Middle Tennessee looks to be set to hire former Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Tuesday night.
Sources: Middle Tennessee has targeted former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason as the school’s new head coach.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 5, 2023
Action Network’s Brent McMurphy followed up on the report a short time later stating that Mason “will be” the next coach at Middle Tennessee.
Former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason will be new coach at Middle Tennessee, source told @ActionNetwork. Mason most recently was defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State in 2022 before taking last season off from coaching
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 5, 2023
Middle Tennessee announced the hiring on Wednesday morning on social media.
We got our guy. Welcome to Middle Tennessee, @CoachDerekMason! 👏
Mason becomes the 15th head coach in Blue Raider Football history.
📰 Details: https://t.co/JYYuPhyWDr pic.twitter.com/BHWzjwMhzq
— Middle Tennessee Football (@MT_FB) December 6, 2023
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Mason was the head coach at Vanderbilt for seven seasons from 2014 to 2020. Mason’s Commodores went 27-55 over the span of his seven-year tenure with losses in both of his bowl appearances for Vanderbilt. While Vanderbilt did not go better than 6-6 in the regular season in any of his years, Mason did lead the Commodores to wins over in-state rival Tennessee three straight years in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Mason’s first road win with Vanderbilt came during his second year when the Commodores went on the road to defeat Middle Tennessee.
Derek Mason was fired from Vanderbilt late in the season after an 0-8 record during the shortened COVID year in 2020.
Mason would land on his feet, though. The former Vanderbilt head coach stayed in the SEC to be Auburn’s defensive coordinator during the 2021 season before moving to Oklahoma State for the same position in 2022.
While Mason did leave the coaching realm during the 2023 season, he didn’t go far from the sport. Mason became part of the SEC Network College Football broadcast team alongside Dave Neal and Taylor Davis. Mason called multiple Tennessee football games this past season including the Vols’ wins over UTSA, UConn, and Vanderbilt from Knoxville.
Middle Tennessee fired former head coach Rick Stockstill on Nov. 27 after an 18-year tenure with the program. Stockstill went 113-111 in his time at Middle Tennessee but struggled this year as the Blue Raiders finished with a 4-8 record on the season. Stockstill had previously been the fourth-longest tenured active coach only trailing Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, Utah’s Kyle Whittingham, and Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy.
Speaking of, Tennessee will take on Kirk Ferentz’s Iowa Hawkeyes on New Year’s Day in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for the latest around the college football world and football in the state of Tennessee.
