The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach
Pete Kwiatkowski.
Defensive coordinator · 12 seasons · 5 stints · 2 programs4 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.19#90 of 458 · more 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.
Washington 2014–2020
Texas 2021–2025
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Washington, 7 years
−23.8
81.6 to 57.9 percentile.
Texas, 5 years
+33.3
29.6 to 62.9 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
| Years | Program | Walked into | Year 1 | Best | Vs. talent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014–2015 | Washington | no record | 81.6 | 90.2 | +32.2 |
| 2016–2019 | Washington | 90.2 | 94.9 | 95.8 | +28.6 |
| 2020–2020 | Washington | 95.8 | 57.9 | 57.9 | −3.5 |
| 2021–2023 | Texas | 63.4 | 29.6 | 81.6 | −4.7 |
| 2024–2025 | Texas | 81.6 | 94.4 | 94.4 | +9.1 |
No prior-season record for the first stop (Washington, 2014) — the data floor starts there.
Washington 2020–2020: ranked 96th the year before he arrived, 58th at its best — went backwards.