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ACADEMY TEXAS BOWL: BAYLOR VS VANDERBILT

December 26, 2018

Derek Mason

Houston, Texas

HEAD COACH DEREK MASON: Truly excited to be here for the Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl. The City of Houston has treated us kindly. It's been fantastic. Wonderful city. Outstanding hospitality.

But this football team came here with a job to do. We understand we're playing an extremely good Baylor football team.

For us, it's been about process. We understand why we're here and what we're doing. We try to make sure that we invested in everything that we're supposed to do here, from the ball to the community service projects. It's just been an outstanding week.

As this thing is closing down, our guys started to become a little more myopic about really what our focus is and how we need to play this Bowl game. I think our coordinators have done a terrific job. Our leaders and captains in the room have done a terrific job of mandating expectations for practice and how we go about our work and what we do.

For us, it's just a Vanderbilt way about now. This time of year needs to be the beginning of the season for us, so it's been trying to be relentless, tough and intelligent in everything we do.

Again, I want to thank the City of Houston. These players have been fantastic, but like I said, now it's time to get to work.

Q. A couple years ago you got to play in a Bowl game in Shreveport. This year you come here and have all sort of cool events, rodeo, the Rockets game. Where do you feel like your team's energy level is right now, maybe compared to a couple years ago? Do you feel there's a certain buzz about getting to play in this game in an NFL stadium?
HEAD COACH DEREK MASON: Yeah, for some guys, it's probably a dream come true to be able to touch an NFL stadium, NFL grass. But the reality is, it's still a football field. A football field is a football field, 53 and a third by a hundred. These guys are going to go out there and play ball. We've had an opportunity to get on the grass and really get our cleats in the ground. Make sure that it is what we thought it was, and that's what it's been.

In terms of opportunities, man, these guys, these guys in this room, they were here two years ago. They understand exactly what we encountered, how we practiced, you know, what it looked like in the end and we didn't like the end result.

So now, man, you're looking at four young men who are vital to how we play and what we do, and they fully understand, you know, why we're here. So the preparation has been different for these guys because they know and understand what we are trying to do. You have to be a little more intentional about your process, and that's what we talk about. We know the outcome we want, but it's got to be about an intentional process, and that's where these guys are right now.

Q. What impresses you about Baylor?
HEAD COACH DEREK MASON: You know, Baylor, I'm really impressed with Matt Rhule. I know Coach Rhule and I know what he walked into. I know what he encountered, and what he's been able to do in a short amount of time is really, you know, worked towards pushing that program back to relevance, and that's no easy task.

And so with that being said, he's got a football team, 6-6, and they have got some offensive weapons. They play solid on defense led by defensive coordinator Phil Snow, who I've known for 20-plus years. I know offense, defense and special teams, they are going to be prepared to play.

I coached against Coach Rhule my first game at Vanderbilt when he was at Temple, and they gave us all we can handle. I know his teams are going to be prepared. He's a great coach and looking forward to the competition.

Q. You guys had to build up some momentum to roll to get to this point. Do you feel like your team is in a different place all together as you roll through the last month of practices? Do you see something different from them?
HEAD COACH DEREK MASON: I think the way you end one chapter is the way you start another, so yeah, we're able to garner some momentum towards the end of the season. That was exactly what we needed to get, you know, a 13th game. And now in this 13th game, we try to maximize every practice, opportunity, every meeting and everything that's been in front of these guys. I think these guys have really attacked it.

I like where this group is. We've got a lot of guys in this room that have played a lot of football. As I look around the room and I look at Dare and LaDarius and Jared and Kyle, these are guys, man, I wouldn't trade for anybody. We've been through wars together and understand how we prepare and now what we've got to do is go get a win.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the running game and Vaughn, his stats are amazing when he's healthy. How is he feeling now?
HEAD COACH DEREK MASON: Healthy. You know, when I look at Ke'Shawn Vaughn, he's practiced well, carry has practiced well, Jamauri Wakefield has practiced well. Josh Crawford has practiced well.

The great thing about having the month off is that you get a chance to get everybody healthy. For us when I look at the backfield, it's full of depth and we've got a nice group of guys that run through this I look forward to seeing these guys play.

Q. You talked about having kind of a month off before this game. How does that allow you to prepare differently from other games where you only have a week to prepare?
HEAD COACH DEREK MASON: You know, sometimes you can over think this process a little bit. I thought we did a good job of giving our guys a week off. Then we went into, you know, some practices, some young guy practices, where we've got veterans, some work that we're able to shake off a little bit of rust and just make sure that we kept the muscle memory going.

It was really about our young guys for about five or six of those practices, but then we really started to get back into the flow but again, you had finals and with that, you know, you've got to make the main thing the main thing.

At Vanderbilt University, when it's finals time, it's going to be finals time. We made sure we did a pretty good job of keeping our practices short, getting these guys on and off the field, and I thought our guys appreciated it. We didn't try to do too much this time around. Before, man, we had all types of events, and you know really sort of wore these guys out.

This time around, we just let them do themselves and really relax a little bit, and then once we were two weeks out, it was full Bowl prep and we were right into it. So it was game plan central. It's been really focused, really myopic like I said, and these guys have responded the way a veteran team should respond.

Q. You talked about the Independence Bowl and the experience this team had. How much does a win in a Bowl game, especially this one, how much can it do for your program moving forward into next year?
HEAD COACH DEREK MASON: We say the ball is everything for us and everything is the ball. Right now, when you have one more opportunity, you know, you don't practice, you don't do the work to come here and lose, okay. You play the game to win and that's exactly what I'm sure they are looking to do but I know that's what we're looking to do.

With that being said, it's not about issuing challenges. It's about making sure that your mindset is right. These guys' minds are right and we never backed off that. We know why we're here and now we're looking forward to playing the ballgame tomorrow night and that's about it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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