The Zeitgeist List · Coordinators · Never a head coach

Tyrone Nix.

Defensive coordinator · 4 seasons · 3 stints · 2 programs0 seasons ranked in the national top 10%
Own effect on the unit
Defense−0.16not 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=235Middle Tennessee, year 1: 27th percentileMiddle Tennessee, year 2: 74th percentileMiddle Tennessee, year 3: 16th percentileMiddle Tenne…UTSA, year 1: 51st percentileUTSAmedian still in the job
Middle Tennessee 2014–2016
UTSA 2020–2020
Median of those still in the job, that year of a tenure. A shrinking pool, not a path.
Middle Tennessee, 3 years
▼ 10.9
27.0 to 16.0 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
2014–2015Middle Tennessee21.227.073.8▲ 27.4
2016–2016Middle Tennessee73.816.016.0▼ 29.8
2020–2020UTSA35.850.850.8▲ 4.3

Middle Tennessee 2016–2016: ranked 74th the year before he arrived, 16th at its best — went backwards.

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