The Zeitgeist List · Coordinators · Never a head coach
Keith Patterson.
Defensive coordinator · 7 seasons · 5 stints · 3 programs1 season ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense−0.61#458 of 458 · less than most
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.
Arizona State 2014–2016
Utah State 2018–2018
Texas Tech 2019–2021
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Arizona State, 3 years
▼ 71.9
79.3 to 7.4 percentile.
Texas Tech, 3 years
▲ 7.7
16.5 to 24.2 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
| Years | Program | Walked into | Year 1 | Best | Vs. talent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014–2015 | Arizona State | 22.0 | 79.3 | 79.3 | ▼ 45.4 |
| 2016–2016 | Arizona State | 12.9 | 7.4 | 7.4 | ▼ 51.4 |
| 2018–2018 | Utah State | 86.5 | 92.7 | 92.7 | ▲ 50.4 |
| 2019–2019 | Texas Tech | 42.7 | 16.5 | 16.5 | ▼ 34.7 |
| 2020–2021 | Texas Tech | 16.5 | 47.6 | 47.6 | ▼ 16.4 |
Arizona State 2016–2016: ranked 13th the year before he arrived, 7th at its best — went backwards.
Texas Tech 2019–2019: ranked 43rd the year before he arrived, 17th at its best — went backwards.