Most football coaches brag about how many of their players worked out over the summer. Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason bragged Monday about how many of his players had summer internships.
“And you say, why is that important?” Mason said, apparently reading the minds of those in the main room at SEC media days.
During a 1,252-word opening statement, Mason spent a lot of time answering questions he expected to be asked: What went so wrong last year, when Vanderbilt went 3-9 in Mason’s first year? Why did he feel he needed to make coaching changes? And how much responsibility does he feel?
A lot, it turns out.
“We weren’t a very competitive football team in 2014, and that’s on me,” Mason said, adding later: “I assumed that just because we’re in the SEC we would play like an SEC football team.”
Vanderbilt is Georgia’s SEC opener, and the last time the Bulldogs went there they lost. But the trip to Nashville is rarely brought up among Georgia’s fan base, or media, with subsequent home games against South Carolina and Alabama tending to dominate the discussion.
So, basically, things are back to normal.
“I’m not sure when the last time was Vanderbilt was not overlooked,” center Spencer Pulley said Monday.
That was on the verge of changing in 2013, when the Commodores went 9-4. But then coach James Franklin took the Penn State job, and Mason, who had been a Stanford assistant, struggled in his debut season. Last year Georgia throttled Vanderbilt, 44-17, in a return to the way the rivalry has been. Since 1960, Georgia has defeated the Commodores 46 out of 52 times.
Two of the Vanderbilt players brought to media days were sophomores, so they weren’t there for the 2013 game. Pulley was, but wasn’t doing any bragging about it. Times have changed in his program, even in a very short period of time.
“This is definitely a completely different team,” Pulley said. “You don’t have the same coaches, you ddon’t have the same players, you don’t have the same leaders. Going through last year it was definitely hard to look back on that season when it was all over.
“But it was something that we had to look at and accept and take it for what it was. And meet as a team and go over it, look at what we did, what our attitude was - which we all knew wasn’t good, and that we needed to change that going into this season.”
Mason vowed that the Commodores are “a much different football team” already, having revamped the offensive staff, taken the defensive coordinator role for himself, and tried to make some smaller, cultural changes. And with 18 starters back (or 22, depending on who’s counting), Mason tried to inject some optimism.
“We struggled to find identity (last year). We had some missing pieces,” Mason said. “What we’ve tried to do in the last eight months is try to right the wrong. Our fan base should be excited about where we’re going because this group is talented.”
