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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 15, 2018

Derek Mason

South Bend, Indiana

Notre Dame - 22, Vanderbilt - 17

DEREK MASON: First and foremost, congratulations to Notre Dame. I think they're a class act. Thank you, Notre Dame. Thank you to the football team. You're a class act.

We lost to a good football team today. For us it's another slow start. A game of missed opportunities. As you look at our football team, we lost the turnover margin. You can't go on the road and lose the turnover margin. We had our fair share of opportunities to score points by either putting the ball in the end zone or kicking it through the uprights. We failed to do that.

A close ballgame that heads their way. I thought this team showed a lot of fight. When it's all said and done, these guys just didn't make something happen. A game like this, there's going to be ebbs and flows. (Indiscernible) did a great job in the second half, second-half drives.

Untimely turnovers, like I said, sort of cost us. If you would have told me that we would have had the ball with 20 minutes left, go down and score... Got a lot of confidence in this team. To have that opportunity after what we have went through at Notre Dame I think speaks volumes to the type of team that we are.

We'll learn from this. A lot of young guys playing today. We'll move on to South Carolina. I told my team in the end that we didn't do enough today. There are no moral victories in this game. You win and you lose, that's it. Let's not try to sugarcoat it with we had a chance. That's not what you're looking for. You're looking for a win. Got a chance to win it, let's win it. Football is judged on wins and losses.

That being said, I'll turn it over to questions.

Q. Do you feel your team feels the same way, moral victory?
DEREK MASON: Yeah. We're past that. At some in point in time your culture has to grow up. The idea of just being involved ain't good enough. We're playing in the SEC. With that being said, we got to win.

I think our guys are going to take it. Like I said, our goal was to go 1-0 this week. You recalibrate. I know we'll be back to work. Tomorrow is a workday. Sunday we'll come in the building and work. We'll put this game to rest and we'll move on.

Q. What changed at halftime, something you said, the guys settles down?
DEREK MASON: You know what, I don't think it's anything that I said. I thought for us that we got to do a better job tackling. I thought getting to the football, trying to get heads to the football...

They had some things go their way. I mean, luck of the Irish. Playing at Notre Dame, what you have to expect is to win on special teams, offense and defense. I don't think we did enough of that.

I thought we played even. If you play Notre Dame even at Notre Dame, you're going to lose.

Q. (Question about momentum in the second half.)
DEREK MASON: Like I said, the difference in winning and losing this game is putting the ball through the uprights or in the end zone. If we do that, put the ball in the end zone, the uprights, I think we can win this game going away. But that wasn't the case.

Hats off to Notre Dame. No. 8 in the country. They showed their grit and their fight. They made plays when they needed to. We'll go home and get ready for South Carolina.

Q. You mentioned no moral victories. You went toe-to-toe with a ranked team in their home. Does that give you confidence?
DEREK MASON: I don't see it as a lack of confidence, to be honest. What we lacked today was execution. If we execute better, I think this team will get what's coming to them.

Q. Did you feel like the passing game matured today?
DEREK MASON: I thought guys made plays. Our matchups on the outside were much better. I thought we could have thrown for 600 in this ballgame. I just like the matchups. We had problems setting up the run. Each week you find a different formula. We had different guys catch the ball. I think that's going to be the nature of it.

Kyle has times where certain guys are on the wing, certain guys are going to get it on the ebb and flow of the offense. We saw some good catches in the second week in a row. I think it's a matchup problem. I think it's been a matchup problem for a while.

Q. (Question about Kalija.)
DEREK MASON: I think with that, I mean, he's comfortable going to that position. He's made enough plays. At the end of the day, we want to move chains. Has an opportunity to make a play, he didn't make it. If he makes it, you don't talk about this, you are talking about winning. At the end of the day we have to make plays.

Q. (Question about missed scoring opportunities.)
DEREK MASON: I said at halftime, in the halftime interview coming off the field, I thought we tackled poorly. Again, I mean, it goes back to for us not putting our eyes on the target. That's going to show up if we don't get that fixed. That's a byproduct of what we do. In practice we got to do a better job.

I thought they did a better job in the second half, but at the end of the day I thought it was abysmal.

Q. What changed for Kyle? Couldn't get it going at first, then a lot of 20-yard completions. Were adjustments made? Did the field just open for him?
DEREK MASON: Again, I thought instead of just sitting there and trying to take shots, man, we let him run the offense. When he runs the offense, he'll pick you apart. I don't care who you're going against. The pressure can't get there fast enough.

He has a quick release. I thought he released the ball fast, got it out. Put pressure on Notre Dame to get pressure on him. That's why they started pressuring him.

It opened the game up and we were able to take advantage of matchups. Thought they did a good job outside.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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