College Football Coach Hire Grades: Middle Tennessee State

Mid Tenn State Blue Raiders: Derek Mason

Why the job was open: Rick Stockstill had been one of the longest tenured coaches in all of College Football, he coached the Blue Raiders for 18 seasons! You just don’t see that at a CUSA program this day and age. Stockstill made it this long by leading Middle Tennessee to some of their best seasons as a FBS program which included multiple bowl appearances and wins. The program began to lose momentum and backslid to 4-8 in 2023, attendance was low and the program needed a fresh start.

Coach Profile: Derek Mason was a long time position coach who made multiple stops along the way but really showed what he can do in 2011 when he was promoted to co-DC at Stanford, a year later he was promoted to full-time DC. His Stanford defenses were incredibly stingy. That performance led to him getting his first HC opportunity at Vanderbilt. It is a tough job, he had some high points 2 bowl appearances and 3 straight wins (2016-2018) over rival Tennessee, which hadn’t been done since the 1920s, and hasn’t happened once since. Mason couldn’t keep the momentum going in 2019 they fell back to 3-9 and against a SEC only schedule in 2020 they went winless and Mason was let go. He had a couple DC stops since then, but took 2023 off.

Why he will succeed: Nashville is a rapidly growing area which means fertile recruiting territory all around. Tennessee will of course always have first dibs, but thanks to the high academic standards at Vanderbilt there are still good athletes that Middle Tennessee could keep around, this program just needed someone to reignite it. Derek Mason with the energy he brings can be that person, he already coached in the area once so he knows it well. A strong culture and defense are something that Derek Mason is good at building.

What obstacles are in the way of success: Middle Tennessee might be in good recruiting territory but they’re fighting an uphill battle to be relevant in it. Most of the fanbase & alums are apathetic at best toward the program. Derek Mason’s last HC job may have been a difficult one but his 27-55 record is what it is, he’s going to need to convince current, past and future donors that record doesn’t define him. Middle Tennessee is also behind in terms of facilities but they are working to catch up.

Grade: B+ – Logically this grade shouldn’t be this high but something just feels right about this setup. You can point to his record at Vandy and unsuccessful DC trips at Auburn/Oklahoma State as reasons this won’t work and those are valid, but looking at the big picture Vandy is a tough job where it might be impossible to succeed, Auburn was on a dead end at the time and Oklahoma State was in need of a roster shake up to better fit Gundys culture. I still point back to Mason’s time at Stanford as the reason he can succeed. Stanford missed him a lot, once he left was the point where you can notice the Cardinal program going downhill. I think Mason will give the energy this program needs.