The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Neal Neathery.

Defensive coordinator · 9 seasons · 2 stints · 2 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.05#181 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 3Year 4Year 5Year 6Year 7Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=659n=400n=218n=122n=67n=39n=25median still in the jobnot a pathUTSA, year 1: 62nd percentileUTSA, year 2: 35th percentileUTSAEastern Michigan, year 1: 19th percentileEastern Michigan, year 2: 59th percentileEastern Michigan, year 3: 84th percentileEastern Michigan, year 4: 12th percentileEastern Michigan, year 5: 15th percentileEastern Michigan, year 6: 19th percentileEastern Michigan, year 7: 23rd percentileEastern Mich…
UTSA 2014–2015
Eastern Michigan 2016–2022
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
UTSA, 2 years
−27.3
62.1 to 34.8 percentile.
Eastern Michigan, 7 years
+4.1
19.1 to 23.3 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
2014–2015UTSAno record62.162.1−5.7
2016–2022Eastern Michigan1.219.184.2−3.7

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

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