The Zeitgeist List · coordinators · never a head coach

Todd Grantham.

Defensive coordinator · 9 seasons · 5 stints · 5 programs2 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.35#31 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 pathLouisville, year 1: 90th percentileLouisville, year 2: 75th percentileLouisville, year 3: 86th percentileLouisvilleMississippi State, year 1: 96th percentileMississippi StateFlorida, year 1: 82nd percentileFlorida, year 2: 80th percentileFlorida, year 3: 28th percentileFlorida, year 4: 60th percentileFloridaOklahoma State, year 1: 17th percentileOklahoma StateUAB: just hired
Louisville 2014–2016
Mississippi State 2017–2017
Florida 2018–2021
Oklahoma State 2025–2025
UAB 2026–2026
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Louisville, 3 years
−4.7
90.2 to 85.5 percentile.
Florida, 4 years
−22.3
81.9 to 59.6 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
2014–2016Louisvilleno record90.290.2+23.8
2017–2017Mississippi State18.495.895.8+36.8
2018–2021Florida60.481.981.9−0.9
2025–2025Oklahoma State4.916.516.5−37.3
2026–2026UABno record

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

UAB: just hired, no season coached yet.

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