The Zeitgeist List · Coordinators · Never a head coach

Joe Gillespie.

Defensive coordinator · 5 seasons · 2 stints · 2 programs1 season ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.35not 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 3Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=730n=430n=235Tulsa, year 1: 55th percentileTulsa, year 2: 99th percentileTulsa, year 3: 73rd percentileTulsaTCU, year 1: 35th percentileTCU, year 2: 40th percentileTCUmedian still in the job
Tulsa 2019–2021
TCU 2022–2023
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Tulsa, 3 years
▲ 17.7
55.0 to 72.7 percentile.
TCU, 2 years
▲ 4.7
35.5 to 40.2 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
2019–2021Tulsa51.955.098.8▲ 29.7
2022–2023TCU6.535.540.2▼ 21.2
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