Vanderbilt Hires James Madison's Mark Byington as Next Head Coach

The only current coaching vacancy in the SEC has been filled. Multiple reports confirm Vanderbilt is hiring Mark Byington to be the Commodores’ head coach. The former James Madison coach replaces Jerry Stackhouse after five seasons in Nashville.

Byington is making the move to the SEC less than 24 hours after James Madison was bounced by Duke in the Round of 32. The Dukes eliminated Wisconsin in dominant fashion Friday night. The double-digit win by the double-digit seed was James Madison’s first NCAA Tournament victory since 1983.

James Madison won a school-record 32 games this season under Byington, which started with a win over preseason No. 4 Michigan State in East Lansing. They won the Sun Belt Conference Tournament with a 20-point victory in the championship game.

Byington compiled an 82-36 record during his four seasons in Harrisonburg. He helped JMU win a share of the CAA regular season title in 2021 and led the school’s transition to the Sun Belt in 2023. Prior to his stint at JMU, Byington was the head coach at Georgia Southern for seven seasons. He also previously served as an assistant at Virginia Tech and Virginia.

Even though Vanderbilt is not the most prolific place to coach any sport (well, except baseball), this was a job that drew significant interest around the coaching carousel. Dusty May was considering the Commodores and the Cardinals before choosing Michigan. Former Louisville head coach Chris Mack was also a candidate. Some even kicked the idea around for John Calipari to take up permanent residence at his Nashville home.

Byington has been tasked to take over a program that has struggled to find an identity since Kevin Stallings surprisingly departed for Pitt. From 2004-2016, Stallings won 20+ games eight times and took Vanderbilt to seven NCAA Tournaments. The Commodores went to a couple of Sweet 16s and knocked off Kentucky in the 2012 SEC Tournament Championship.

Winning at Vanderbilt is hard, but not impossible. We’ll see if Byington can inject some much-needed energy into the SEC cellar-dweller.

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