A veteran of 29 years of collegiate coaching experience, Derek Mason is in his first season as head coach of Middle Tennessee. Mason, who spent the 2023 season working as an analyst for the SEC Network, has seven years as a head coach prior to being named the leader of the Blue Raiders. He most recently coached in 2022 at Oklahoma State as the defensive coordinator and helped the Cowboys to a spot in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. Prior to his stint at Oklahoma State, Mason served as the defensive coordinator at Auburn for the 2021 season.
From 2014-2020, Mason was the head coach at Vanderbilt where he became just the second coach in program history to lead a team to multiple bowl appearances. His 2018 team won six games and capped the regular season with a third straight victory over rival Tennessee and fifth in seven years. It also marked Vanderbilt’s second bowl appearance in three years under Mason. As a player, Mason was a two-year starter and four-year letter winner at Northern Arizona. Mason earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Northern Arizona in 1993.