James Franklin Changed Vanderbilt Forever

It looks like Vandy is back to being Vandy.

Through seven games, the Commodores are 2-5, winless in the SEC, and nationally rank near the bottom of every major statistical category.

Their average margin of defeat is 21.5 points, including a 37-7 loss to Temple on opening weekend. And those two wins? A three-point margin over Massachusetts, and a one-point victory over Charleston Southern.

And we shouldn’t be surprised by this, should we? This is the same school that failed to have a winning season from 1983 to 2007. Before 2011, they had never been to bowl games in consecutive seasons.

They’ve never won ten games in a season. Ever. Yet we are surprised. Why?

The man to blame is James Franklin. Franklin came to Vanderbilt before the 2011 season, and in three years, made more progress at the SEC’s “smart school” than any other coach in the program’s long history.

Franklin put Vanderbilt in the top 25 of the final AP poll two years in a row, the best two-year stretch in school history. Under his leadership, the Commodores won nine games in consecutive seasons for the first time ever.

He took Vanderbilt to bowl games in consecutive seasons for the first time ever.

James Franklin made Vanderbilt’s football program respectable. He put Vanderbilt on the map.

It didn’t even take him long to make Vanderbilt relevant, more relevant than it had ever been in college football. In his first season, he took the Commodores to a bowl game. And even though they narrowly lost it, the atmosphere around Vanderbilt had already improved.

James Franklin changed Vanderbilt football forever. He created a new standard for success at a school that found winning football to be a pleasant surprise rather than an expectation.

He was calm, cool, and collected. He was innovative, charismatic, and a great recruiter.

He brought a rare brand of toughness and resiliency to the Commodores that had never been seen before.

Over the course of three seasons, Franklin’s Vanderbilt teams lost 15 games. Of those 15 games, eight of them were against ranked opponents. Two of them were against teams unranked at the time, but went on to win the SEC East (Georgia in 2011, Missouri in 2013).

In both cases, the win over Vanderbilt propelled each team into the top 25 the next week.

During Franklin’s tenure, Vanderbilt had an average margin of defeat of 14.6 points. Take away the eight losses to ranked opponents (six of whom were in the top ten at the time), and the remaining seven were lost by an average of 8.6 points.

Even though they weren’t on the clear road to a championship, the Commodores were competitive under Franklin.

And then Penn State came calling. Despite the appalling Jerry Sandusky scandal, Penn State is still considered a traditional power, a storied football program.

It was the next big step that an aspiring head coach would be foolish not to take, especially with the lifting of Penn State’s postseason ban and restoration of all scholarships in 2015.

Even though he was only at Vanderbilt for three seasons, Franklin left rather large shoes to fill for the next man up.

Enter Derek Mason. After two successful seasons as Stanford’s defensive coordinator, including a finish as a Broyles Award finalist, Mason seemed like a great candidate to make the jump from coordinator to head coach at Vanderbilt.

It worked with Franklin, after all. After spending a total of five seasons at Kansas State and Maryland cultivating explosive offenses, he displayed the kind of energy, passion, and creativity to bring Vanderbilt up to national relevancy.

Sadly, Derek Mason has been unable to follow the same script. Through seven games, he has looked completely in over his head, lacking any sort of confidence.

He can’t get any production out of the quarterback position, and despite playing musical chairs with four different signal-callers. His Commodores have committed more turnovers (17) than scored offensive touchdowns (11).

They’ll be lucky to win one more game, following up a 9-4 season with a 3-9 disaster.

And look no further than James Franklin.

Not only did several recruits follow him away from Vanderbilt to Penn State, he took away that energy and confidence Vanderbilt had been lacking for most of its history.

Both Franklin and Mason are clean-cut, well-spoken individuals. Franklin, however, is the one who knows how to get people excited. He believes in his players and they believe in him, and it reflects on the football field.

He seems like the type of guy you’d want to hang out with for a day.

Mason seems more like the type to throw a quiet dinner party. He clearly knows his X’s and O’s, but he just doesn’t bring that same energy and will to win in the constant underdog role that Franklin seems to carry with him everywhere he goes.

For better or worse, James Franklin altered the Vanderbilt football landscape forever.

Vanderbilt fans and Nashville fans were actually upset that Franklin chose to leave for Penn State, for goodness sakes. Five years ago, any Vanderbilt coach would be considered stupid by Vanderbilt fans for not jumping ship for greener pastures.

James Franklin used Vanderbilt just as any other coach would: as a stepping stone. The difference is that he appeared to be turning them into a real national power just as he left.

To have all of that whisked away in a moment and replaced with the atrocity that Vanderbilt football is now must be a new level of unbearable.

James Franklin transformed the attitude of Vanderbilt, helping the fans to become more involved and generate excitement about the program. He brought a new will to win.

And then, just like that, it was gone.