Growing up in Arizona was fun for Derek Mason, the new Head Football Coach at Middle Tennessee State University. He grew up with a strong and supportive family and a group of friends who provided him with a strong foundation as a youth.
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, his mother, grandmother and grandfather were central figures for him, they were always present and supportive of what he did. Education was also emphasized in his family, as both his parents were college educated, and he followed his father into playing college football. Mason went to Camelback High School and received a scholarship to play football at Northern Arizona.
One of his earliest mentors was Dr. Gary Somo, his high school math teacher and also his high school football team’s defensive coordinator. Somo was a first-generation Italian-American with two sons, and his wife was a principal, Dr. Linda Somo. When Mason wasn’t at his own home or with his friends, he was at Dr. Somo’s house. Dr. Somo helped me become a better student, and he changed Mason’s thought processes about people.
“My relationship with Dr. Somo was more of a family relationship than it was a coaching relationship, but he taught me so much about the game,” said Mason. “He taught me about what hard work does, how to study the game of football and how to encourage the people around you to be better in the space they are in by encouraging me to be better in the space that I was in. He wanted me to be a good player, but he wanted me to be a good teammate, too.”
Another strong influence in Mason’s life was the Boys and Girls Club, an organization he still strongly supports.
“My uncle, John Radliff, ran the I.G. Homes Boys and Girls Club in Phoenix,” said Mason. “Every summer until I was about 14 it gave me opportunities to meet friends, play sports, develop skill sets and really learn how to serve people…Going with my uncle and actually setting the venue up, we were there all day. I went with my cousins. It felt like a family affair. I grew up with the Boys and Girls Club. It gave me a different take on what people were going through.”
Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw of Stanford University and Frank Solich at Ohio University have also strongly influenced Mason as both a person and a coach. College Football Hall of Fame coach Solich told Mason that success in the game is about how you deal with people.
“It’s, are you making an impact with people,” said Mason. “Are you moving the needle, are you giving them their best journey? Some of the best coaches I have worked for … [showed] me, in their own ways, how they were able to affect that journey. Some did it through discipline, most did it through love. But all of them did it through the simple idea that they understood the team game, but they made sure the individual was held accountable for the thing that they said they wanted to be and the journey that they wanted to take, so that journey would take them from where they are to where they want to be.”
Most of Mason’s experience as a coach has been on the defensive side, but he says that he has learned from his experiences on both the offensive and defensive line.
“I want to be a physical football team and that starts with the mentality of who I was as a player, what I have learned as a coach and how I see football,” said Mason. “People would say that is through a defensive lens, but I will tell you that part of being a physical football team…really comes from the idea that what you do offensively sets what you do defensively. When I was at Stanford working under Jim Harbaugh, we were a physical offense, and we were as physical a defense as I had coached until that time. What I learned from that physical offense is that it makes you become a physical defense…A combination of my experiences has led to that physical mentality or philosophy.”
Having worked for both pro and college teams, Mason has seen the very different head spaces that the players must have to be successful in the game. As college players they are expected to be scholar athletes, finding a balance between their studies, the game, their social life and being involved in the community. Professional athletes are totally focused on the game as it is their job.
“College, you are … dealing with a maturing segment of the population,” said Mason. “You get a young man when he is 17 or 18 years old, and that journey typically ends when he is 21 or 22, 23. That is a holistic journey because they are still learning what their value systems are, what is important, how to study, they are physically maturing. When you get to the [National Football League their] skill set is pronounced. I am not saying that [players] are all grown up and mature by that time, but they know who they are, they know what they want to do. It becomes more of a business and a lifestyle for them as a pro. Every day is a job interview…Your skill set is on display every Sunday or Monday night…A professional plays on demand…They do it until they can’t get it wrong. A collegiate player is working to gain [their] skills consistently and effectively on Saturdays…It is about how they see the work that makes them different.”
Now, Mason is bringing all of his skills as manager of a player’s journey and knowledge of the many facets of the game to Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). He was drawn to the program at MTSU for several reasons. First, he feels the program has good bones with a sustainable legacy set down by coaches before him like Boots Donnelly and Rick Stockstill. Second, is the administration. MTSU President Dr. Sydney McPhee and Athletic Director Chris Massaro’s vision for the university football program align with his own in how they see the program moving forward. Thirdly, is how the university plans to resource the program in order to keep moving forward.
“They had already laid the framework,” said Mason, “the building project and what they had done in investment is where MTSU is looking to go…The people, the place and the mission were aligned. And that alignment over the last six months has allowed me to come in, look at our program and say we can be something special here. But what we have to do is to continue to know who we are, what we want to do and how we want to do it.”