Vandy Search: Mornin’ Rumors And Views

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According to Eric Prisbell of The Washington Post, Maryland offensive coordinator James Frankin has become a “more serious” candidate for the head coaching job at Vanderbilt.  That’s according to “a source familiar with the search.”

The Post then cites The Tennessean as having listed Todd Graham (HC, Tulsa), Shawn Watson (OC, Nebraska), Don Treadwell (OC, Michigan State), Dave Doeren (DC, Wisconsin), and Greg Roman (OC, Stanford) as potential candidates for the job.

Franklin is currently the coach-in-waiting at Maryland and has a $1 million bonus coming his way if he’s not the Terps’ head coach by 2012.

If Franklin is a serious candidate, Vandy fans need to realize that he’ll be weighing Vandy in 2011 versus Maryland in 2012, in all likelihood.  Which school is the better job?  I’ll leave that up to Vandy fans and everyone else to answer.

Vandy — it is believed — paid Bobby Johnson in the neighborhood of $1 million per season.  But as a private school, their official records are… private.  Maryland currently pays head coach Ralph Friedgen $2,043,306 according to USA Today.

According to some reports, VU is willing to get into the $2 million range for a new head coach.

Al Golden — an early target on Vandy’s wish list — makes just (just) $513,867 at Temple.  Golden is also on the wish list of Miami and now Pittsburgh, following the resignation of Dave Wannstedt.

And in case you’re wondering, Tulsa’s coach Graham currently brings in $804,253.  For his part, Graham played down rumors of his candidacy yesterday.

According to The Tulsa World, Graham said, “It’s very flattering to get people to inquire.  When you got a system that works (at Tulsa) and love where you live… My family loves it here.  I have three kids attending the University of Tulsa.  That’s a pretty good gig.  I think sometimes you can think the grass is greener and you can get humbled in a hurry.”


A few other notes:


* There’s a growing trend in the coaching industry to sign new coaches to longer deals as incentive.  To lure Derek Dooley into the mess at Tennessee, the Vols gave him a six-year deal back in January.  Just this week, Indiana officials gave former Oklahoma offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson a stunning seven-year contract.  That’s a long deal for an assistant who’s just climbing up the coaching ranks.

Long contracts like those insure a coach taking over a troubled program that he’ll have plenty of time to fix things… or receive a major buyout if he’s fired.  Expect Vanderbilt’s new coach to receive a pact of six years or more.


* Shawn Watson — who Mike Rabb of VandySports.com wrote in our comment boxes yesterday is “not and has never been a candidate for the Vanderbilt job.  He didn’t withdraw his name from consideration, it was never in consideration” — actually interviewed for the Vandy job back on Sunday.  That’s according to Rivals’ own Tom Dienhart.  VandySports.com is a Rivals site.  Maybe those guys should email one another and hash things out.


* According to Dienhart, Wisconsin’s Doeren “no longer is part of the process.”


* Vanderbilt vice chancellor David Williams — the man running VU’s search — told The City Paper in Nashville that: “We have to develop the expectation and culture that winning football games is important.  Now, we say it is important, but it is not important enough to not be who we are.  Some people say those things are mutually exclusive.  Well, the last time I looked, Stanford is ranked in the top 20 academically, and in the BCS they are ranked fourth.  So obviously it is not mutually exclusive.  We just have to figure out the formula for us.”

Here’s some help — the last time we looked, Stanford spent $17,236,945 on football in the Pac-10 in 2009-2010.  Vanderbilt spent just $14,152,061 in the much tougher SEC.

Someone can win at Vanderbilt.  Absolutely.  But “the formula” for winning in Nashville includes making an investment into the football program, the coaching staff and Vandy’s facilities.


* Williams told InsideVandy.com that the Commodores’ next coach will “have to be a person who basically is very, very focused on ‘We’re going to win.  We’re going to get it done.’” 

May we suggest Larry the Cable Guy?


* Sifting through all of the above, we’re left with the following reported list of candidates still viable at Vandy:

Todd Graham, Shawn Watson, Don Treadwell and Greg Roman.

And there are still people in Nashville who say Randy Shannon might not be completely off the list at this point.

Stay tuned.  There’s still a lot of smoke out there in Vandy’s search.  Which is probably just how Williams wants it.