What MTSU's Derek Mason said about coaching Vanderbilt: Rape case, COVID and Sarah Fuller
It wasn't long ago that Derek Mason's coaching battery had zero charge left in it.
"I was tired," Mason, the new coach of Middle Tennessee State football, told the Daily News Journal. "When you give everything you have to something, it drains you. I was emotionally drained."
A tumultuous ending in November of 2020 to a seven-year run at Vanderbilt took a big toll. Mason thought he could recharge with one-year stints as defensive coordinator at Auburn and Oklahoma State.
"Leaving (Vanderbilt) and going to the next spot, I thought that would fix it," said Mason. "It didn't. I thought going to Oklahoma State could fix it, and it didn't. I still coached good ball. I went to bowl games. But that didn't fix it."
Taking a year off was the charge Mason needed. A year that included traveling around and learning from fellow coaches and friends, doing consultant work and then hitting the broadcast booth re-energized the 54-year old and brought back his thirst for coaching.
"It's fixed," said Mason, who was hired in early December after MTSU fired Rick Stockstill on Nov. 27.
Who is Mason now?
"I've changed. ... I've grown," Mason said. "I look at myself now and can truly say that that first head coaching job ... you're never truly ready for it."
The past decade was one of opportunity, disappointment, beleaguerment and revitalization. Those things shaped the man who will be guiding the Blue Raiders into the 2024 season as only their fourth head coach in 44 years.
Derek Mason's Vanderbilt tenure started amid controversy
Mason's beginning with the Commodores in 2014 was a shaky one. After being hired in late January he admittedly rushed through some integral parts, including hiring staff.
"When you get it wrong because you've rushed through the process, there's residual effects because of that," Mason said. "It was a huge overcorrect that needed to be made. At the end of the season I find myself letting both of my coordinators go. Those were my friends."
He also inherited the controversy surrounding the football program's sexual assault case, which occurred in June 2013 and continued into March 2018 with trials and sentencing for four former players.
"It was a difficult situation to be in," Mason said. "Little did I know (when taking the job) how deep it went. How deeply divided the community would be. How hurt some of those young men in the locker room were because, for those that did not participate in anything, they had still been vilified.
"(The trial) was on my watch. That's something in recruiting I had to really talk to parents about. It made me overcorrect in a lot of different ways, even on our young men. We were having conversations, but they were good conversations to have."
Mason ultimately led Vanderbilt to two bowl games in three years. Then COVID-19 hit.
Derek Mason's last season at Vanderbilt included COVID-19, Sarah Fuller
Many would like to forget 2020, and Mason is certainly no exception.
The Commodores had 16 players opt out of a COVID-19 shortened SEC-only season and the team suffered big loss after big loss. After an 0-7 start, Vanderbilt was in danger of cancelling a Week 8 game at Missouri after losing even more players to the virus and contact tracing.
Vanderbilt was in danger of not having the minimum roster requirement for an SEC game and didn't have a healthy kicker. Sarah Fuller, a member of the Vanderbilt women's soccer team, tried out and joined the football team for the game at Missouri. The decision came with mixed reviews.
Fuller did become the first woman to score in a Power Five football game in the team's finale against Tennessee, but Mason wasn't around to see it. Vanderbilt lost to Missouri 41-0 and he was fired by first-year athletic director Candice Storey Lee upon returning to Nashville.
And there were untimely deaths of people connected to Mason.
Football player Turner Cockrell died of cancer in 2018 and Mason's grandmother died of cancer shortly afterwards. In 2019, former athletic director and friend David Williams died. And in 2020, assistant coach Osia Lewis died of cancer.
"There was just a lot going on," said Mason. "We go through the season, and it's a tough one. A couple of games we were close to not playing, but played."
MORE: MTSU coach Derek Mason's defensive coordinator Brian Stewart had same job in NFL, Big Ten
Different profession a breath of fresh air for Mason
Two years as an assistant under Auburn's Bryan Harsin (2021) and Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy (2022) left Mason run down and needing a change.
"I had reached the point where I was done," Mason said. "I didn't want to look at football, I didn't want to watch football, didn't want to have a conversation about football. I just wanted to look at my health and see if I was OK. Stepping away was probably the hardest thing to do"
He found that spark in being a color analyst for SEC Network during the 2023 season.
"Coolest thing ever," Mason said. "There was that energy again, learning a new skill within football. (Veteran broadcaster) Dave Neal was awesome. I was back with a team. It was a new role, a new responsibility. I had to learn to be coachable."
Mason had the zest to coach again, and MTSU came calling at the perfect time.
But he isn't the same person when he hired by Vanderbilt, and he's far from the individual he was when it ended. Along the way, learning what not to do was as important as learning what to do.
"All these experiences led me to (how I've changed)," he said.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Derek Mason on coaching Vanderbilt: Rape case, COVID, Sarah Fuller
