The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Luke Olson.

Defensive coordinator · 4 seasons · 3 stints · 3 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.19#96 of 458 · more than most
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 defense’s national rank, by year of tenureYear 1Year 2Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=721n=435median still in the jobnot a pathTulsa, year 1: 41st percentileTulsaJacksonville State, year 1: 49th percentileJacksonville StateLouisiana Tech, year 1: 69th percentileLouisiana Tech, year 2: 87th percentileLouisiana Te…
Tulsa 2022–2022
Jacksonville State 2024–2024
Louisiana Tech 2025–2026
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Louisiana Tech, 2 years
+17.8
69.5 to 87.3 percentile.
Median defensive coordinator
−1.5
first season to last, across 239 stints of 3+ years. 48.1% improve at all.

Every stop on the calendar

YearsProgramWalked intoYear 1BestVs. talent
2022–2022Tulsa76.540.840.8−5.8
2024–2024Jacksonville State94.448.948.9+14.9
2025–2026Louisiana Tech75.069.587.3+30.6

Tulsa 2022–2022: ranked 77th the year before he arrived, 41st at its best — went backwards.

Jacksonville State 2024–2024: ranked 94th the year before he arrived, 49th at its best — went backwards.

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