The Zeitgeist List · coordinating

Zach Arnett

Defensive coordinator across 2 programs, 3 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’14’15’16’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26San Diego State · DCMississippi State · DC→ BECAME HEAD COACHMississippi State, 2023← RETURNED TO COORDINATINGMississippi State, 2026San Diego State ranked 73rd percentile the year before he arrived○ what he walked intoSan Diego State 2018: 57th percentile nationallySan Diego State 2019: 97th percentile nationallyMississippi State ranked 45th percentile the year before he arrivedMississippi State 2020: 65th percentile nationallyMississippi State 2021: 69th percentile nationallyMississippi State 2022: 90th percentile nationallyMississippi State ranked 14th percentile the year before he arrivedMississippi State 2026: 52nd percentile nationallyMississippi State 2023: 73rd percentile (Matt Brock ran the unit)97th, career bestSan Diego State, 201973rd 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.