The Zeitgeist List · Coordinators · Never a head coach

Chris Ball.

Defensive coordinator · 5 seasons · 2 stints · 2 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense−0.10not 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=235Arizona State, year 1: 79th percentileArizona State, year 2: 13th percentileArizona StateMemphis, year 1: 28th percentileMemphis, year 2: 31st percentileMemphis, year 3: 39th percentileMemphismedian still in the job
Arizona State 2014–2015
Memphis 2016–2018
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Arizona State, 2 years
▼ 66.4
79.3 to 12.9 percentile.
Memphis, 3 years
▲ 11.1
27.7 to 38.8 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
2014–2015Arizona State22.079.379.3▼ 45.4
2016–2018Memphis57.427.738.8▼ 15.7

Memphis 2016–2018: ranked 57th the year before he arrived, 39th at its best — went backwards.

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