The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Doug Ruse.

Offensive coordinator · 6 seasons · 3 stints · 2 programs1 season ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Offense−0.04#297 of 472 · 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 offense’s national rank, by year of tenureYear 1Year 2Year 3Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=691n=405n=203median still in the jobnot a pathGeorgia Southern, year 1: 91st percentileGeorgia Southern, year 2: 79th percentileGeorgia SouthernTulane, year 1: 12th percentileTulane, year 2: 61st percentileTulane, year 3: 33rd percentileTulaneGeorgia Southern, year 1: 12th percentileGeorgia Southern
Georgia Southern 2014–2015
Tulane 2016–2018
Georgia Southern 2021–2021
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Georgia Southern, 2 years
−12.5
91.0 to 78.5 percentile.
Tulane, 3 years
+21.4
12.1 to 33.5 percentile.
Median offensive coordinator
+4.7
first season to last, across 222 stints of 3+ years. 52.7% improve at all.

Every stop on the calendar

YearsProgramWalked intoYear 1BestVs. talent
2014–2015Georgia Southernno record91.091.0+35.4
2016–2018Tulane9.812.161.2−8.3
2021–2021Georgia Southern65.011.911.9−27.2

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

Georgia Southern 2021–2021: ranked 65th the year before he arrived, 12th at its best — went backwards.

← Back to the Coordinators’ Climb