STILLWATER — While he rehabbed from an ACL tear in the fall of 2011, Stanford safety Ed Reynolds accepted an offer from Derek Mason.
Stanford’s co-defensive coordinator recognized a body that couldn’t sit still. So rather than letting Reynolds languish on the sidelines each Saturday, Mason pulled the second-year safety into the coaches booth with Stanford’s assistants.
Up top at Stanford Stadium and in press boxes across the Pac-12, Reynolds spent his medical redshirt season charting offensive plays and sharpening his football mind next to the man Oklahoma State hired Wednesday as its next defensive coordinator.
“Coach Mason, seeing how he called the game, that was super important for me to learn that,” Reynolds, who later spent three season in the NFL, recalled Thursday morning.
A decade later, he credits Mason and that season spent in the coaches booth for a heightened understanding of the game that helped him to first-team All-American honors two years later in 2013.
“He knew how to motivate me,” Reynolds said of Mason. “He knew how to get the most out of me. You really feel like he does care about the guys that are in his room and wants to see the best out of guys.”
Mason’s ability to maximize talent is one the constants former players and fellow coaches from his tenures at Stanford and Vanderbilt bring up when talking about the 52-year old play caller. He officially joined OSU’s staff this week as the sixth defensive coordinator of the Mike Gundy era following one season at Auburn.
Among other traits — intelligent, commanding, stern yet approachable, resourceful — attributed to Mason, no feature is more universally agreed upon by those who have worked with him than his energy.
Reynolds can’t recall a single dull practice session or meeting at Stanford; former linebacker Shayne Skov called his attitude “infectious”
in 2013. Randy Hart, who spent the final six seasons of his 46-year coaching career with the Cardinal, saw Mason pour it into everything from recruiting to schematics to in-game problem solving.
Former Vanderbilt cornerback Torren McGaster felt it instantly when Mason showed up on campus in 2014.
“The energy he brings to the team is going to be outstanding,” he said. “You’re never going to see Coach Mason with any negative energy.”
At Stanford, Mason impressed Hart with the scope of his football knowledge. A defensive backs coach by trade and assignment, Mason possessed an understanding of every part of the defense.
“He knows front play. He knows linebacker play. He knows outside linebacker play. And he knows the secondary play very well,” Hart said. “He just knows the game of football.”
Such versatility may be important for Mason in Stillwater. He joins a Cowboys staff missing a linebackers coach with secondary roles already filled by Tim Duffie and Dan Hammerschmidt. OSU’s official announcement of Mason’s hiring did not include a positional assignment.
Mason’s other challenge is inheriting a defense down as many as seven starters from 2021. Next fall, he’ll likely lean on much of OSU’s unproven, if talented, depth particularly in the secondary.
At Stanford, Mason gained a reputation for figuring out players’ strengths and finding ways to amplify them. Reynolds feels he’s a prime example of that knack; in 2014, Richards Sherman
credited Mason for his development.
And like he did at Auburn in 2021, Mason engineered a quick turnaround with a young defense at Vanderbilt after he arrived in 2014. The Commodores jumped into the top half of the SEC in defense in 2015 and ‘16 and earned wins over Georgia and Tennessee in the respective seasons.
“He made us feel like we could compete with anybody, you know?,” McGaster said. “He always held us accountable not to feel like ‘Oh, we’re just the same old Vanderbilt that everybody can just run over,’. He set a high standard for us.”
Similar to his energetic presence, Mason’s demanding nature and high standard are two more common threads, features of a coach who has found success at every stop.
“He’ll command a lot from his new players,” Hart said. “They’re going to work hard. But in return, they’re going to play good defense.
Energy, intelligence and a high standard are among the features former players and fellow coaches used to describe new Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Derek Mason.
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