The Zeitgeist List · Coordinators · Never a head coach
David Blackwell.
Defensive coordinator · 4 seasons · 3 stints · 3 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense−0.25not 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.
East Carolina 2018–2018
Old Dominion 2019–2019
Louisiana Tech 2020–2021
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Louisiana Tech, 2 years
▲ 5.1
13.8 to 18.8 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
| Years | Program | Walked into | Year 1 | Best | Vs. talent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018–2018 | East Carolina | 0.4 | 25.0 | 25.0 | ▼ 21.2 |
| 2019–2019 | Old Dominion | 40.4 | 41.2 | 41.2 | ▲ 1.4 |
| 2020–2021 | Louisiana Tech | 86.5 | 13.8 | 18.8 | ▼ 31.1 |
Louisiana Tech 2020–2021: ranked 87th the year before he arrived, 19th at its best — went backwards.