By Tony Barnhart
Nashville–Vanderbilt was coming off an open date when it visited Mississippi State on Nov. 22, 2014, The Commodores didn’t just get beat–they were humiliated 51-0 by the nation’s No. 4 team. And no one was humiliated more than Derek Mason, the first-year head coach.
At that moment Mason had to admit something that no coach likes to admit: His team was not very well coached.
“Defensively there was an inability to get lined up and the inability to get off the field,” said the former defensive coordinator from Stanford. “It wasn’t what we were playing it was how we were playing.