New Additions To Vanderbilt Staff Should Help Mason
Considering the just-completed season for Vanderbilt and head coach Derek Mason, this weekend's announcement of the hiring of Tom Finch and Ted Roof to fill the vacant offensive and defensive coordinator positions for the Commodores, that's homerun news for a program that desperately needs positive.
OFFENSE
Finch comes to the Commodores from Louisiana Tech where he spent the last four seasons on Skip Holtz staff as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. He has a long history of college coaching including stops at Boston College, East Carolina, and South Florida.
During his time in Ruston, his offenses have been part of four consecutive bowl wins, including this season's New Orleans Bowl victory over UAB. His offense ranked 32cd nationally averaging 326.2 yards per game while finishing 26th in scoring at 32.5 ppg as the Bulldogs completed the season 10-3.
"I have followed Todd for several years, and he's consistently developed innovative and productive offensive attacks," Mason said. "I look forward to Todd leading our offense into an exciting future."
Finch certainly has his work cut out for himself at Vanderbilt as he will have to find a quarterback which will likely be one of the three new signees after the announcement earlier this offseason that Mo Hasan was entering the transfer portal.
DEFENSE
Roof is no stranger to the south and the SEC, having served at Auburn as their defensive coordinator during the 2010 season where the Tigers won the national championship behind Cam Newton.
In 2019 his Appalachian State defense finished the season allowing just 20.0 ppg while giving up on average just over 300 yards per game. Both stats placed them in the top-40 nationally as the Mountaineer finished their season 13-1, including an Independence Bowl victory over Miami.
Having 32 years of coaching experience, Roof knows the game and his other stops along with Auburn include Georgia Tech, Penn State, Minnesota, UCF and Duke, where he also was the head coach for four seasons.
"Attracting Ted Roof to join the Commodores as defensive coordinator is a huge win for our program," Mason said.
The Commodores return the majority of their defense from last season, meaning Roof will have some experienced players to choose from when putting together his starting lineup in 2020.
