The Zeitgeist List · coordinating

Tom Allen

Defensive coordinator across 4 programs, 4 stints, before and after wearing the head-coach hat — every season measured on the same axis, whether he personally ran the unit or someone else did.

100th — best in the country90th — elite — top 10%75th — top quarter50th — national median25th — bottom quarter0 — worst in the countryHis unit’s national rank, by season’14’15’16’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26IndianaIndiana · HEAD COACHPenn StClemson · DC→ BECAME HEAD COACHIndiana, 2017← RETURNED TO COORDINATINGPenn State, 2024South Florida ranked 46th percentile the year before he arrived○ what he walked intoSouth Florida 2015: 72nd percentile nationallyIndiana ranked 18th percentile the year before he arrivedIndiana 2016: 71st percentile nationallyPenn State ranked 98th percentile the year before he arrivedPenn State 2024: 98th percentile nationallyClemson ranked 51st percentile the year before he arrivedClemson 2025: 75th percentile nationallyClemson 2026: 18th percentile nationallyIndiana 2017: 72nd percentile (Mark Hagen ran the unit)Indiana 2018: 32nd percentile (Mark Hagen ran the unit)Indiana 2019: 67th percentile (Kane Wommack ran the unit)Indiana 2020: 83rd percentile (Kane Wommack / Kevin Peoples ran the unit)Indiana 2021: 28th percentile (Charlton Warren / Kevin Peoples ran the unit)Indiana 2022: 26th percentile (Chad Wilt ran the unit)Indiana 2023: 14th percentile (Chad Wilt / Matt Guerrieri ran the unit)98th, career bestPenn State, 202414th percentile
How to read this. Coordinator seasons come from coordinator_journeys(); head-coaching-era seasons are the same unit's FBS-relative percentile for those years, regardless of who coached it, read directly from staff_assignments. A role change (a “hinge”) is a fact, never a performance verdict — only the season-by-season data itself is colored by outcome.