Derek Mason leaving Oklahoma State Cowboys to take 'sabbatical' from college football

STILLWATER — For the second straight offseason, Oklahoma State is in the market for a defensive coordinator.

Derek Mason announced on Thursday that he has "decided to take a sabbatical from coaching in college" football when his one-year contract for $1.1 million with the Cowboys expires on Jan. 31.

Mason, a former head coach at Vanderbilt, joined OSU for the 2022 season after a one-year stint at Auburn. He had also previously coached at Stanford, Ohio, New Mexico and with the Minnesota Vikings among other stops during a successful 30-year coaching career.

OSU head coach Mike Gundy thanked Mason in a statement saying, "The positive effect he's had on our players, staff and program has been awesome. I know it was a tough decision, but life is bigger than football."

Last January, Mason replaced Jim Knowles, who left after the 2021 season to become Ohio State's defensive coordinator.

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“I look forward to spending time with my family to rest and reflect on opportunities within the game I love,” Mason wrote in a message posted on Twitter. “I have been blessed during my tenure at Oklahoma State to work alongside Coach Gundy. His leadership and consistency are unmatched in the profession.”

The offseason has been full of change and rumors of change within the OSU program. The Cowboys have seen 16 scholarship players enter the transfer portal, with 11 commitments from portal players coming into the program.

The potential for coaching changes have been buzzing since early December with no movement. Yet even with his expiring contract, Mason’s spot as defensive coordinator seemed solidified until Mason’s Thursday announcement to step away.

So Gundy is left to look for his seventh defensive coordinator entering his 19th year as head coach.

Of his previous five replacement hires, Gundy has gone outside of the program four times. His only internal promotion was Glenn Spencer replacing Bill Young in 2013.

Last year, when Gundy was conducting the search that eventually turned up Mason, OSU linebackers coach Joe Bob Clements had become a popular name for a possible promotion. He would likely be in the mix once again, as would cornerbacks coach Tim Duffie and safeties coach Dan Hammerschmidt.

But the internal candidates lack play-calling experience, having only done it for one game when they worked together in place of Knowles for the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the 2021 season.

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Clements, who has been at OSU the past 10 seasons, is at the end of the first year of a two-year contract that pays him $600,000 per year, and would likely be in line for a raise if he were promoted to coordinator.

With Mason’s departure, Clements and offensive line coach Charlie Dickey are the second-highest-paid on-field assistants for the Cowboys, behind offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn at $900,000 per year.

If Gundy chooses to go outside the program, he will have a variety of options, but a tighter schedule in which to make a decision. In hiring Mason to replace Knowles, Gundy took more than seven weeks to finalize the decision.

But with several new players arriving this week to begin classes next Tuesday, and the late signing period less than three weeks away, Gundy’s timetable will be condensed.

In hiring Mason, Gundy elected to keep the basic scheme and terminology of the defense Knowles had installed over the previous four years, a trend Gundy has stuck with over his last few offensive coordinator hires.

He will have to decide if he wants to continue that method, or let an outside candidate bring his own scheme and language to the program.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football: Derek Mason to leave Cowboys after one season