Derek Mason is returning to Vanderbilt for a seventh year, Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports reported today which means good things for the Notre Dame football program.
You may be asking or saying to yourself “How the heck does it matter, they play Vandy once every 20 years or so, if that, so it’s not like an easy win is coming anytime soon for the Irish…”
Not that the last two times the two met were any walks-in-the-park for Old Notre Dame.
What it means for Notre Dame is that defensive coordinator Clark Lea won’t be leaving to take that head coaching vacancy that many feared he would.
Lea walked onto the football team at Vanderbilt after spending time early in college playing baseball at a couple of smaller schools. He wound up at Notre Dame as linebackers coach in 2017 before taking over the defensive coordinator position a year later.
With the success Lea’s defenses have had at Notre Dame the link to him taking a next step and becoming a head coach, specifically at his alma mater is obvious.
Right now the Notre Dame defense ranks in the top-20 nationally in fewest points per game, fewest yards per play, third down conversion percentage, passing yards per game, completion percentage and yards per pass-attempt.
As frustrating as the run defense was at times this year, you can’t argue the unit overall has produced yet again.
Sources: Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason will return next year.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 19, 2019
This isn’t an athletic director giving out a “yeah, we love him, he’s our coach” type of line, it’s an actual report that Mason will be back at Vanderbilt, who currently sits 2-8.
Which means Lea should in all-likelihood be back at Notre Dame in 2020, a great thing for the program.