Middle Tennessee hires former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason
Mason has also coached at Stanford, Auburn and Oklahoma State
Middle Tennessee has found its replacement for longtime coach Rick Stockstill.
The school announced Wednesday morning that former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason would take over as head coach. Mason spent the 2023 season working as an analyst for the SEC Network.
Mason spent seven seasons as Vanderbilt’s head coach from 2014-20 after serving as Stanford’s defensive coordinator. Mason was hired to replace James Franklin when Franklin went to Penn State.
Vanderbilt went 27-55 during Mason’s tenure and made it to two bowl games. The Commodores finished 6-7 in both of those seasons and failed to record a winning season while Mason was there. He was fired after an 0-8 season in 2020 and replaced by former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea.
MTSU was in the market for a new coach for the first time in nearly two decades after parting ways with Stockstill at the end of the regular season. Stockstill had been Middle Tennessee’s coach since 2006 and the Blue Raiders had gone to 10 bowl games during his tenure. However, the school made the decision at the end of the season to part ways with Stockstill after a 4-8 campaign prevented MTSU from going to a bowl game for a third straight season.
"This is an emotional moment for me," Mason said in a statement. "This is the house that Rick Stockstill built and he left good bones and a strong foundation. He did a lot to raise and encourage these young men and help them take the journey. Now, that responsibility has been passed down to me. It's about winning and making sure we can do everything we can to resource our student-athletes in a way to make them successful both on and off the field."
After leaving Vanderbilt, Mason served as the defensive coordinator at Auburn in 2021 under coach Bryan Harsin. He spent just a season with the Tigers after Auburn went 6-7 and became the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State in 2022.
He spent only one season in Stillwater as well. Oklahoma State gave up 29 points per game in 2022 as it went 7-6. Mason stepped down in January and said he was taking a sabbatical from coaching as he was hired by ESPN to work for the SEC Network ahead of the 2023 season.
