The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

John Donovan.

Offensive coordinator · 4 seasons · 2 stints · 2 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Offense−0.19#456 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 of that tenure, not calendar yearn=691n=405median still in the jobnot a pathPenn State, year 1: 4th percentilePenn State, year 2: 31st percentilePenn StWashington, year 1: 56th percentileWashington, year 2: 10th percentileWashington
Penn State 2014–2015
Washington 2020–2021
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Penn State, 2 years
+27.3
3.5 to 30.9 percentile.
Washington, 2 years
−45.9
55.5 to 9.6 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
2014–2015Penn Stateno record3.530.9−30.2
2020–2021Washington47.355.555.5−29.7

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

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