Heritage, Jordan's, Turntables, and Defense All a Part of Mason

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State’s new defensive coordinator Derek Mason was intent this morning watching his defensive players work hard with the heavy Friday physical testing that Coordinator of Speed, Strength, and Conditioning Rob Glass and his staff put the players through. He saw the players run the stadium steps last Friday, he’s seen the competition day work on Tuesday, and the work in the weight room. Mason did an interview with OSU Max that the new video and information site in the athletic department shared for free with everybody. We hit on some the nuts and bolts in an earlier story.

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Mason and defensive quality control coach Bryce Lewis, who he brought with him, watching competition day.

Mason said he came to Oklahoma State to learn more about the culture that Mike Gundy has built, the Cowboy culture, Mason has been a head coach at Vanderbilt with some success. He was at Auburn as defensive coordinator last season. He wants to be a head coach again and felt he could learn some from being around the consistency of excellence that Gundy, the Oklahoma State people, and Stillwater community have built. He saw it up close in 2011 as the defensive coordinator at Stanford.

“(Brandon) Weeden carved us up pretty good and we lost in overtime,” Mason said of that 41-38 loss to the Cowboys in the 2012 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

Stanford University

Mason coaching at Stanford.

“In the 12-years since then this program hasn’t missed a beat,” Mason said. “That says a lot about what is in this program. What is in the water. What is in the building. The people that are in this program, and the people of Stillwater, they care about this program, and it hasn’t missed a beat.”

It turns out that Derek Mason has a solid connection to Stillwater, much more than being beaten by OSU in a New Year’s Six bowl game or watching the program succeed from several states away over time. His great grandmother was born in Stillwater, Okla.

“Isabelle Palmer was born here in the late 1880s or the early 1890s. She had a huge impact on me as a youngster. I think she passed away in 1992, so like for me I had a chance to spend a great deal of time with my great grandmother, Mason explained. “She actually had my grandmother outside of Stillwater, but the roots of my family are here. For me to have never been in this area of the country. I’ve been to the East Coast, to the West Coast, but never here in Oklahoma, to come back like full circle and get a chance to come through Tulsa and see Oklahoma City. I’m exploring and I want to know everything about Oklahoma because it does go back for me.”

Mason, who told us his wife thought this would be a good place from him to come coach, he knows about Oklahoma State and some about Stillwater, but what about us knowing more about Derek Mason.

It turns out he is a shoe guy and he’s got game when it comes to Jordans. He is a Jordan One guy. He went with his daughters to Japan seven years ago and was able to pick up some exclusives over there. He said it helped increase his enthusiasm for collecting. He told Jessica Morrey, doing the interview for OSU Max that he has somewhere between 80-90 Jordan Ones, about every color they have released. He is all about the high tops.

“I’m a Jordan One guy. I’m an original,” Mason said of his shoe game. “I’ll mess around some with some off brands, but I keep it very simple. I’ll wear a pair of Alexander McQueen’s, but I keep it mostly Nike. I like to keep it with what I grew up on. Any Jordan is a good Jordan, but the Jordan Ones are classic.”

How about hobbies? I’ve talked to Coach Mason a couple of times and really didn’t peg him as a golfer. I also didn’t see him being a hunter.

“Outside of football, hobbies can extend to DJ,” Mason surprised a little. “I was a DJ in college.  I have my turntables coming here to Stillwater soon. I DJ’d in college and when we got married (wife-Leigh Ann) and had children I sold those things because we needed other items. A couple of years ago for Valentine’s Day my wife bought me some turntables. I got my records out and I spin records all the time and I love to fly fish.”

That is all fun to know, but fans want to know about defense. Mason came in and accepted that Gundy wanted his new defensive coordinator to adopt the current defensive scheme, a hybrid that Gundy encouraged former defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and his staff to piece together using different systems for different schools and the NFL. The playbook will stay the same, but Mason will bring his ideas and personality.

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Collin Oliver is a player Mason will enjoy coaching.

“We’re going to be an attacking defense. We want to be physical, and we want to take the ball away, but more than that if we can we want to give it back to our offense and score on defense,” Mason said getting into some description. “That is the mentality that was here, and it is something that I would like to build on. We’ll have some wrinkles that are different than what we saw with Coach Knowles, but by the same token it will move us to where we want to go. That is what this is about going from where you are to where you want to be. New year, new opportunities, this is a great opportunity for guys to grow in their roles as we look to make this defense a little more diverse in terms of personnel groupings.”

If all you heard was attacking, physical and give it back to the offense, then you’re likely happy. Mason does seem to be a guy that likes to please. He also said if you see him around Stillwater, then by all means say hello.