New Vanderbilt Coach On Penn State ‘We will play any time and place, anywhere.’

Posturing is part of the head coaching job, especially a new head coach looking to get fans fired up. So as Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason said the following at an event on Sunday the quote is as much honest as it is a quick pep rally.

“If James Franklin wants to play, we will play any time and place, anywhere.” Mason said according to the Tennessean.

In all likelihood the two programs won’t be running into each other on the field anytime soon outside of a possible bowl meeting. Penn State’s schedule is fairly well established for the foreseeable future and Penn State has little to gain by playing Vanderbilt even with the SEC conference reputation behind it.

Penn State has locked up Virginia Tech and West Virginia for future meetings  in the 2020s, but even in hindsight it might be too early to schedule much farther ahead than that.

Franklin has dodged all of the verbal jabs so far as Pitt coach Paul Chyrst took a small shot at Franklin’s claim that Penn State was going to “Dominate the state” in recruiting.

“I heard people talk about it, I didn’t hear him say that,” Chyrst said. “People can talk about whatever they want to say, I think it’s what you do. You really don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it.  We know it’s a competitive world. People can talk all they want, the actions are going to speak loudest.”

Franklin followed up those comments with two verbal commitments from two of the state’s Top 10 prospects.

Both sagas have been entertaining but not much more than that.