Vanderbilt on Saturday made three additions to Derek Mason‘s coaching staff, among them new defensive coordinator Ted Roof.
Roof went 6-45 as Duke’s head coach from 2003-07. He’s made his hay in the coaching world as a defensive coordinator, and Vanderbilt’s will become the 11th defense for him to coordinate (and that doesn’t count his second stint at Georgia Tech). He spent 2018 on the Sun Belt championship staff at Appalachian State, though Mountaineers head coach Eli Drinkwitz did not bring him along to SEC East rival Missouri.
“I am very excited to bring Ted to West End to direct the Vanderbilt defense,” Mason said. “I have a great deal of admiration for Ted’s knowledge, successful experience as a coordinator and his ability to guide his defensive units. Attracting Ted Roof to join the Commodores as defensive coordinator is a huge win for our program.”
In addition to Roof, Todd Fitch is now Vanderbilt’s offensive coordinator and Peter Rossomando the Commodores’ offensive line coach.
“Todd Fitch has a reputation as one of the nation’s top offensive minds and coordinators and I’m very pleased to welcome him to the Commodore family,” Mason said. “Todd is a tremendous addition to the Vanderbilt family. I have followed Todd for several years and he’s consistently developed innovative and productive offensive attacks. I look forward to Todd leading our offense into an exciting future.”
Fitch spent the past four seasons coordinating offenses for Louisiana Tech, and he’s previously served as the coordinator at East Carolina, South Florida and Boston College.
Rossomando spent 2019 as the offensive line coach at Rutgers. Prior to that, he spent five seasons as the head coach at Central Connecticut State.
Vanderbilt went 3-9 (1-7 SEC) in 2019. The ‘Dores ranked 121st in yards per play and 117th in yards per play allowed.