Derek Mason sees a lot of himself in ‘alpha competitor’ Donovan Kaufman

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Derek Mason sees a lot of himself in ‘alpha competitor’ Donovan Kaufman

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

4-5 minutes

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Vanderbilt's Donovan Kaufman runs back a kickoff in the second half of an NCAA college football game against LSU Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. LSU won 41-7. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)AP

Derek Mason sees a lot of himself in Donovan Kaufman.

That shouldn’t come as a big surprise, as the two have developed a strong bond over the last few years, starting when Kaufman was a three-star safety prospect in Louisiana. That relationship grew last year at Vanderbilt, where Mason was head coach and Kaufman was a promising freshman defensive back.

Now their journeys have brought both to Auburn, with Mason taking over as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator under Bryan Harsin and Kaufman following his former head coach to the Plains this summer thanks to the NCAA’s one-time transfer rule.

“Donovan and I have been close for a while,” Mason said Monday. “… Our relationship has been good. It’ going to continue to grow. I believe this much: We’re very much alike in terms of our personalities. He wants to win; I want to win. He’s a competitor; I’m a competitor.”

That like-mindedness and connection is what drew Kaufman to Auburn in the offseason.

The 5-foot-10, 200-pounder was one of Vanderbilt’s brightest young stars, but his freshman season with the Commodores was derailed due to a bout with COVID and a diagnosis on myocarditis. After earning a starting job in the preseason, he started each of Vanderbilt’s first two games of the season, when he recorded 15 tackles and averaged 27.4 yards on five kickoff returns.

He didn’t see the field again for Vanderbilt, and when the program parted ways with Mason after a 0-8 start, Kaufman was surprised by the decision. He gave new head coach Clark Lea and his staff a chance in the spring, but decided it was best to transfer. He was pursued by several programs but his final decision came down to Texas and Auburn, ultimately choosing the Tigers and the opportunity to reunite with Mason, with whom he enjoyed his experience at Vanderbilt — despite all the hurdles and setbacks of his freshman season.

“It starts with the recruiting process, right?” Mason said. “You go through the recruiting process and obviously I became close with him and his family. They trusted and liked the idea that I’ve always talked about — I think in recruiting it’s always about, you know, as a coach and a program can you give a better product back to parents than the one they dropped off? And his parents felt that way about his time, even though Donovan went through COVID and his first year playing at Vandy had good experience, I think they really trusted the idea of, I was who I said I was.”

That was something Kaufman echoed this summer while speaking with AL.com about going through the recruiting process a second time and his decision to transfer to Auburn.

“He wants the best from his players,” Kaufman said in May. “And then outside of football, he’s a great man. You can ask anybody about him. Nobody’s ever had anything bad to say about him. I asked about him. Coaches tell me the same thing. I asked about Coach Mason and they were like, ‘I ain’t heard anything bad about him.’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s genuine. He’s a real guy.”

Now Kaufman is on the Plains, 100 percent healthy after everything he endured last fall, and despite being one of four incoming transfers in the secondary, he heads into the season with the most experience in Mason’s system out of any of Auburn’s defensive backs. He’s vying for time at safety alongside returning starter Smoke Monday — competing with Ladarius Tennison and fellow transfer Bydarrius Knighten for that role — and “may play” some nickel as well. Monday described him as fast, physical and the type of athlete he could play with in the secondary “any day.”

“He’s an alpha competitor,” Mason said. “And he actually competes more than he speaks. So, what it comes down to is he’s a worker and those are the type of guys that you want to be around.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.