | 7–6 | 5–7 | 7–6 | 6–7 | 2–4 | 7–6 | 9–4 | 6–7 | 5–7 | 4–8 | 0–0 | |
| Postseason | — | — | L bowl | — | L bowl | L bowl | — | L bowl | W bowl | L bowl | — | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | #123 | #115 | #121 | #123 | #110 | #122 | #115 | #111 | #123 | #87 | #93 | #97 | #106 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||||||||||||
| Pass rate | 41.8 | 49.3 | 52.0 | 50.8 | 44.1 | 52.7 | 47.6 | 50.0 | 43.9 | 45.5 | 46.8 | 50.9 | 56.9 | |
| Coordinators | ||||||||||||||
| OC | Kalen DeBoer | Kalen DeBoer | Kalen DeBoer | Aaron Keen | Aaron Keen | Aaron Keen | Chris Creighton | Chris Creighton | Chris Creighton | Mike Piatkowski | Mike Piatkowski | Mike Piatkowski | Mike Piatkowski | |
| DC | Brad McCaslin | Brad McCaslin | Neal Neathery | Neal Neathery | Neal Neathery | Neal Neathery | Neal Neathery | Neal Neathery | Neal Neathery | Ben Needham | Ben Needham | Ben Needham | Tate Omli / Kasey Teegardin | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||||||||||
| Offense | 3 | 37 | 57 | 24 | 33 | 82 | 62 | 34 | 73 | 5 | 12 | 66 | 1 | |
| Defense | 3 | 1 | 19 | 59 | 84 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 16 | 42 | 31 | 30 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||||||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 33.3 | 37.8 | 45.7 | 46.2 | 39.8 | 50.8 | 45.6 | 52.5 | 39.6 | 39.6 | 48.5 | 44.8 | 56.0 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 38.2 | 46.7 | 43.9 | 43.4 | 39.8 | 40.0 | 36.2 | 40.5 | 31.0 | 30.9 | 33.9 | 40.0 | 30.8 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 20.8 | 29.2 | 16.3 | 29.2 | 42.3 | 31.7 | 29.6 | 37.5 | 45.9 | 17.6 | 33.3 | 24.3 | — | |
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Brings in smaller-than-position-typical players than most.
A typical class-year mix of incoming transfers.
5 NFL Draft picks: Darius Jackson (2016), Pat O'Connor (2017), Maxx Crosby (2019), Sidy Sow (2023), Jose Ramirez (2023)
AI Narratives — “Eastern Michigan — stat check”.