The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Dean Kennedy.

Offensive coordinator · 3 seasons · 2 stints · 2 programs1 season ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Offense+0.11#82 of 472 · more than most
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 offense’s national rank, by year of tenureYear 1Year 2Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=749n=434median still in the jobnot a pathJames Madison, year 1: 32nd percentileJames Madison, year 2: 89th percentileJames MadisonUCLA, year 1: 95th percentileUCLA
James Madison 2024–2025
UCLA 2026–2026
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
James Madison, 2 years
+56.1
32.5 to 88.6 percentile.
Median offensive coordinator
−0.6
first season to last, across 222 stints of 3+ years. 48.6% improve at all.

Every stop on the calendar

YearsProgramWalked intoYear 1BestVs. talent
2024–2025James Madison75.632.588.6+26.1
2026–2026UCLA26.194.694.6—
← Back to the Coordinators’ Climb