Mason Fine

Mason Quinn Fine (born April 19, 1997) is an American former professional football quarterback. He played in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and played college football for the North Texas Mean Green. He currently serves as the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for Muskogee High School in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Early life Fine, who is one-quarter Cherokee, grew up in Peggs, Oklahoma. He has Cherokee lineage on both sides of his family and is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. According to a 2020 story by Yahoo Sports journalist Jeff Eisenberg, Fine's development as a quarterback began in the summer before his sixth-grade year, during which he attended a quarterback camp at the University of Oklahoma. The young Fine paid special attention to former Oklahoma star quarterback and then-current Sooners assistant Josh Heupel, observing Heupel's throwing motion and paying attention to the advice he offered. During each day's drive home from the camp, he wrote down what he had learned. After the camp, Fine and his father Dale typed up the notes, and he went so far as to place a printed copy next to his bed.

Fine was initially trained by his father, who had never played football at any level. Each day, the two would teach one another proper throwing motion via the notes they took at the aforementioned camp. In Eisenberg's story, Dale recalled, "It was hours and days and months and years of repetition. The motto we went by was that it wasn’t just practice that made perfect. It was perfect practice that made perfect." By the time Mason finished his eighth-grade year, they no longer worked on his mechanics. The following summer, he attended a quarterback camp at which an instructor praised his throwing motion and asked about his quarterbacks coach. Eisenberg noted, "The instructor couldn’t believe it was his dad, let alone that Dale Fine had no previous football experience."

Recruitment Despite his gaudy high school statistics, Fine finished his senior season without a single scholarship offer, largely due to his lack of size. During a summer camp before his senior season, an assistant for Arkansas State pulled him aside, praising his arm strength and ability to escape a collapsing pocket. However, he then told Fine that his small size made it unlikely that he would ever play at a Division I FBS school, instead offering to recommend him to Division I FCS or Division II schools. Fine would tell Eisenberg, "I was polite and told him that I appreciated it, but inside I was fuming." This coach was not alone in his sentiment; Fine went without an offer even after sending out numerous highlight tapes and attending camps at four other FBS schools. Rice showed strong interest after Fine's junior season, but went with a considerably taller prospect; Oklahoma State recruited him only as a walk-on, and did not make him an offer even after its main quarterback target rescinded a verbal commitment to the school; and when Hennesy called Kansas State's Bill Snyder about Fine, Snyder responded that he didn't recruit quarterbacks under 6 feet tall.

College career

North Texas Fine started nine games for North Texas as a true freshman in 2016, throwing for 1,572 yards and breaking the school record for longest play from scrimmage with an 80-yard touchdown run against UTSA to earn a spot on the Conference USA All-Freshman team. Over his sophomore and junior years, Fine led the Mean Green to 9 victories in each season and threw for a total of 7,845 yards and 58 touchdowns. He earned back-to-back CUSA Offensive Player of the Year awards and broke the school's career passing yards record along the way. Going into Fine's senior season in 2019, he was named as the top college quarterback in Texas by Dave Campbell's Texas Football and received national media attention for the Heisman campaign started on his behalf by the UNT athletic department.

Statistics Season Team GP Passing Cmp Att Pct Yds TD Int 2016 North Texas 10 155 261 59.4 1,572 6 5 2017 North Texas 14 324 511 64.0 4,052 31 15 2018 North Texas 13 303 469 64.6 3,793 27 5 2019 North Texas 11 235 380 61.8 2,820 27 7 Career 48 1,017 1,621 62.7 12,237 91 32

Professional career After going undrafted in the 2020 NFL draft, Fine had a tryout with the Chicago Bears on August 17, 2020.

Fine had been on the Saskatchewan Roughriders' negotiation list since 2017. He signed a three-year contract with the CFL team on December 30, 2020.

Fine spent the majority of his first season in the CFL on the practice roster. Fine dressed for the final regular season game, and completed 5 passes for 64 yards. He also dressed in the West Semi-Final and West Final as the team's backup quarterback.

On October 19, 2022, it was announced that Fine would be the Riders' starting quarterback for their penultimate match of the 2022 regular season against the Calgary Stampeders. In his first CFL start, Fine completed 18 of 28 pass attempts for 196 yards with one touchdown. The Riders were defeated, resulting in Saskatchewan missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016. He also started the team's final game of the regular season, a 36–10 loss in Calgary.

Fine began the 2023 season as the backup quarterback to veteran Trevor Harris. When Harris suffered a serious knee injury in Week 6, Fine finished the game, and started the next four games. In the fourth start, a game in Montreal on August 11, Fine left the game with injury in the second quarter and did not return. He missed four games with injury, and would dress for the final five games of the regular season, only seeing action in one game.

On January 23, 2024, Fine signed a two-year contract extension with the Roughriders.

CFL career statistics Year Team Games Passing Rushing 2021 SSK 1 0 5 9 55.6 64 7.1 0 0 78.0 0 0 0 0 2022 SSK 17 2 67 102 65.7 690 6.8 3 3 82.6 9 52 5.8 02023SSK1449513868.81,0497.63583.310575.70

Coaching career On January 24, 2025, Fine was hired to serve as the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at Muskogee High School in Muskogee, Oklahoma.