Top 25
3-20
- Games
- 23
- Win rate
- 13.0%
Back to Coaches
Longevity CoachDefense-First
Coach Profile
Derek Mason
2014-2025 • Middle Tennessee, Vanderbilt
2 schools coached, anchored by Vanderbilt.
Derek Mason's coaching record is 33-73, highlighted by seasons at Vanderbilt from 2014 to 2025.
Derek Mason coached 9 seasons, won 31.1%, and posted an average SRS of -8.1. Best season: 2018 Vanderbilt. The profile was defense-first with a highly volatile profile. 2 stints shaped the career arc.
- Career record
- 33-73
- Career win rate
- 31.1%
- Average SRS
- -8.1
- Peak SRS
- 9.9
Career Dossier
One glance at the full arc.
The profile below keeps the headline numbers visible, then moves into tenure shape, school impact, and full season detail.
- Seasons coached
- 9
- Career span
- 12 years
- Best finish
- —
- Consistency
- 13.8
Primary school anchor
Vanderbilt
Defense-First profile with 2 program stops and a peak score of 61.1.
Quick Answers
Records fans search first
Headline records use countable season rows after completed-game fallback. Partial seasons and provisional placeholders are called out separately.
- Overall record
- 33-73
- Vanderbilt record
- 27-55
- Full-season record
- 30-56
- Partial-season record
- 0-8
- Vs AP Top 10
- 0-10
- Vs AP Top 5
- 0-6
- Vs Tennessee
- 3-3
- Postseason / bowl record
- 0-2
- CFP record
- 0-0
- National titles
- 0
106 countable games, 31.1% win rate.
7 countable seasons at Vanderbilt.
7 full season rows; partial and backfilled current rows are separated.
Rows where the coach-season record covers fewer games than the team's completed season.
10 games using AP ranking at game time.
6 games using AP ranking at game time.
Tennessee-Vanderbilt games in this dataset.
2 scored postseason games in this dataset.
0 College Football Playoff-labeled games since 2014.
Matched by coach team-season against the national championship dataset.
Record definition and data status
Career records use countable coach-season rows. Zero-game placeholders are excluded from aggregates until a completed-game fallback can verify the record.
Completed-game fallback uses scored games joined by coach, team, and season; advanced ratings are left blank when the season summary has not supplied them.
Latest completed coached game in this dataset: Nov 29, 2025. At least one season record was backfilled from completed games, so current-season totals may move as more scores are loaded.
Career Arc
Track how the coach's season-to-season performance changed over time, where the peak landed, and where each school stint appears.
Focus on where peaks separate, where floors hold, and how the shape of each career changed over time.
Derek Mason
EliteStrongAverageLean
Derek Mason: 2024 Middle Tennessee
2014Actual season year • SRS range -23.2 to 9.92025
Active comparison point
Derek Mason • 2018
2018 Vanderbilt
Best seasonBiggest improvement6-7 • SRS 9.9 • SP Overall 7.6
Win %
46.2%
YoY SRS
+15.0
SP Off / Def
35.6 / 27.1
Finish
Unranked
Comparison context
Focus a point to inspect how it stacks up against the rest of the field.
Ranked opponent record
Track career record against ranked opponents with switchable poll source and ranking timing.
Using AP Top 25 rankings at the time of each game; week-one games use the week-one ranking release when available.
Top 10
0-10
- Games
- 10
- Win rate
- 0.0%
Top 5
0-6
- Games
- 6
- Win rate
- 0.0%
View ranked game results23
Tenure map
Each stint expands by seasons coached. Deeper color signals a stronger average SRS over that stretch.
Length = seasons coachedDeeper color = stronger stint
Middle Tennessee
2024-2025 • 2 seasons
Avg SRS -20.8 • Win % 25.0%
Vanderbilt
2014-2020 • 7 seasons
Avg SRS -4.4 • Win % 32.9%
- Longest tenure
- Vanderbilt • 7 seasons
- Best tenure
- Vanderbilt • -4.4 SRS
- Best tenure win rate
- Vanderbilt • 32.9%
Style and Strength Profile
Compare strength, identity, steadiness, and ceiling through normalized bars with raw SP and SRS context underneath.
These bars are normalized against the full coach dataset. Raw SP and SRS values stay visible so the profile reads as evidence, not decoration.
Overall Strength
Start with total quality before splitting style and variance.
Derek Mason sets the reference point in overall strength.
Overall Strength
Decisive edgeDerek Mason sets the reference point in overall strength.
Normalized score; raw SP overall stays underneath for reference.
Derek Mason
Lower end
- Raw avg SP Overall
- -7.4
- Percentile
- 34th pct
Lower end
Normalized against the full tracked coach pool.
Impact by school
See how each stint compared with what that program usually looked like outside that same span.
Middle Tennessee
2024-2025 • 6-18
Compared with this school's baseline outside that stint over the prior 5 seasons (5 baseline seasons found).
Avg SRS -20.8Win % 25.0%
Avg wins
Higher is better
3.0 during vs 5.2 baseline
-2.2
Avg SRS
Higher is better
-20.8 during vs -9.0 baseline
-11.8
Avg SP Overall
Higher is better
-20.2 during vs -8.7 baseline
-11.5
Ranked finish rate
Higher is better
0.0% during vs 0.0% baseline
+0.0%
Vanderbilt
2014-2020 • 27-55
Compared with this school's baseline outside that stint over the prior 5 seasons (5 baseline seasons found).
Avg SRS -4.4Win % 32.9%
Avg wins
Higher is better
4.5 during vs 5.6 baseline
-1.1
Avg SRS
Higher is better
-2.8 during vs 1.9 baseline
-4.7
Avg SP Overall
Higher is better
-1.6 during vs 2.0 baseline
-3.6
Ranked finish rate
Higher is better
0.0% during vs 40.0% baseline
-40.0%
Career highs and lows
High Points
Best Season
Vanderbilt 2018
6-7 • SRS 9.9
Biggest Improvement
Vanderbilt 2018
6-7 • 15.0 SRS
Best Offensive Season
Vanderbilt 2018
6-7 • SP Off 35.6
Best Defensive Season
Vanderbilt 2015
4-8 • SP Def 19.3
Setbacks
Lowest SRS Season
Middle Tennessee 2024
3-9 • SRS -23.2
Biggest Drop
Vanderbilt 2019
3-9 • -22.5 SRS
Season-by-season results
Full transparency into every season in the coaching record. Positive YoY values indicate improvement from the prior season.
| Middle Tennessee | 2025 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 25.0% | — | — | -18.4 | -16.0 | 20.4 | 37.0 | +4.8 | 0.0% | Completed-game fallback |
| Middle Tennessee | 2024 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 25.0% | — | — | -23.2 | -24.4 | 13.7 | 37.3 | -8.8 | +25.0% | Season summary |
| Vanderbilt | 2020 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0.0% | — | — | -14.4 | -16.8 | 17.7 | 34.1 | -1.8 | -25.0% | Partial season |
| Vanderbilt | 2019 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 25.0% | — | — | -12.6 | -10.4 | 21.8 | 33.6 | -22.5 | -21.1% | Season summary |
| Vanderbilt | 2018 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 46.2% | — | — | 9.9 | 7.6 | 35.6 | 27.1 | +15.0 | +4.5% | Season summary |
| Vanderbilt | 2017 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 41.7% | — | — | -5.1 | 0.6 | 32.3 | 29.0 | -7.7 | -4.5% | Season summary |
| Vanderbilt | 2016 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 46.2% | — | — | 2.6 | -1.2 | 25.3 | 26.3 | +4.5 | +12.8% | Season summary |
| Vanderbilt | 2015 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 33.3% | — | — | -1.9 | -1.6 | 17.8 | 19.3 | +7.7 | +8.3% | Season summary |
| Vanderbilt | 2014 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 25.0% | — | — | -9.6 | -4.3 | 22.0 | 25.3 | — | — | Season summary |
Similar coaches
Popular comparisons are fan-facing matchups. Statistical comps are matched by style, strength band, volatility band, peak range, and career length.
Statistical comps
Rey Dempsey
same defense-first identity • avg SRS within 0.1
Avg SRS -8.0 • Peak SRS 3.8 • 10 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 8.4
Open profile →Chester Caddas
same defense-first identity • avg SRS within 0.2
Avg SRS -8.3 • Peak SRS 1.5 • 8 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 7.8
Open profile →Bill Doolittle
same defense-first identity • avg SRS within 0.2
Avg SRS -8.2 • Peak SRS 4.4 • 11 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 7.2
Open profile →Frank Lauterbur
same defense-first identity • volatility within 0.4
Avg SRS -4.6 • Peak SRS 11.5 • 11 seasons
Best finish #12 • Volatility 10.3
Open profile →Tom Harp
same defense-first identity • avg SRS within 1.1
Avg SRS -9.2 • Peak SRS 0.8 • 13 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 9.0
Open profile →Chuck Martin
same defense-first identity • avg SRS within 0.7
Avg SRS -7.4 • Peak SRS -0.1 • 12 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 6.0
Open profile →