Vanderbilt Football: Derek Mason fired one day after making history

Vanderbilt Football lost its eighth game of the season on Saturday and decide to fire head coach Derek Mason after a disappointing season.

Saturday was quite the day for the Vanderbilt football program. The Commodores made history on Saturday as Sarah Fuller became the first female to play for a Power 5 football program. After it seemed very clear that the Dores weren’t going to get into Fuller’s field goal range, they opted to send her out for the second-half kickoff.

This brought some praise and some flack as Vandy opted for a squib kick instead of the traditional kickoff, but Fuller and Vanderbilt made history regardless of how it happened. Even SEC Shorts was able to have some fun with Fuller’s big day.

Vanderbilt’s history-making weekend overshadowed the 41-0 loss to Missouri to give the Commodores an 0-8 record on the year. With two games remaining in the season, Vanderbilt decided it was time to move on from head coach Derek Mason after seven seasons with the school.

Mason faced a tall task in replacing James Franklin after he left for Penn State. Franklin brought the Commodores to unprecedented success before leaving, and Mason was expected to continue that success. Simply by looking at Vandy’s record this year, it’s obvious he failed at doing that.

In Mason’s seven seasons with Vanderbilt, the Commodores went 27-55 with two bowl appearances where they lost both and an atrocious 10-46 record against SEC opponents. On a positive note for Vanderbilt fans, three of those ten wins can against in-state rival Tennessee.

Now all eyes, or some eyes, will turn to Vanderbilt’s coaching search as they look for their next head coach. Vanderbilt isn’t an easy place to win, but it’s in one of America’s most popular cities at the moment, so some coaches will be looking to head to Nashville for a chance at a big-time coaching job, or maybe looking to return to coaching.