The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Chuck Heater.

Defensive coordinator · 6 seasons · 2 stints · 2 programs1 season ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.01#210 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 3Year 4Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=659n=400n=218n=122median still in the jobnot a pathMarshall, year 1: 86th percentileMarshall, year 2: 91st percentileMarshall, year 3: 21st percentileMarshall, year 4: 80th percentileMarshallColorado State, year 1: 78th percentileColorado State, year 2: 33rd percentileColorado State
Marshall 2014–2017
Colorado State 2020–2021
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Marshall, 4 years
−5.9
85.5 to 79.6 percentile.
Colorado State, 2 years
−44.9
78.3 to 33.5 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
2014–2017Marshallno record85.591.0+15.7
2020–2021Colorado State48.878.378.3+11.0

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

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