The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Maurice Crum Jr..

Defensive coordinator · 5 seasons · 5 stints · 3 programs1 season ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.06#171 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 pathWestern Kentucky, year 1: 82nd percentileWestern Kentucky, year 2: 63rd percentileWestern Kent…Ole Miss, year 1: 44th percentileOle MissSMU, year 1: 97th percentileSMU, year 2: 89th percentileSMU
Western Kentucky 2020–2021
Ole Miss 2022–2022
SMU 2024–2026
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Western Kentucky, 2 years
−18.8
82.3 to 63.5 percentile.
SMU, 3 years
−7.3
96.6 to 89.3 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
2020–2020Western Kentucky75.882.382.3+36.4
2021–2021Western Kentucky82.363.563.5+15.1
2022–2022Ole Miss62.743.943.9−16.0
2024–2025SMU95.196.696.6+33.5
2026–2026SMUno record

Western Kentucky 2021–2021: ranked 82nd the year before he arrived, 63rd at its best — went backwards.

Ole Miss 2022–2022: ranked 63rd the year before he arrived, 44th at its best — went backwards.

SMU: just hired, no season coached yet.

← Back to the Coordinators’ Climb