Oct. 8, 2015
First-year assistant coach Marc Mattioli returns to the South to coach the safeties at Vanderbilt after three seasons at Stanford. With the Cardinal, he was a defensive graduate assistant for two years under current Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason. Mattioli, a native of Roswell, Ga., went to college just down the road at Rhodes College in Memphis, where he made the SCAC All-Academic Team four times and graduated with a degree in political science.
Commodore Nation: What excited you about working at Vanderbilt?
Marc Mattioli: Just an awesome opportunity. A chance to coach at a young age, in the SEC. Having that pre-existing relationship with Coach Mason I knew what I was getting into as far as the guy I was going to work for. He has been probably my biggest mentor up to this date, as a coach – both professionally and personally. Great coach, great person. Family man. Just the type of person I want to be associated with. It was really a no-brainer anyways because of the conference and the opportunity. But having that, to work for a guy I knew, and a guy I really respect who has been a big part of my career so far just sealed the deal.
Commodore Nation: How nice is it to come back home to the South?
Marc Mattioli: It is awesome. We’re actually Yankees – I was born in New York but moved down to Georgia when I was a kid. So all my immediate family is back in Georgia and it is real nice they can drive up to a game and I can go down to see them if I have a free weekend. So it is really nice. Really nice to have the comforts of the South – the food, the music. It is nice to be back. Nashville is the best place you could ask for to live as a 20-something-year-old person. It is great. It is awesome. Like I said, I loved my time out west, wouldn’t trade it for the world. But definitely glad to be back down south.
Commodore Nation: Did you always want to coach?
Marc Mattioli: I didn’t know I really wanted to coach until my senior year of college. I played football at Rhodes and Memphis. I was figuring out exactly what I wanted to do with life. And then that year I couldn’t get a job coaching. It didn’t work out. So I actually worked at a law firm for a year. I thought I might want to be a lawyer. I took the LSAT and was going to apply to law school. Then I just had the burning desire that I missed the game. I missed being around it. I knew that if I went down a different career path it would be hard for me later in life to get back into coaching. At that time, I was young and didn’t have any money anyway. So I figured, ‘Hey, why not go and GA somewhere and see if I like it?’ Sure enough, I did (become a graduate assistant at LaGrange College in Georgia) and never really looked back. Now, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I think I have the best job in the world. I think I’m one of the luckiest people in the world. Just absolutely love doing what I do.
Commodore Nation: What is your coaching philosophy?
Marc Mattioli: My philosophy would be being a smart player, giving great effort, being a physical player and being a playmaker. That is my philosophy as far as what I am constantly preaching to our guys. In order to get that (as a coach), I think guys need to know I can help them and make them a better player and that I care about them. If I can convey those two things that they are better off with me than without me and that I truly care about them not just as a player, but as an individual, as a young man… Those are the two things I really focus on conveying them to every day – that I help them and that I care.
Commodore Nation: Similarly to Stanford, do you feel student-athletes at Vanderbilt challenge you and make you better every day?
Marc Mattioli: Honestly, that is one of my favorite parts about working at places like Stanford or Vanderbilt is the type of kids you get – smart kids, kids who can handle a lot of information. As a coach, that makes it fun because you can coach them up and tell them different things. They retain information better than some people at other places. Book smarts doesn’t always necessarily translate over to football smarts. I think football IQ is something separate than being a good student. I do believe that we have guys who have high football IQs or they wouldn’t be there. So when you get guys like that they are fun to coach. It is cool being around guys who have more going on in their life than just football. These guys all have internships, different majors, talk about what they want to do with life after football. It is just enjoyable to be around guys like that. They are more dynamic and deeper people than somebody who only cares about football.
Commodore Nation: Was football always the one sport for you?
Marc Mattioli: I always played football but I played three sports in high school. I was a wrestler (qualifying twice for the state meet) and played lacrosse as well. I really loved being a multi-sport athlete. I always encourage kids now to play more than one sport because it is getting really specialized and focused now in high school. It is good in some ways from a physical development standpoint; you can train year-round. But the thing that playing multiple sports does in my opinion, from my own experience, it just teaches kids how to compete in different elements. We’re going to develop your body the way we want it and teach the techniques we want taught. But the innate part of what we get when a kid comes to us, the part that is already there, is does he love to compete? Does he love to work? Does he love to be a part of a team? Playing multiple sports teaches a different sport, a different craft but it just instills those kinds of qualities of competition and teamwork in a different context. That builds up what a kid might be by the time he gets to us.
