The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Scott Symons.

Defensive coordinator · 7 seasons · 4 stints · 2 programs2 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.27#55 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.

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 pathLiberty, year 1: 43rd percentileLiberty, year 2: 51st percentileLiberty, year 3: 68th percentileLibertySMU, year 1: 10th percentileSMU, year 2: 95th percentileSMU, year 3: 97th percentileSMU, year 4: 89th percentileSMU
Liberty 2019–2021
SMU 2022–2025
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Liberty, 3 years
+24.6
43.5 to 68.1 percentile.
SMU, 4 years
+79.0
10.3 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
2019–2020Liberty30.443.550.8+18.6
2021–2021Liberty50.868.168.1+36.3
2022–2023SMU20.410.395.1−1.2
2024–2025SMU95.196.696.6+33.5
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