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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 31, 2019

Derek Mason

Nashville, Tennessee

Georgia - 30, Vanderbilt - 6

DEREK MASON: That showed today, as like in the second half, we just weren't able to get anything going. Conversely, defensively, I thought we were able to battle. This team never gave up, and they fought. Again, you learn a lot about yourself.

With that being said, it's the first game. It's a first game opportunity. I'll take all the information that we have. I know we can play better. We've got better football in us. And what we'll do is find a way to battle back, come back, get to work, and get ready for Purdue.

Last comment is probably well warranted. It has to do with Ryley Guay. I thought he kicked well. Ryley had a great off-season. I thought I could give him one last opportunity, but I wanted to see if we could punch it in the end zone. My mentality is definitely score points, but with that, I thought Ryley had a great day.

Q. Riley Neal completed 11 of 13 passes in the first half, so he was accurate, usually short stuff. Was that by design he was throwing short stuff?
DEREK MASON: Yeah.

Q. Or was it just what he saw?
DEREK MASON: I thought that's what the defense gave him. I thought they did a good job of playing top down, not wanting to give up anything on the outside early. That's really what it became. It became that type of ball game, where role coverage, sort of found Kalija most of the day, in terms of what it looked like. They were going to play over the top and try to single everybody else and make everybody else have to stand up.

There were a couple times with Riley -- I mean, he did a great job with his feet getting out of the pocket, but there were times he had to climb the pocket as well.

With that being said, I thought first half was solid. Second half, we've got to be better. We need it more, and we didn't function very well. We'll go back and take a look at it. Like I said, take any information and figure out where to go.

Q. Derek, three touchdowns first three possessions, four total. What changed or got better on that side of the ball after those first three possessions?
DEREK MASON: I thought it was about attacking, making them a little bit more one dimensional, making them get the third down. The reality for us is we didn't tackle well in the first half. Even in the second half, we bled a little bit, but you saw guys straining. I thought there was a lot more strain in the second half, and that was good to see. We needed that.

I mean, we're down some guys right now, probably like most teams. But with that, just challenge guys to strain a little more, play a little harder, fight a little harder to get off blocks. Be a little tougher on the edges and on the perimeter and challenge more outside, and I thought those guys did that.

Q. (Indiscernible) hopped off the field later on in the game. I'm sure you don't know the severity of that injury yet, but is that a head injury?
DEREK MASON: I don't know anything, believe me. I looked up. I saw him coming off the field. I couldn't pay much attention because there was a football game going on.

Q. Ke'Shawn left some games last year because of injury. He took a whole lot of shots tonight. He still had a lot of gas left in the tank. Were you pleased with how he handled contact?
DEREK MASON: I was. I was pleased with how he handled contact. He came into the season ready, physically ready to go. I thought he was primed. There were a couple of opportunities meant for him tonight where he was close, he was close to breaking one, but their idea was to make sure at the end of the day that they were going to make the box really heavy. Roll coverage to one, heavy on the other, and for us, man, we've got to be able to take advantage of it, but I thought Key ran hard all night.

Q. There has been a lot of patch work on the offensive line with injuries and whatnot. What's your assessment? They certainly were able to create some creases and didn't give up too much pressure. What did you see?
DEREK MASON: Well, I said it earlier, I thought the offensive line did a good job. I thought they worked hard. For the group that it is right now, you know, with four guys getting their first start against No. 3 in the country, I thought they handled it well. I thought they came out and really gave Georgia enough in the first half. They just didn't get enough opportunities.

Then what you slowly started to see was, with some of their pressure packages and what happened, we got flushed a little bit. Good thing is I didn't see a ton of penalties. We didn't have a ton of holding penalties or -- we had one -- they had a couple of procedures. Unfortunate, but I thought -- as a group, when you have four guys starting for the first time in the SEC against an SEC opponent, I thought these guys handled it pretty well.

Q. The three linemen that were out because of injury, Cochran, Saige Young, McMoore, are those long-term injuries? Are those game to game type?
DEREK MASON: They're day to day. You saw those guys out on the sideline. You saw them moving on the sideline. I think we're closer. Right now I'm in the day to day. When we get them back, we get them back. Here's the thing about football. You can't worry about the guys you don't have. You've got to worry about the guys you do. That's what you build on. That's what you work off of, and that's what we did.

I'm proud of these guys. We've got more work to do, and we've got to play against a Purdue team that had a rough game yesterday. We've got a short week. So we've got to get ready, and let's go.

Q. Is that the biggest road crowd you've ever seen here? How challenging is it to play at home with that many fans of their team here?
DEREK MASON: I didn't really notice it. I saw red, but I really didn't notice it. Once you get into the game. I mean, I'm a coach. I'm not worried about fans and what fans are doing. I'm more worried about my team and what we're doing.

But pregame, I had a chance to take it all in, and I thought it was a different crowd. I mean, I saw a lot of red. They seemed excited. They looked like they'd had a couple of beverages and having a good time. Nashville must have did them well.

Q. Have you ever played a faster team when you were at Stanford than what you saw tonight speeding across the field?
DEREK MASON: I saw good speed across the field. When I looked at it, Georgia is a really good team. I thought they ran fast. I thought they did a pretty good job covering things up, but I didn't think we were outmatched on speed. I didn't think we were outmatched on the perimeter. I didn't think we were outmatched. I thought their speed getting off the blocks and getting to the ball looked a little different at times. Overall, I think it's a really good Georgia team. That's why they're No. 3 in the country.

Q. You had a fake punt followed by a reverse. You had a throwback cam. Are we to take you kind of want to be somewhat creative, if you can, with the playbook?
DEREK MASON: I think we have to. The reality is that's part of how we want to play the game. We want to be aggressive when the opportunities present themselves. We saw some things that gave us an idea that we could run it. So we did.

And then in the last couple years, I think you can count the fakes. To me, if you're going to practice fakes, let's run them. If the opportunity presents itself, that's the way players start to buy into special teams and what you do and what it looks like. Scout the looks. When you get the look, be willing to take the opportunity.

Was it a risk? Absolutely. But it paid off. It gave us a possession. Unfortunately, we couldn't do anything with it, but that's what you're going to see. We hope to be much better on special teams. I thought tonight was okay all the way around. Not great, but solid.

Q. You gave up a lot of explosive plays in the running game, but in the passing game, maybe one, maybe two, but you seemed to contain them on the back end especially. How do you feel about your secondary right now?
DEREK MASON: I'm fine with the secondary. I've got no problems with my secondary. I think we've got to do a better job including the secondary, really setting edges. I thought what you saw tonight, the ball came downhill inside a fair amount, and I thought we were late getting off blocks and even seeing it. But when the ball got on the perimeter, I thought that had more to do with us setting edges. Our edges weren't very good tonight, and that's something you can't have because so many teams run screen. They're going to run split zone until you stop it.

I thought we did a better job in the second half, obviously, of being able to slow some of that stuff down. So help is on the way. We've just got to make sure we get back to work. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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