Derek Mason Says Brian Kelly Can Take Cut-Blocking Comments and 'Keep It Moving'

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly publicly took issue with Vanderbilt cut-blocking tight end Alize Mack during the team's 22-17 win, but Commodores head coach Derek Mason was having none of it.

"Brian Kelly can take his comments and keep it moving," Mason said Wednesday, per Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com. "If he has something personal with me, he can come see me."

On Tuesday, Kelly claimed Mack "was getting cut[-blocked] maliciously" by Vanderbilt's defensive linemen.

"It's legal, but it's bad football," Kelly added. "It's just bad football, and I have no problem saying it. You know, we're so concerned about frontal cuts, and we got a defensive end chopping [Mack] on every play, and he hung in there every play, was digging him out, blocking in line."

As Rittenberg noted, it's generally defensive lineman who are the ones who get cut-blocked, or blocked below the waist, and that NCAA rules allow the technique as long as it occurs within five yards of the line of scrimmage and the player performing the action blocks the front side of his opponent.

Mason, however, had his own gripes about Notre Dame.

"When you go back and watch that game, from the holding to the post chops by Notre Dame, I thought it was bad football on their part," Mason said, per Nicole Saavedra of the Tennessean. 

So both teams played bad football against one another, apparently. The win moved Notre Dame to 3-0 on the season, while Vanderbilt fell to 2-1.