Vandy goes for experience hiring Fitch, Roof as coordinators

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason has hired a trio of new assistants led by new offensive coordinator Todd Fitch and defensive coordinator Ted Roof.

Mason also announced Saturday that Peter Rossomando is the Commodores‘ new offensive line coach.

Fitch is a 35-year veteran of college football who spent the past four seasons at Louisiana Tech. He also has been offensive coordinator at Boston College, East Carolina where he coached Chris Johnson and South Florida. He worked with Skip Holtz at Louisiana Tech, East Carolina and South Florida.

He’s also coached at Iowa State, South Carolina, Connecticut, Colorado State, West Virginia, Bowling Green and his alma mater Ohio Wesleyan.

“I have followed Todd for several years and he’s consistently developed innovative and productive offensive attacks,” Mason said. “I look forward to Todd leading our offense into an exciting future.”

Louisiana Tech went 10-3 this season capped by a shutout win over Miami in the Independence Bowl after ranking 36th in the country scoring 32.5 points a game and 37th in total offense (436.8 yards per game).

Roof leaves Appalachian State where the Mountaineers went 13-1 and finished ranked in the Top 25 with a defense ranked in the top 25 of many categories. With 32 years of experience, he was coordinator when Auburn won the national title for the 2010 season. and has been coordinator at Georgia Tech, Penn State, Minnesota, UCF and Duke where he also was head coach for four seasons.

He was co-defensive coordinator at North Carolina State in 2018.

“Attracting Ted Roof to join the Commodores as defensive coordinator is a huge win for our program,” Mason said.

Vanderbilt confirmed Dec. 28 that Mason was replacing both his coordinators after a 3-9 season.

Rossamondo was offensive line coach at Rutgers in 2019 and was head coach at Central Connecticut State between 2014-18 and head coach at New Haven.