NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The foundation from which head coach Derek Mason has built his program at Vanderbilt includes three pillars: being relentless, tough and intelligent.
It’s this trio of ideals from which Mason wants his Commodores to draw strength from after a rough start to the first half of the 2019 season.
“It’s about RTI. It’s never moved from that,” Mason said this week. “Sometimes guys forget about that because you’re battling noise. And sometimes when you’re battling noise you got to sit there and find a place where you can be calm, listen to yourself.
‘When you listen to too many people you can’t get anything done. When you listen to yourself, you got the answers. That’s what I’m having these guys do right now and that’s where we got to go.”
The Commodores (1-5, 0-3 SEC) are coming off a 34-10 loss at home to UNLV last week and next face No. 22 Missouri (5-1, 2-0 SEC) at 3 p.m. Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium. Mason’s team will be big underdogs in that game and odds are stacked against it to advance to a bowl game for the third time in the past four seasons.
That doesn’t mean Vandy will simply give up on the remainder of the year. The Dores don’t have that in their nature.
“I think that’s the character that coach has recruited with the players on this team,” Vanderbilt senior wide receiver Justice Shelton-Mosley said. “We wouldn’t be in a position to play here at Vanderbilt or anywhere else if you didn’t have the character that it takes to continue to work.
“That’s hard work and that’s having a positive mindset. The things that are guiding a lot of people here is the things that we just have to continue to do.”
Mason didn’t shy away this week from the challenges that lie ahead for his team. After No. 22 Missouri visits this weekend, and following an off weekend after that, the Commodores have back-to-back road trips to South Carolina and Florida, respectively, before games later in November against division rivals Kentucky and Tennessee.
Now in his sixth season, Mason said to get through that stretch his team must be tough and that has to consist of converting offensively on third down, getting defensive stops and improving its tackling. The intelligence piece includes not hurting the team with penalties and, after making a crucial mistake, not making that same mistake a second time.
As for being relentless, Mason knows his Commodores will have to continue to fight and battle while those outside the locker room may want to them to stop.
“What I’m trying to get these young men to do is to continue to trust in the process, but more than that trust in the people around them. That’s when it gets hard is when people start to talk and the voices get loud and the attacks start to come. Then guys want to retreat,” Mason said. “So what we have to do is make sure that they don’t retreat so far that they become reclusive to what’s around them. They immerse themselves in everything that’s purely Vanderbilt. We stand up on that and just learn how to trust one another, believe in one another and continue to work.
“Believe me, we got the answers. The answers are inside, they’re not outside. So we just got to keep going.”
Vanderbilt is 1-5 for the first time since 2014 – Mason’s first year at the helm. A loss Saturday would make the Commodores 1-6 for the first time since 2003, yet still eligible to reach the postseason should they win out after that.
“People have things to say always about every situation,” Vanderbilt redshirt-junior defensive lineman Drew Birchemeier said. “There’s a lot of coaches in the stands, but we have the coaches that we need in our rooms and the people that we need and all the information that we need in house.
“Everyone’s going to say something. That’s fine. That’s alright. We’re OK with that. Just keep believing in the process and the system and what you’re being told and coached to do and keep going from there.”
