Derek Mason
Followed Rick Stockstill. Derek Mason slid Middle Tennessee from Regional Program III to Regional Program IV in 3 seasons.
In his own words
He [Lacy] bought into what we were talking about
He takes care of the ball
We’re going to get a Murray State team that’s hungry, they play hard
He’s bratty, he’s rambunctious
I hired Chris Browne before I hired Anthony Scelfo
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Regional Program in his 1st career season — faster than 20% of the 925 FBS coaches who have ever reached Regional Program (rank #1 of 925 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
4–9 against his rivals. Just 1–5 against Mark Stoops.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
3rd-best Middle Tennessee tenure of 3 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Rick Stockstill (2006–2023).
| Season | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||
| Record | 3–9 | 3–9 | 0–0 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | #119 | #98 | #119 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||
| Pass rate | 56.0 | 61.4 | 62.4 | |
| Coordinators | ||||
| OC | Bodie Reeder | Bodie Reeder | Anthony Scelfo | |
| DC | Brian Stewart | Brian Stewart | Brian Stewart | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||
| Offense | 31 | 53 | 59 | |
| Defense | 6 | 27 | 21 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||
| 1st-down pass% | 49.2 | 57.0 | 55.4 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 45.1 | 55.2 | 83.3 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 43.8 | 37.5 | — | |
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
A typical class-year mix of incoming transfers.
1 NFL Draft pick: Parker Hughes (2026)
1 player-season honored (All-America / national award): Keylan Rutledge (2025)
AI Narratives — “Middle Tennessee — stat check”.
8th-best Vanderbilt tenure of 20 by the numbers.
Underperforms his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Followed James Franklin (2011–2013) · succeeded by Clark Lea (2021–2026).
| Season | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||||
| Record | 3–9 | 4–8 | 6–7 | 5–7 | 6–7 | 3–9 | 0–8 | |
| Postseason | — | — | L bowl | — | L bowl | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | #46 | #49 | #54 | #65 | #41 | #56 | #52 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||||||
| Pass rate | 48.2 | 43.2 | 44.2 | 53.7 | 48.9 | 51.2 | 47.6 | |
| Coordinators | ||||||||
| OC | Karl Dorrell | Andy Ludwig | Andy Ludwig | Andy Ludwig | Andy Ludwig | Gerry Gdowski | Todd Fitch | |
| DC | Dave Kotulski | Derek Mason | Derek Mason | — | Jason Tarver | Jason Tarver | Ted Roof | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||||
| Offense | 1 | 8 | 39 | 53 | 89 | 7 | 7 | |
| Defense | 28 | 96 | 74 | 30 | 11 | 34 | 0 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 31.7 | 40.4 | 39.7 | 50.6 | 45.8 | 45.7 | 41.9 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 30.6 | 35.4 | 40.2 | 47.8 | 37.9 | 37.8 | 40.7 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 24.0 | 23.5 | 25.0 | 33.3 | 34.1 | 16.7 | 29.6 | |
11 NFL Draft picks: Jordan Matthews (2014), Wesley Johnson (2014), Dre Hal (2014), Stephen Weatherly (2016), Zach Cunningham (2017), Will Holden (2017), Oren Burks (2018), Joejuan Williams (2019) + 3 more
Derek Mason
Defensive coordinator across 3 programs, 3 stints, before and after wearing the head-coach hat — every season measured on the same axis, whether he personally ran the unit or someone else did.