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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 21, 2019

Derek Mason

Nashville, Tennessee

LSU - 66, Vanderbilt - 38

DEREK MASON: Just looking at ourselves, we were playing with house money. We had a chance to really take some chances, try to force some issues, try to make some things happen and those things didn't necessarily go our way, but what I can tell you is that this, the early part of the season it's been a difficult stretch for this football team. This was a good test, to really take some chances, try to force some issues, try to make some things happen. And those things didn't necessarily go our way but what I can tell you is that this, the early part of the season it's been a difficult stretch for this football team. What I talked to this football team about is we were better today in certain situations than we have been. Less penalties, which means that you didn't beat yourself and now what we got to do is clean up the things that are on the table, like tackling, like an opportunity to get off the field on third down, there's plenty of opportunities out there for us and we will be better. But as I looked, I thought Joe Burrow did a good job. Joey or Joe is no different than I remember him. He's brash, he's going to talk a little trash, but he loves to back it up. I love the competitive spirit. It was fun to watch him today work. Again he's a competitor, I'm a competitor, we're all competitors and that's just what I like to see.

I thought looking at our team overall offensively we had opportunities. We did some things coming out of the bye that I thought gave them some fits on that first drive and allowed us to get into the end zone. Defensively again we just struggled at times to tackle at the point of contact and that really hadn't been something that showed up. But it showed up today. Again, we'll go back, we'll continue to make sure that we fix what needs to be fixed. I thought special teams today hurt us at times. We were backed up on a punt situation and we make a call, one of the guys doesn't hear the call. The two guards, I mean two guys are on the guard, we get quick penetration on the shield and the ball gets blocked. Great for LSU, poor for us. Communication is free. It's not a one-man job. It's not like guys are paying phone bills out there. No Sprint, no Verizon, no AT&T. Our guys got to communicate and make sure we get it right and we can clear that up. So communication again is on the menu for us and we just got to do a better job. As I look I just thought this football team, we showed some fight. They could have stepped out of this game, but this group is going to continue to battle. Ke'Shawn ran hard today, I thought Pink played hard, I thought Kalija showed some big boy material out there in terms of how he plays. Those guys are real, those guys can play, they did it, they have been able to do it against one of the top teams in the country. But now everybody else has got to come along with them. We got a stretch run of football games where I think this team can really start to get after some things, but we got to tighten it up all the way around and I look forward to that. But again hats off to LSU, and let's open it up to questions.

Q. Back-to-back games your defense has given up a whole lot of passing yards. What's missing there and are you convinced that it's, that you can fix it?
DEREK MASON: We have given up yards, a lot of those were in explosives in terms of tackling. And again I don't know what else to do -- and it comes back to us we got it find drills to drill it better. But you put guys in position, guys got to make plays. Football's not about schematics for coaches, players make it come alive. Just looking at ourselves, we were playing with house money. We had a chance to really take some chances, try to force some issues, try to make some things happen and those things didn't necessarily go our way, but what I can tell you is that this, the early part of the season it's been a difficult stretch for this football team.

And it comes back to us. We got to find drills to drill it better. But you put guys in position, guys are going to make plays. Football's not about schematics for coaches, players make it come alive. Right, wrong or indifferent that's just the way this game is. That's not any blame on anybody. We just got to tackle better. Every one of those, you saw a tackle or two or three missed just because of poor angles. That's how you practice. That's how you have to play the game. We got to clean it up and when we clean it up we'll be better. We'll chase all those explosive plays off the map. When we chase those things off the map the rest of the numbers sort of fall into place.

Q. It also looked like there was some soft coverage, giving a whole lot of room of the line of scrimmage. Is that intentional or is that something where guys need to press a little more?
DEREK MASON: It wasn't soft coverage, it was zero coverage. So when you're bringing pressure on the quarterback -- let's face it, Joe got hit a couple times today, let's talk about that. We brought some pressure, guys were playing off because the tighter you are the tougher it is to be able to play the ball and find the ball. So it wasn't about that, guys couldn't move their feet, we had to find angles, we worked on finding angles we didn't do it good enough and it wasn't soft coverage, it was tight coverage with trigger mentality and we just missed some angles, that's all.

Q. Kind of along those lines your defense has given up 138 points in the first three games, how much of it is that versus the guys you played?
DEREK MASON: It's both. I think we played some good football teams, with good weaponry, but that's really what this conference is. But half of it has been about what offenses have done, but the other part has been about what we have missed. How many contested balls have been caught and then you see Kalija today, he breaks a tackle after the catch. It happens. It's happening more for us because we're not driving to, through and beyond contact, we're laying on contact and when you lay on contact guys in this conference will run away from you. That's just the bottom line.

Q. You talked about getting pressure. You did that later in the game. In the first part it didn't happen as much. Some of the touchdowns were four-man rushes. Would you call those differently if you had some of them over in say the first quarter in particular?
DEREK MASON: Our first three plays of the game were zero pressure. So I'm not going to say that I would do it any different, what happened was on some of the zero pressures, guys just didn't get there. Part of what you want is the quarterback not to feel like he can step up in the pocket. Joe Burrow stepped up in the pocket and delivered a strike which turned into a touchdown. The reality is that can't happen. Now there were a couple times early that you saw some eight-man drop like the one where he looks up and he throws down field and Dimitri is covering the tight end 45 yards down field, you're looking for some pressure, that's when you say to yourself, listen, don't let this guy sit back there and throw the football all day. But he's one of the best quarterbacks in the country, so you got to give him credit too. He made some good throws, their players made some good plays. We were in position to make some tackles and we didn't. So I'm not going to say that I should have called more pressure because if I look at that game I probably called 20 to 25 zero pressure. That's a lot of pressure.

Q. With the turnout for Georgia fans last game and LSU fans this game, do you worry about that affecting your guys at some point?
DEREK MASON: Our guys block that out. We don't worry about that. Once our guys are in the game they have got to focus on playing the game. I don't think our guys are really looking at that. You may see it in pregame and post, but really for us Commodore Nation comes out, you got a lot of -- SEC fans are so different. They're going to travel. In this conference they are what they are. And when you have a city like Nashville everybody wants to come here. So LSU fans get a chance to come to Nashville once every eight years, so I mean it doesn't surprise me that they showed up and really tried to enjoy West End, the Gulch and everything else that Nashville has to offer. That's just part of the allure of what Nashville is. So it doesn't affect us, we just play ball. Whoever shows up shows up. Commodore Nation, keep coming.

Q. You talked about playing with house money earlier. What did you mean by that?
DEREK MASON: Just playing with house money. Nobody expects you to win so what you got to do is go play aggressive. I thought offensively it was an aggressive game plan, I thought defensively like we worked, we just missed some things. So we brought more pressure than we probably normally would and I think at times it helped, at times it didn't get us off the field because we didn't execute. Everything comes back to execution. Football's still a game where, again, schematics are schematics you still got to make it come alive. We got to be a little better. I thought there were times where it looked really good and times where, hey, we need some more work.

Q. Locker room still pretty confident you can turn 0-3 around?
DEREK MASON: Absolutely. This group, I looked at this group in there and this group, I told them, I said, hey, heads up, eyes on me, let's make sure that we understand exactly where we have been. We have been to a place that probably only two or three football teams in the country have been in the first three weeks of college football. We got a lot of football left to play. You're talking about nine games. Nine games. That's a lot of football for this group and this group has shown that they can score points. We got to tighten some things up on special teams and defense, but let's get ready to make a run. So Commodore Nation, let's get ready to make a run. Anchor down.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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