The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Garrett Riley.

Offensive coordinator · 6 seasons · 4 stints · 3 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Offense−0.10#389 of 472 · less than most

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 pathSMU, year 1: 81st percentileSMU, year 2: 77th percentileSMUTCU, year 1: 86th percentileTCUClemson, year 1: 27th percentileClemson, year 2: 83rd percentileClemson, year 3: 54th percentileClemson
SMU 2020–2021
TCU 2022–2022
Clemson 2023–2025
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
SMU, 2 years
−4.2
80.7 to 76.5 percentile.
Clemson, 3 years
+26.6
27.4 to 54.0 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
2020–2021SMU72.780.780.7+27.4
2022–2022TCU68.885.985.9+28.0
2023–2024Clemson52.327.483.2−14.4
2025–2025Clemson83.254.054.0−14.1

Clemson 2025–2025: ranked 83rd the year before he arrived, 54th at its best — went backwards.

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