The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Mike Bajakian.

Offensive coordinator · 7 seasons · 4 stints · 4 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Offense−0.21#462 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 3Year 4Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=691n=405n=203n=102median still in the jobnot a pathTennessee, year 1: 40th percentileTennesseeBoston College, year 1: 52nd percentileBoston CollegeNorthwestern, year 1: 23rd percentileNorthwestern, year 2: 11th percentileNorthwestern, year 3: 2nd percentileNorthwestern, year 4: 21st percentileNorthwesternMassachusetts, year 1: 1st percentileMassachusetts
Tennessee 2014–2014
Boston College 2019–2019
Northwestern 2020–2023
Massachusetts 2025–2025
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Northwestern, 4 years
−2.6
23.2 to 20.7 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
2014–2014Tennesseeno record40.240.2
2019–2019Boston College9.651.951.9+1.8
2020–2023Northwestern8.823.223.2−39.9
2025–2025Massachusetts50.41.11.1−36.0

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

Massachusetts 2025–2025: ranked 50th the year before he arrived, 1st at its best — went backwards.

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