The Zeitgeist List · Coordinators · Never a head coach

Joe Rudolph.

Offensive coordinator · 8 seasons · 2 stints · 2 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Offense+0.04not distinguishable from zero
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 3Year 4Year 5Year 6Year 7Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=755n=426n=222n=113n=65n=32Pittsburgh, year 1: 82nd percentilePittsburghWisconsin, year 1: 29th percentileWisconsin, year 2: 75th percentileWisconsin, year 3: 81st percentileWisconsin, year 4: 85th percentileWisconsin, year 5: 89th percentileWisconsin, year 6: 22nd percentileWisconsin, year 7: 44th percentileWisconsinmedian still in the job
Pittsburgh 2014–2014
Wisconsin 2015–2021
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Wisconsin, 7 years
▲ 15.7
28.5 to 44.2 percentile.
Median offensive coordinator
+0.5
first season to last, across 222 stints of 3+ years. 50.9% improve at all.

Every stop on the calendar

YearsProgramWalked intoYear 1BestVs. talent
2014–2014Pittsburgh80.482.482.4—
2015–2021Wisconsin85.528.588.8▲ 3.1
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