The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Ed Pinkham.

Defensive coordinator · 5 seasons · 2 stints · 2 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense−0.16#336 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 of that tenure, not calendar yearn=659n=400n=218median still in the jobnot a pathWestern Michigan, year 1: 78th percentileWestern Michigan, year 2: 32nd percentileWestern Michigan, year 3: 35th percentileWestern Mich…Massachusetts, year 1: 57th percentileMassachusetts, year 2: 17th percentileMassachusetts
Western Michigan 2014–2016
Massachusetts 2017–2018
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Western Michigan, 3 years
−43.0
77.7 to 34.8 percentile.
Massachusetts, 2 years
−39.2
56.5 to 17.3 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
2014–2016Western Michiganno record77.777.7−13.5
2017–2018Massachusetts29.356.556.5−6.4

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

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