The Zeitgeist List · Coordinators · Never a head coach

Kevin Steele.

Defensive coordinator · 8 seasons · 4 stints · 4 programs2 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense+0.09not 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 4Year 5Year of that tenure, not calendar yearn=730n=430n=235n=124n=76LSU, year 1: 71st percentileLSUAuburn, year 1: 75th percentileAuburn, year 2: 93rd percentileAuburn, year 3: 83rd percentileAuburn, year 4: 93rd percentileAuburn, year 5: 18th percentileAuburnMiami, year 1: 45th percentileMiamiAlabama, year 1: 73rd percentileAlabamamedian still in the job
LSU 2015–2015
Auburn 2016–2020
Miami 2022–2022
Alabama 2023–2023
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Auburn, 5 years
▼ 57.7
75.4 to 17.7 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
2015–2015LSU91.071.571.5▲ 3.7
2016–2020Auburn78.575.493.5▲ 8.4
2022–2022Miami61.945.445.4▼ 17.7
2023–2023Alabama91.272.672.6▼ 2.5

LSU 2015–2015: ranked 91st the year before he arrived, 71st at its best — went backwards.

Miami 2022–2022: ranked 62nd the year before he arrived, 45th at its best — went backwards.

Alabama 2023–2023: ranked 91st the year before he arrived, 73rd at its best — went backwards.

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