{"id":13921,"date":"2018-02-08T15:48:56","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T20:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosoncfb.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=13921"},"modified":"2018-02-08T15:48:56","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T20:48:56","slug":"derek-mason-and-vanderbilt-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2018\/02\/08\/derek-mason-and-vanderbilt-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Derek Mason And Vanderbilt Football Adjust Their Sails In 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Derek Mason And Vanderbilt Football Adjust Their Sails In 2018<\/h3>\n

Derek Mason <\/strong>Vanderbilt football adjust their sails in 2018.\u00a0\u00a0There is a quote that says “You can not direct the wind, but you can adjust your sails.” There are actually several variations of this quote credited to several different people.\u00a0 Head coach Derek Mason cannot direct the wind (wind=SEC) but he can adjust his sails.<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt football has had its share of struggles since Mason took over the program four years ago.\u00a0 There are plenty of ‘keyboard cowboys’ that will give you their opinion and put down the program. That kind of negativity is not in my playbook of life.\u00a0 You cannot change the past.\u00a0 You can, however, make an impact on the future.\u00a0 Derek Mason and the rest of his staff have worked tirelessly on making the 2018 recruiting\u00a0class their<\/em> best class to date.\u00a0 The 2018 Vandy recruiting class is ranked in the top 50; ESPN has it at 37th, 247Sports has them 41st, and Rivals ranked the Dores at 46th.\u00a0 While the top 50 rankings are nice, it might be worth a reminder that the academic requirements to get into Vandy are still the highest in the SEC.\u00a0 Those higher standards make it nearly impossible to land a top-five recruiting class.<\/p>\n

The December\u00a0early signing proved to be a positive for Mason, his staff, and his team.\u00a0 They had 17 signees in December.\u00a0 The five they added Wednesday was just the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

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The New Kids On West End<\/h3>\n

Name – Position – Height\/Weight – Hometown – High School<\/b>
\nAmir Abdur-Rahman<\/strong> – WR – 6-4\/210 – Atlanta, Ga. – Mays HS
\nBJ Anderson<\/strong> – DB – 6-1\/175 – Andalusia, Ala. – Andalusia HS
\nLorenza Surgers<\/strong> – DL – 6-6\/235 – Cary, N.C. – Panther Creek HS
\nParker Thome<\/strong> – P 6-3\/210 – Hortonville, Wisc. – Columbia\/Hortonville HS
\nLouis Vecchio<\/strong> – DL – 6-4\/260 – Orange, Calif. – Penn\/Villa Park HS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

December Signees<\/b>
\nCJ Bolar<\/strong> – WR – 6-1\/185 – Purvis, Miss. – Purvis HS
\nBen Bresnahan<\/strong> – TE – 6-4\/230 – Cumming, Ga. – West Forsyth HS
\nDan Dawkins Jr.<\/strong> – OL – 6-3\/300 – Staten Island, N.Y. – The Peddie School
\nTre’ Douglas<\/strong> – DB – 6-2\/190 – McDonough, Ga. – Eagles Landing Christian Academy
\nBrendon Harris<\/strong> – DB – 6-1\/195 – Chattanooga, Tenn. – Baylor School
\nDashaun Jerkins<\/strong> – DB 6-0\/190 Woodbridge, Va. – Woodbridge HS
\nCam Johnson<\/strong> – WR – 6-0\/180 – Brentwood, Tenn. – Brentwood Academy
\nJa’Veon Marlow<\/strong> – RB – 5-11\/190 – Winter Haven, Fla. – Winter Haven Senior HS
\nElijah McAllister<\/strong> – LB – 6-6\/230 – Rumson, N.J. – Rumson Fair Haven HS
\nAlston Orji<\/strong> – LB – 6-2\/225 – Rockwall, Texas – Rockwall HS
\nRutger Reitmaier<\/strong> – DL – 6-3\/295 Nashville, Tenn. – Lipscomb Academy
\nJavan Rice<\/strong> – K – 6-2\/180 – Miami, Fla. – Belen Jesuit Prep
\nGavin Schoenwald<\/strong> – TE – 6-4\/225 – Brentwood, Tenn. – Brentwood Academy
\nWyatt Smock<\/strong> – OL – 6-4\/290 – Louisville, Ky. – St. Xavier HS
\nTyler Steen<\/strong> – OL – 6-5\/300 – Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. – St. Thomas Aquinas
\nAllan Walters<\/strong> – QB – 6-2\/200 – Chatham, N.J. – The Peddie School
\nMax Worship<\/strong> – DB – 6-1\/195 – Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. – Cardinal Gibbons HS<\/div>\n

Filling The Gaps<\/h3>\n

Anyone who has been reading my Vandy articles the last two seasons knows we try to keep it positive.\u00a0 Yet I must acknowledge that last season the line play on both sides of the ball was such an issue that even Stevie Wonder was able to see it.\u00a0 However, 2018 is a BRAND NEW YEAR,\u00a0with a brand new recruiting class and brand new levels of potential.\u00a0 The Commodores have added considerable\u00a0size to the lines on both sides of the ball.\u00a0 We could discuss stars and rankings of each of these players.\u00a0 But, anyone who pays attention to college football knows that stars and rankings can be meaningless.\u00a0 Let us wait and see what these players do once they put on the black and gold.\u00a0 That is when I need the player to be impressive.\u00a0 When he makes a game-changing play and propels Vandy to a win in a critical game.<\/p>\n

The Offseason<\/h3>\n

The offseason in college football is a roller coaster.\u00a0 There are staff changes for almost every school.\u00a0 Head coaches have to evaluate their talent on the sidelines in their coaches not just the players on the field.\u00a0 Mason has officially added some new talent to his sidelines with four new additions. First up is\u00a0Aaron Moorehead<\/strong> who will take over at wide receivers for Cortez Hankton<\/strong> who left for Georgia.\u00a0 Moorehead has spent the last three seasons at Texas A&M.\u00a0 Next up,\u00a0Jason Tarver<\/strong> is the new defensive coordinator.\u00a0 He was co-coordinator with Mason at Stanford for one season before leaving for the NFL.\u00a0 Mason has held both DC and HC titles the last two seasons.\u00a0 However, neither job is easy to do in the SEC let alone BOTH at the same time.<\/p>\n

Shawn Mennenga<\/strong> will take over for the departed Jeff Genyke<\/strong> as special teams coordinator and tight end coach while Andy Ludwig<\/strong> will work with the running backs.\u00a0 Mennenga comes to Nashville from The Cleveland Browns where he spent the last seven seasons.\u00a0 Lastly, Terrence Brown<\/strong>\u00a0who played under Mason at Stanford will be in charge of the cornerbacks.\u00a0 Brown spent the last three season at Washington State, where the Huskies lead the Pac-12 in defense.<\/p>\n

Spring Ball and The SEC Network Scuttlebutt<\/h3>\n

The SEC Network posted on their website this week the Spring Game Schedule<\/a>\u00a0with a banner that reads “Every 2018 SEC spring football game to be televised” and a glaring asterisk\u00a0*13 of the 14 SEC football teams elected to play a spring game this year.\u00a0 The SEC Network is NOT showing the Vanderbilt Spring Game because it does not fit their description as a “traditional” spring game.\u00a0 Mason is not splitting his team up to do a “traditional” spring game scrimmage. No black team vs gold team.\u00a0 He is calling it a spring showcase like last year.\u00a0 Yes, it is open to the public.\u00a0 Yes, there will be a scrimmage.\u00a0 Many fans had issues with this last year. I tried to calm the outrage last year\u00a0HERE<\/a>.\u00a0 Everything I wrote last year rings true this year.\u00a0 TRUST THE PROCESS.\u00a0\u00a0Spring ball kicks off February 26th.\u00a0 It should be an exciting spring. Too bad the SEC Network will miss it.<\/p>\n

Way TOO Early Predictions<\/h3>\n

Everyone is speculating on every team and their upcoming seasons.\u00a0 If history has taught us nothing else it has taught us that football is a fickle mistress.\u00a0 Nothing is as it seems.\u00a0 No one is a sure thing.\u00a0 Everyone can lose at any given time.\u00a0 Let us quit over analyzing and start enjoying the present.\u00a0 I am the first to admit that I\u00a0live and die by football season.\u00a0 My entire year revolves around those precious few months of college football.\u00a0 I choose to be excited about the Vanderbilt football team that Mason is taking his time to build.\u00a0 Success does not come easy in the SEC.\u00a0 I STILL\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>trust Mason and his process, because I have never been a college football coach before.\u00a0 He knows more about the game than I do.\u00a0 Now I have to trust him and believe he has adjusted his sails and this team is on the right course for success beyond my wildest predictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Derek Mason And Vanderbilt Football Adjust Their Sails In 2018 Derek Mason Vanderbilt football adjust their sails in 2018.\u00a0\u00a0There is a quote that says “You can not direct the wind, but you can adjust your sails.” There are actually several variations of this quote credited to several different people.\u00a0 Head coach Derek Mason cannot direct […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1643,"featured_media":13545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3066,859,3063,128,3065,806,1413,3067,3064,96],"class_list":["post-13921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-aaron-moorehead","tag-andy-ludwig","tag-cortez-hankton","tag-derek-mason","tag-jason-tarver","tag-jeff-genyk","tag-national-signing-day","tag-shawn-mennenga","tag-terrence-brown","tag-vanderbilt-commodores"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}