The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Lorenzo Ward.

Defensive coordinator · 3 seasons · 3 stints · 2 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.05#176 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 of that tenure, not calendar yearn=659n=400median still in the jobnot a pathSouth Carolina, year 1: 23rd percentileSouth Carolina, year 2: 14th percentileSouth Caroli…Fresno State, year 1: 43rd percentileFresno State
South Carolina 2014–2015
Fresno State 2016–2016
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
South Carolina, 2 years
−8.6
23.0 to 14.5 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
2014–2014South Carolinano record23.023.0
2015–2015South Carolina23.014.514.5−45.6
2016–2016Fresno State16.042.642.6−1.2

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

South Carolina 2015–2015: ranked 23rd the year before he arrived, 14th at its best — went backwards.

← Back to the Coordinators’ Climb