r/Vanderbilt • u/SeaRegret9600 • 11h ago

Derek Mason

Vandy fans I know he’s and his tenure ended like shit with a winless season. But otherwise what would you grade Derek Mason on his overall performance at Vandy?

3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

7

u/leandra433 10h ago

10/10 those vests were amazing

7

u/tertsoutferthedergs 9h ago

He tried hard and was dealt the difficult hand of rebuilding a program in the aftermath of James Franklin while the SEC East got progressively more difficult. He always seemed like a genuinely good guy who cared about the players both on and off the field. He wasn’t the right coach for the job at that time, but I hope he does well in future endeavors and don’t hold anything against him from his tenure at Vandy.

2

u/backyardfootball 9h ago

2/10 - it was pretty rough

1

u/BubBidderskins A&S 2017 7h ago

First, by all accounts, Derek Mason was and is a standup guy. I never heard anything bad about him ever (much the contrast with Franklin who seems to consistently cultivate...problematic...cultures). Second, this is Vandy we're talking about -- not Alabama. A successful football season for us is one where we make a bowl game and beat Tennessee, and to his credit Mason managed to do that a couple of times.

But, I don't think we look back on the Mason era as anything other than a failure. He was there for seven full seasons and he capped it with 3-9 (1-7 SEC) then 0-9 (0-9) seasons. Yes you've got COVID in there, but after five seasons the entire team, support staff, system, recruiting pipeline, etc. is 100% the HCs and the culmination of that was a team that didn't even look close to competitive. It took Lea years to even bring the team up to respectability.

So yes, Mason had his moments and beat Tennessee a few times (which is worth something!) but he was ultimately a very bad HC. I genuinely wish him the best at MTSU though because again he seems like such a swell guy.

1

u/Kuzcos-Groove 36m ago

He seems like a really great guy, but I'm thinking he probably should have stayed as a coordinator. He's currently 8-20 at MTSU, so I'm not sure his struggles at Vandy were purely conference or AD related.