MURFREESBORO, TN – The smile on the face of Derek Mason  never wavered on National Signing Day.

Anyone who ran into the head coach in the hallway of Murphy Center on Wednesday would've seen the Middle Tennessee Football coach grinning from ear to ear most of the afternoon, as 16 future Blue Raiders signed their commitments to the program.
 
"We truly believe that every one of these young men will have a chance to impact our roster," Mason said. "Some earlier than others, but every one of them have the talent, the ability and, really, the skill set to really be dynamic players in Conference USA."
 
All 16 players (bios of which can be found here: http://GoBlueRaiders.com/NSD2025) excited Mason, the head coach said. But how did his staff center in on the class, one that Mason said was kept small by design and a desire not to reach for guys they felt wouldn't be able to impact the program. It started from the principles Mason set down when he was hired nearly a year to date from National Signing Day in 2023.
 
A Class that is Boro Built, soon to be Middle Made
 
From his introduction to the MTSU community in the atrium of the student union, Mason made it clear that in-state, high school recruiting was going to be a priority for his staff. With his strong mid-state connections forged over years at Vanderbilt, there was little doubt Mason, and his staff would compete in the growing recruiting hotbed of the Volunteer State. But saying that will be the focus and executing it and making it happen are different.
 
With 10 in-state recruits, including three from Rutherford County high schools, signed on Wednesday, there's no doubt where MTSU football's priorities lie in high school recruiting.
 
"That's us recruiting us," Mason said. "That's us being in our backyard, that's us being in our state, that's us trying to put arms around our borders."
 
The three Rutherford County products (Rockvale OL Bo Bryan, Blackman DL Archie Roseman V and Riverdale RB DJ Taylor) are well known to many in the area, but the Blue Raider staff worked all over the state, particularly in Middle Tennessee to bring in talent. Talent that's grown even better in the years Mason has spent in college football since he first arrived in Tennessee, the head coach said.
 
"The ball was getting better and better," Mason said. "I went out to watch high school football this year, and I was just amazed. I remember when I came here in 2014, I thought it was pretty good in their own pockets. Now I'm starting to see it everywhere, right? So, I think from top to bottom, you can go from Shelbyville to North Nashville, and you see lots of talent."
 
A recruiting philosophy manifested over a year
 
Mason highlighted four traits that he wanted this class to embody in his opening statement on Wednesday, priorities he laid out for the staff last January after everyone had been hired as a roadmap to evaluate talent. He wanted Blue Raider players of high character, particularly in their toughness mentally and physically. He wanted players with production, first and foremost, and then physical talent as well. And he wanted players that could help the team win right away.
 
Both of MTSU's early enrollees are still playing high school ball this weekend. Sevier County offensive lineman Otto Janse Van Rensberg plays for a state title in the TSSAA 5A Championship on Friday. Quarterback Stanley Anderson-Lofton, from Dr. Phillips HS in Orlando, Fla. is in the semifinals of the Florida playoffs.
 
That's no accident, Mason said, pointing out many of MTSU's recruits played deep into November this fall.
 
"You want winners," Mason said. "You want guys, men who know how to play football, they understand what winning football looks like, because that's what you build off of young men who know how to dig deep and actually work hard." 
 
The production, if you flip through these players' bios, is self-evident, and it's clear the group, as a whole, has physical traits to succeed. Just three of the 16 players measure shorter than six feet tall, for instance. When it came to assessing their character, Mason said that the four-to-five in-person contacts the staff was able to make with nearly every recruit (save for kicker Baylen Woodman, a late find out of Janesville, Wis.) led to plenty of time assessing their love of the game.
 
"When you come to college, it's going to be football, okay?" Mason said. "That's going to be a huge part of what you do. I know you. I know you can do the academics, but when we start talking football, I don't want to hear 'I don't quite get this.'"
 
Mason came away impressed with what this group can do on the white board breaking down concepts and formations, something that will help the group hit the ground running in their position rooms.
 
"I thought all these guys had high football IQ," Mason said. "That's the character piece to me. Because if you don't love football, then why are you here?"
 
And for helping the team win? Mason thinks the emphasis on scheme fit will be key.
 
"Look at the schemes, and can you see yourself playing in these schemes?" Mason said. "How are you going to impact this program? And I think part of that was a huge sell for these student athletes."
 
The next step: the free agency of the transfer portal
 
Mason referred to the signing class of 2025 as his program's 2025 Draft Class multiple times on Wednesday, a nod to how player recruitment and retention has changed in modern college football. Referring to the 16 players MTSU signed as the program's "first round draft picks", the program kept the theme going in their war room on Wednesday morning, putting draft cards of each athlete on the white board in the conference room to celebrate as each player signed.
 

 
Next up for the Blue Raiders, Mason said, was free agency, working in the transfer portal to fill immediate needs after a 3-9 season. Offensively, Mason said the Blue Raiders will look to bring in a few more dynamic receivers and tight ends, areas where the program had success this season with Omari Kelly and Holden Willis. But it all starts in the trenches.
 
"We need to go get offensive linemen, and we will," Mason said, before addressing the linemen in the portal directly. "If you're out there, I mean, you want to come play here. You want the opportunity to get the reps. You want the opportunity, man, to play with a really good quarterback. This is where you want to be."
 
Defensively, Mason said his staff plans to prioritize the edges of the defense, namely in getting pass rushing ends and outside backers in the box and defensive back talent on the perimeter.
 
"We're going to go get some corners, like on the edges, because I think we didn't set edges well enough," Mason said. "We didn't play well enough on the corners for our liking. So, we want older, more mature, productive players on the corners, in my mind."