Donovan Kaufman’s relationship with Derek Mason dates back to his recruitment. Kaufman was a 4-star safety in Louisiana being recruited heavily by Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and LSU. Mason led the way in his recruitment, which included a visit to the prison that Kaufman’s father was at.
Kaufman’s parents believed in Mason and wanted their son to play for him. So, that’s what he did — he chose Vanderbilt.
“You go through the recruiting process and obviously I became close with him and his family,” Mason said. “They trusted and liked the idea that I’ve always talked about — I think in recruiting it’s always about, you know, as a coach and a program can you give a better product back to parents than the one they dropped off?
“And his parents felt that way about his time, even though Donovan went through COVID and his first year playing at Vandy had good experience, I think they really trusted the idea of: I was who I said I was.”
As Mason mentioned, Kaufman’s freshman season didn’t quite go as planned with the Commodores. He had 15 tackles through the first two games and was averaging 27.4 yards per kickoff return.
But after that, he dealt with COVID and medical issues that forced him to miss the rest of the season. Then, Mason was fired by Vandy.
In April Kaufman opted to enter the transfer portal and then he ended up choosing Auburn, reuniting with Mason.
“Our relationship has been good. It’s going to continue to grow,” Mason said. “I believe this much, we’re very much alike in terms of our personalities. He wants to win, I want to win. He’s a competitor, I’m a competitor.”
Kaufman arrived at the beginning of June and has been working and competing to earn playing time at safety or nickel.
“There’s not a drill that he’s in that he’s not competing with Smoke [Monday] or Bydarrius [Knighten] or Ladarrius Tennison or [Devin] Guice,” Mason said. “I mean, it’s a competitive group, but he’s an alpha competitor. And he actually competes more than he speaks. So what it comes down to is he’s a worker and those are the type of guys that you want to be around.”
Smoke Monday has enjoyed playing with Kaufman so far.
“Man, he's a great athlete. He's fast. He's physical,” Monday said. “That's one thing I can say: He loves ball. By having somebody on my side like that, that loves ball just like I love it — hey, I can play with them any day.”
NOT A MEMBER?
JOIN AUBURNSPORTS.COM TODAY to enjoy around-the-clock content including stories, analysis, videos, podcasts, call-in shows and The Greatest Message Board In The History of The Internet.
