The Zeitgeist List · coaching

Mike Jinks

Followed Dino Babers. Mike Jinks held Bowling Green at Regional Program II for 3 seasons.

7–24

2016–2018 · 1 stint

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).

Bowling Green, 3 seasons

−9.4

Regional Program II → 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.

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

How much that is, against every other stint

Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.

Typical stint7.010.2 median13.9middle half of all stints

Bowling Green2.2pt#250 of 258 · less than most

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.

0–2 against his rivals.

Rivalry record

0–2

0.0% · 1 rival

One-score games

2–4

33.3% · margin ≤8

vs. Blue Blood or better

0–1

0.0%

Rivalry ledger

Toledo0–20%

Performance by opponent class

Blue Blood

0–1 0.0%

Power Program

0–1 0.0%

National Program

0–4 0.0%

Regional Program

5–11 31.2%

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.

Offense marginal impact

-0.14

#211 of 319 · a typical amount · smaller cross-referenced sample

Defense marginal impact

-0.30

#290 of 325 · less than most · smaller cross-referenced sample

Model fit as of 2026-09-04.

Coaching career

2016–2018

Bowling Greencaretaker

Regional Program II → Regional Program II

Mike Jinks held Bowling Green at Regional Program II for 3 seasons.

11th-best Bowling Green tenure of 14 by the numbers.

Recruiter or developer?

Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.

Offense vs. talent

-10.6 pts

#152 of 208 · a typical amount

Defense vs. talent

-25.9 pts

#191 of 208 · less than most

Recruiting talent is team-wide (no offense/defense split exists in the source data) -- both sides are scored against the same talent input, only the outcome is side-specific.

Followed Dino Babers (2014–2015) · succeeded by Scot Loeffler (2019–2024).

Season	2016	2017	2018
Record & result
Record	4–8	2–10	2–3
Postseason	—	—	—
Recruiting rank	#111	#81	#91
Style — pass rate
Pass rate	47.2	49.2	49.3
Coordinators
OC	Kevin Kilmer / Andy Padron	Kevin Kilmer / Andy Padron	Kevin Kilmer / Andy Padron
DC	Perry Eliano / Marcus White	Perry Eliano	Carl Pelini
Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile
Offense	11	57	25
Defense	29	7	14
Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only)
1st-down pass%	41.2	46.8	43.1
Red-zone pass%	40.4	55.8	57.5
4th-down go%opp. territory	53.5	24.3	32.0

Does the system survive a coordinator change?

DC: co-Perry Eliano / co-Marcus White → Perry Eliano · 2017

1-season window either side — numbers shown, not enough to badge a verdict.

Where the roster comes from, by position

Grows Tight end from high school

100%

#164 of 188 stints

Grows Edge from high school

100%

#191 of 208 stints

1 NFL Draft pick: Scott Miller (2019)

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