Derek Mason

Vanderbilt Coach Derek Mason speaks to media at SEC media days on Monday, July 14, 2014, in Hoover, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

(Butch Dill)

HOOVER, Ala. -- Derek Mason became head coach at Vanderbilt in January at a time when the program was more attractive than perhaps it has ever been.

With three straight bowl appearances and back-to-back 9-4 seasons, expectations in Nashville are greater than ever. But for Mason, he said it didn't matter if the Commodores were coming off back-to-back winless seasons.

Mason said the blueprint for how to win at an academically strong private school was already in hand from his four years at Stanford, including the last three as defensive coordinator. Vandy, he said, would have been attractive, regardless.

"Doesn't matter to me," said Mason, the lone first-year coach among the SEC's 14 head coaches. "It's the opportunity, especially coming from a place like Stanford where you actually saw it being done.

"I had the opportunity to see it firsthand in terms of the progress in strength and conditioning, what it looks like in terms of the young men that you recruit, how to work within these parameters."

He comes to a Vandy program that was on the upswing when head coach James Franklin left Nashville for Penn State after last season. The consecutive nine-win seasons were the best back-to-back campaigns in school history.

"But why have nine when you can have 10?," Mason asked. "Why have 10 when you can have 11?"

After all, for as giddy as Vandy supporters may be about their Commodores' newfound success, Stanford was even better playing in a similar power conference.

Vanderbilt Coach Derek Mason speaks to media at SEC media days on Monday, July 14, 2014, in Hoover, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

Mason left David Shaw's Stanford program after the Cardinal ran up four straight years of double-digit wins, including back-to-back Pac-12 titles and two BCS bowl wins.

He said the key is combating the notion that you can't win at an academic school.

"I think the reason why (Vanderbilt is able to recruit) is young men are willing now, along with their parents, to look at the idea of having it all," he said. "Why shortchange yourself? The idea of getting a world-class education and playing in the best conference in the country and winning.

"I tell you what, you'd be hard-pressed to find a parent who wouldn't buy that."

The notion of the egghead school competing might not raise an eyebrow anymore, thanks to the Stanford success in particular. But will what worked at Stanford work in the SEC?

Mason, known as the defensive coordinator who figured out how to slow down Chip Kelly's Oregon spread, acknowledged there is a big difference between offenses in the Pac-12 and SEC.

"Most people don't realize that the Pac-12 moved maybe to a different venue," he said. "I used to look at the Pac-12, it was all West Coast (offense) football. You look up, between Arizona, Washington State, Oregon ... everybody went the other way.

"You have very few teams that were West Coast anymore. You had 10 teams that were all spread."

In contrast, the SEC is more diverse offensively, even within the spread offenses, he said.

"When you look at a team like Auburn, how they run the football, it's no different than Alabama," he said. "They just do it in a different way. Really, when it's all said and done, the packaging has changed, but the idea is still the same. Control the clock."

So perhaps the personnel might be tweaked from what he looked for at Stanford, but the schemes will be the same: West Coast on offense and a 3-4 defense. He said the current players have bought into the new schemes and now the key is scouring the entire United States, not just the SEC footprint, for players that fit what he's looking for.

Those don't necessarily have to be 5-star combine stars, he said.

"I don't care about 2- or 3-star," he said. "Tell you what, you go back and you look at a guy like (former Vanderbilt receiver) Jordan Matthews, 2-star player. Richard Sherman (former Stanford star), was he even a star?

"I don't care about the stars. I care about what they put on tape. Does the tape look like what it needs to look like? ... Does he know how to play the game? If I can measure those things, I think I've found a football player."