Attention coaching candidates at Vanderbilt -- Only the top three-percent need apply

A 19th consecutive losing football season for the Vanderbilt Commodores is drifting surely and firmly toward the horizon like a setting sun. Unlike common science, however, it is an occurrence that does not have to remain so constant and predictable. Vandy can and should be more successful.

Above all, it needs to be established and agreed upon as to what would constitute a "successful" football program at the university. Vanderbilt, the only private school in the conference, has a limited capacity enrollment and stricter admission standards than other conference members. Recruiting even mid-level conference players on a steady basis has long been a problem. A 6-5 ledger once every four or five yearly schedules, along with a few five-season wins and an occasional upset, seems a reasonable standard.

Vanderbilt can get the right head football coach to make this happen, if the powers in charge resort to a form of minimalism. In all professions, whether it as a welder, bowler, salesperson, or songwriter, there is always an upper three-percent of individuals who are vastly superior to all others in their craft. Most are known and some are not yet known. This highly skilled group does not remain static. Some retire, die, or otherwise lose motivation. Identifying those striving to take their places is more difficult than verifying those already there. Former Houston Oilers Coach Bum Phillips may have summed it up best in describing Coach Don Shula: "He can take his'n and whip yer'n, and he can take yer'n and whip his'n."

Using this liberal rule of minimalism as a benchmark, current coach Woody Widenhofer, and those who recently preceded him -- Rod Dowhower, Gerry DiNardo, and Watson Brown -- did not meet the criteria. None were ironclad, proven head coaches, nor were they clearly estimated to be candidates approaching the status of the upper three-percent of all head coaches. Of the group, Brown, because he was the youngest and had the least experience, was a chancy pick. Young coaches nearly always are. Vanderbilt has no room for error when it comes time to pick its next coach. Another failed tenure will just fuel the perception that no coach can win at the school.

Selling the city to a proper coaching candidate would, perhaps, amount to the easiest task. Nashville, generally regarded as a pleasurable, livable metropolis, has the prestige of being the state's capital city. It has enjoyed a healthy rate of high employment. It swells with historical sites and landmarks. It provides big city amenities with small town charm. It is on the world map as a hotbed for a diverse blend of country and cutting-edge music. Its multitude of private schools ranging from elementary to those of higher learning has few comparisons.

Another positive inducement is even stronger. The Vanderbilt Commodores are a member of the elite Southeastern Conference (SEC). As a member, Vanderbilt plays host annually to rich, traditional power teams, fielded from schools such as Florida, Georgia, Alabama, LSU, and Tennessee, all of whom always bring along huge crowds of their own. Playing against such high-profile teams is a recruiting boost. College football is a Southern tradition, rampant with rivalries, extreme tailgating activities and shameless pageantry. No matter who is involved in the matchup, there is no excitement to quite match the thrill in rooting on the home team to victory.

In recent years, however, the older fan base has eroded and younger fans have shied away. The frustrations involved with continuous defeats can mind-numb the most hardy. A Vandy student during the long ago Bill Wade era, George Cole, said to me, "Vanderbilt makes a big deal every year about all the big-name recruits they get, yet nothing changes. It makes me feel that they could have done just as well by recruiting only local players."

While plenty may disagree with Cole's assessment, it does seem strange that sheer odds, if nothing else, should have produced some better results.

Losing football teams are deeply entrenched as a tradition at Vanderbilt, where even last-place finishes are a means of providing a lucrative payoff to the school, thanks to the SEC's generous method of splitting up revenues.

Until very recently, no voice of concern had rattled from the school's administrative hierarchy. That has changed since E. Gordon Gee was named chancellor of the school last year. He has been vocal in emphasizing that he expects all sports teams at Vanderbilt to perform to a high degree of excellence.

He needs to redefine his message more clearly as nothing less than a minimum requirement.