The Zeitgeist List · coaching

Jeff Quinn

Followed Turner Gill. Jeff Quinn moved Buffalo from Regional Program V to Regional Program IV in 5 seasons.

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2010–2014 · 1 stint
Buffalo
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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.

Stature score reached, by season of his head-coaching careerBUFFALORegional Programthe building-block levelBuffalo, 2010: 2-10, Regional Program V2010Buffalo, 2011: 3-9, Regional Program V2011Buffalo, 2012: 4-8, Regional Program V2012Buffalo, 2013: 8-5, Regional Program IV2013Buffalo, 2014: 3-4, Regional Program IV2014+1.6One point per coached season, in career order; dashed segments are program changes — spacing is not proportional to calendar time

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).

Buffalo, 5 seasons
+1.6
Regional Program V → Regional Program IV.

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.

Buffalo2010–2014– 0.0pt
Pass rate — share of offensive plays that were pass attemptsfirst covered seasonmost recent covered seasonfull season-to-season range (3+ covered seasons)

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.

1–1 against his rivals. Just 1–3 against Dave Clawson.

Rivalry record
1–1
50.0% · 1 rival
One-score games
4–7
36.4% · margin ≤8
vs. Blue Blood or better
0–1
0.0%
Rivalry ledger
Akron1–150%
The toughest matchup
vs. Dave Clawson1–3
4 meetings, 2010–2013
’10 W’11 L’12 L’13 L
25% win rate across a real, 4-meeting series — short of the bar this site uses before badging a series “Nemesis.” Shown here as the toughest matchup on record, not an algorithmic crown.
Performance by opponent class
Blue Blood
0–1 0.0%
Power Program
0–2 0.0%
National Program
1–7 12.5%
Regional Program
10–20 33.3%

Coaching career

2010–2014
Buffalocaretaker
Regional Program V → Regional Program IV
Jeff Quinn moved Buffalo from Regional Program V to Regional Program IV in 5 seasons.

5th-best Buffalo tenure of 11 by the numbers.

Followed Turner Gill (2006–2009) · succeeded by Lance Leipold (2015–2020).

Season20102011201220132014Trend
Record & result
Record2–103–94–88–52–2
Postseason—————
Recruiting rank————#100
Style — pass rate
Pass rate————45.3
Coordinators
OC————Alex Wood
DC————Lou Tepper
Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile
Offense————66
Defense————34
Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only)
1st-down pass%————38.1
Red-zone pass%————35.0
4th-down go%opp. territory————36.1
Where the roster comes from, by position
Grows K from high school
100%
#52 of 56 stints
Grows Tight end from high school
100%
#164 of 188 stints

5 NFL Draft picks: James Starks (2010), Joshua Thomas (2011), Steven Means (2013), Khalil Mack (2014), Kristjan Sokoli (2015)

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