The Zeitgeist List · Coordinators · Never a head coach

Tom Mason.

Defensive coordinator · 4 seasons · 3 stints · 3 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense−0.12not distinguishable from zero
model fit as of 2026-09-04

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 of that tenure, not calendar yearn=730n=430SMU, year 1: 13th percentileSMUHawai'i, year 1: 23rd percentileHawai'iUTEP, year 1: 25th percentileUTEP, year 2: 27th percentileUTEPmedian still in the job
SMU 2014–2014
Hawai'i 2015–2015
UTEP 2016–2017
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
UTEP, 2 years
▲ 1.1
25.4 to 26.5 percentile.
Median defensive coordinator
+0.5
first season to last, across 235 stints of 3+ years. 50.6% improve at all.

Every stop on the calendar

YearsProgramWalked intoYear 1BestVs. talent
2014–2014SMU46.012.912.9—
2015–2015Hawai'i25.423.023.0▼ 20.5
2016–2017UTEP64.525.426.5▼ 6.4

SMU 2014–2014: ranked 46th the year before he arrived, 13th at its best — went backwards.

Hawai'i 2015–2015: ranked 25th the year before he arrived, 23rd at its best — went backwards.

UTEP 2016–2017: ranked 64th the year before he arrived, 27th at its best — went backwards.

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