Derek Mason: 'Auburn is the place for me'
Derek Mason was ready to go back to the NFL.
He had just served as Vanderbilt’s head coach for seven years before being fired in November. Prior to that, he worked at Stanford for four years as the defensive coordinator in his final year and the defensive backs coach before being promoted.
“Well you know looking at opportunities, I thought I was going back to the NFL, to be honest,” Mason said Monday. “I didn’t think I was going to take a college job. I felt like, for me, I needed a break from the college game for just a little bit after seven years at Vanderbilt. I had been contacted by several college teams about their opportunities.”
But just as Mason was ready to move back to the next level, Bryan Harsin came calling.
The two had a prior relationship in the coaching world, and even the Harsin and Mason families going on vacation together. So, Mason stopped in Auburn and listened to what Harsin had to offer.
“So, when we had an opportunity to talk, the conversation was very much to the point about his vision for Auburn,” Mason said. “And that vision was set in stone, it was very strategic, it had all the making of what I thought a good leader should talk about coming into a situation like this. Which I thought was unique.
“For him to get me to come up here on my way home — because believe me, I was on my way back home — we got to come through here, sat down for a couple of hours. Had a chance to talk ball, but it was more about connecting on, like, the ideology of how he wanted to run the program and what he wanted and what he needed from me.”
While he did coach in the SEC previously, Mason hadn’t experienced much of Auburn as a city and a community. He quickly liked what he saw.
“I drove into the city — I didn’t know what to expect — they call it the Plains, I got here and I found a terrific city, really nice community and a university that has a lot to sell when you talk about the student-athlete experience,” Mason said. “So, from the city to the university experience to what coach Harsin is bringing, all that seemed to fit for me.”
And now that he’s officially here and leading the defense through spring practice, he’s happy to be here.
“I feel good about where we are right now. Believe me, I would’ve made this decision 10 out of 10 times. Auburn is the place for me,” Mason said.
And, the defense is glad to have Mason, too.
“Oh, man, Coach Mason, he's a great guy. We love the system that he's bringing in for us, and we love him as a person,” linebacker Owen Pappoe said. “He's accepted us all as his sons. It feels like we're a real big family out there.”
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