Fact: with a single exception, Vanderbilt has given every coach it’s ever employed a fourth year.
Last week, I watched the 1996 game between our Vanderbilt Commodores and those who shall not be named, which was Rod Dowhower’s final game as Vanderbilt’s head coach. (It’s available on YouTube, if your morbid curiosity about that era gets the better of you.) Dowhower’s “offense” looked like what would happen if you gave Karl Dorrell a frontal lobotomy. Midway through the second quarter, ESPN flashed a graphic on the screen that read “Vanderbilt Offense: First Downs - 0; Total Yards - 1.