Report: Stanford Assistant Marc Mattioli to Replace Todd Lyght as Vanderbilt Safeties Coach

According to a coachingsearch.com report, Marc Mattoli is the newest member of the Vanderbilt Football coaching staff. To outlast the guy he replaced, he'll only have to stay there a month.

Mattioli will replace Todd Lyght as the team's safeties coach. Lyght decamped from Nashville after just three+ weeks on the job to return to his alma mater Notre Dame. Though his hiring hasn't been made official yet, he's expected to take over as the Fighting Irish's secondary assistant.

Mattioli has spent the last three years in Palo Alto as a graduate defensive assistant at Stanford. He served under Mason, then the Cardinal's defensive coordinator, in both 2012 and 2013. He's no stranger to the Volunteer State; the young assistant played defensive line at Rhodes College in Memphis for three seasons before graduating in 2009. He also spent two years as defensive line coach for Division III LaGrange College in Georgia.

Mason is hoping that Mattioli will be able to adjust to handle a young core of defensive backs. Vanderbilt will have a pair of seniors to lead the way in Jahmel McIntosh and Andrew Williamson, but the rest of the depth chart is comprised of underclassmen. They'll have to learn quickly if they're going to improve a secondary that finished 110th among FBS teams by forcing only six interceptions last season.

Coincidentally, Notre Dame made headlines this week for its ties to another rising coach that Vanderbilt made a connection with this winter. The Fighting Irish are rumored to be hiring Boise State's Mike Sanford as their offensive coordinator in the near future. Sanford had been offered the same position at Vandy in January, but turned down the Commodores' rumored $700,000 offer to remain at his alma mater.