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5 candidates for Vanderbilt football coach if Derek Mason is fired

By Brad Berreman

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 09: Head coach Derek Mason of the Vanderbilt Commodores watches the action during the game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on November 09, 2019 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 09: Head coach Derek Mason of the Vanderbilt Commodores watches the action during the game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on November 09, 2019 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /
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Mandatory Credit: Silas Walker/Getty Images
Mandatory Credit: Silas Walker/Getty Images /

4. Will Healy, Charlotte head coach

Healy is in his first year as head coach at Charlotte, with a 5-5 record and a three-game winning streak going right now. He spent the previous three seasons at Austin Peay, where the Governors had won just one of the previous 35 games before he arrived. After an 0-11 mark in 2016, the team went 8-4 in 2017 (7-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference) before fading to 5-6 in 2018. But that three-season resume as a head coach was enough to bump him up to a Group of 5 job, where he replaced Brad Lambert, the first coach in Charlotte’s football program history.

Healy is just 34 years old, but he got his start as an assistant at Chattanooga in 2009 and remained there through 2015. He’s sure to rise in profile if the 49ers make some real hay in Conference USA, but that may be a year out at least. Leaving after just one year for any other job, barring a high-profile school coming calling, would feel like taking a job just to take a different job when he’s in no danger of being fired.

But it can’t hurt Vanderbilt to try, and it’s safe to assume Healy will be on Turner’s list of potential candidates to replace Mason. Maybe he’ll say yes the job, and that chance (however remote it might seem) puts the young Charlotte head man on this list.

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