The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Bob Shoop.

Defensive coordinator · 6 seasons · 3 stints · 3 programs2 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.03#193 of 458 · a typical amount

The tenure clock

Every stop re-aligned to its own first year, so the stops stack instead of scrolling past each other. The gray dashed line is a reference, not a path: each point is the median of whoever was still in the job that year, across every real OC/DC stint since 2014 at that role, and the pool shrinks year over year because surviving to a later year means not having been fired.

100th — best in the country90th — elite — top 10%75th — top quarter50th — national median25th — bottom quarter0 — worst in the countryHis defense’s national rank, by year of tenureYear 1Year 2Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=659n=400median still in the jobnot a pathPenn State, year 1: 97th percentilePenn State, year 2: 63rd percentilePenn StTennessee, year 1: 41st percentileTennessee, year 2: 40th percentileTennesseeMississippi State, year 1: 99th percentileMississippi State, year 2: 45th percentileMississippi …
Penn State 2014–2015
Tennessee 2016–2017
Mississippi State 2018–2019
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Penn State, 2 years
−34.4
97.3 to 62.9 percentile.
Tennessee, 2 years
−1.4
41.0 to 39.6 percentile.
Mississippi State, 2 years
−53.8
98.8 to 45.0 percentile.
Median defensive coordinator
+1.0
first season to last, across 239 stints of 3+ years. 52.3% improve at all.

Every stop on the calendar

YearsProgramWalked intoYear 1BestVs. talent
2014–2015Penn Stateno record97.397.3+2.5
2016–2017Tennessee76.241.041.0−23.1
2018–2019Mississippi State95.898.898.8+12.1

No prior-season record for the first stop (Penn State, 2014) — the data floor starts there.

Tennessee 2016–2017: ranked 76th the year before he arrived, 41st at its best — went backwards.

← Back to the Coordinators’ Climb