Bob Lopez

Bob Lopez has served as director of football operations at Vanderbilt since November 2022.

Lopez joined Vanderbilt following two and a half years at Colorado as the program’s general manager. In his role at Colorado, Lopez supported the head coach in all areas of strategic planning, hiring, oversight, management and relationship building. The role also oversaw player personnel, the creative services staff and recruiting functions, including scouting, communications and on-campus recruiting.

Before his time in Boulder, Lopez spent two-plus years as associate athletics director for sport administration and student services at Delaware. He was involved in all varsity sports for the Blue Hens, with a focus on team operations and student-athlete engagements. He was also responsible for leading the Sport Administration group.

Lopez spent seven-plus years at Michigan prior to his time in Delaware. He initially joined the Wolverines as director of football operations and was later promoted to assistant athletic director for football. For the final three years, he worked with nine sports as a Sport Administrator.

While as Michigan, he worked with men’s and women’s cross country and track and field, men’s basketball, women’s field hockey, men’s gymnastics and men’s and women’s tennis while in Ann Arbor. His stint at Michigan followed three years as director of football operations at San Diego State and five years in the same role at UCLA.

Lopez spent 12 seasons in coaching, including time as the head coach and athletics director at Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College from 1983-87. He also served as an assistant coach at Arizona Western and Northern Arizona after coaching at the high school level at Loyola Academy in suburban Chicago.

Before committing to a career in athletic administration, Lopez worked in admissions and enrollment managerment at Northern Arizona, Peru State College and Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

As a student-athlete, Lopez was a quarterback at Illinois State from 1973-76. He was a two-time captain and set a program record for passing yards as a senior. He earned two degrees at ISU, first his undergraduate degree in health and physical education in 1977, followed by a master’s degree in educational administration in 1979.

Lopez was born in Tacoma, Washington, but grew up in Illinois where he graduated from Chicago’s Mendel Catholic Prep. He and his wife, Nancy, have two sons and six grandchildren.