Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason was pleased with his team’s performance after the Commodores notched a 45-31 win over Arkansas on Saturday, their first SEC victory of the season.

Mason praised his team for winning the turnover battle, while also sharing that he believes more positives are on the way for Vanderbilt.

“The challenge of this ball game, at times, helped this team grow up,” Mason said during his postgame press conference. “Offense didn’t give the ball away, defense took the ball away. And really when you look at the ball game, that’s the difference in the ball game. It’s just about continuing to get what’s there, because there’s a lot left for this football team. But they had to get one before they could do anything else.”

The Commodores had lost all four of their previous SEC games this season — South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Kentucky.

After a bye next week, Vanderbilt finishes its season with conference matchups against Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee.

“We get a chance to rest up, heal up,” Mason said. “I’m just proud of this football team, impressed with the way they responded. It’s never easy when you’re just trying to get that one, trying to break through, and I thought they broke through the right way.”

Watch more of Mason’s comments from his postgame press conference in this video from The Tennessean: