With the dust settled after the first day of the early signing period, Vanderbilt’s recruiting class currently ranks 29th nationally on Rivals and 47th on 247 Sports. This, in spite of the fact that Vanderbilt fired head coach Derek Mason two weeks ago and didn’t officially announce Clark Lea as his replacement until Monday. Uh, how does that happen?
Well, it seems, perhaps, that Derek Mason’s recruiting pitch of selling the university more than himself and the football program left Vanderbilt with a lot of recruits who were committed to Vanderbilt rather than a specific coach.