The Zeitgeist List · Coordinators · Never a head coach

Brian VanGorder.

Defensive coordinator · 6 seasons · 3 stints · 3 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense−0.53not distinguishable from zero
model fit as of 2026-09-04

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 3Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=730n=430n=235Notre Dame, year 1: 11th percentileNotre Dame, year 2: 42nd percentileNotre Dame, year 3: 64th percentileNotre DameLouisville, year 1: 2nd percentileLouisvilleBowling Green, year 1: 5th percentileBowling Green, year 2: 15th percentileBowling Greenmedian still in the job
Notre Dame 2014–2016
Louisville 2018–2018
Bowling Green 2019–2020
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Notre Dame, 3 years
▲ 53.1
10.5 to 63.7 percentile.
Bowling Green, 2 years
▲ 10.4
5.0 to 15.4 percentile.
Median defensive coordinator
+0.5
first season to last, across 235 stints of 3+ years. 50.6% improve at all.

Every stop on the calendar

YearsProgramWalked intoYear 1BestVs. talent
2014–2016Notre Dame74.010.563.7▼ 12.2
2018–2018Louisville51.91.91.9▼ 53.4
2019–2020Bowling Green14.25.015.4▼ 23.6

Notre Dame 2014–2016: ranked 74th the year before he arrived, 64th at its best — went backwards.

Louisville 2018–2018: ranked 52nd the year before he arrived, 2nd at its best — went backwards.

← Back to the Coordinators’ Climb