The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Marcel Yates.

Defensive coordinator · 6 seasons · 3 stints · 2 programs1 season ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense−0.18#367 of 458 · 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 defense’s national rank, by year of tenureYear 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=659n=400n=218n=122median still in the jobnot a pathBoise State, year 1: 85th percentileBoise State, year 2: 92nd percentileBoise StateArizona, year 1: 14th percentileArizona, year 2: 11th percentileArizona, year 3: 34th percentileArizona, year 4: 16th percentileArizona
Boise State 2014–2015
Arizona 2016–2019
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Boise State, 2 years
+7.0
84.8 to 91.8 percentile.
Arizona, 4 years
+1.3
14.5 to 15.8 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
2014–2015Boise Stateno record84.891.8+39.2
2016–2018Arizona15.214.534.2−34.0
2019–2019Arizona34.215.815.8−34.9

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

Arizona 2019–2019: ranked 34th the year before he arrived, 16th at its best — went backwards.

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