For the second year in a row, Vanderbilt enters the season with a clear-cut starter at the quarterback position. That wasn’t the case in Derek Mason’s second year — when Johnny McCrary narrowly beat out then-true freshman Kyle Shurmur for the start in the season opener, but ultimately ceded the starting job to Shurmur midway through the season. And it definitely wasn’t the case in 2014, when Patton Robinette got yanked in the Temple game and, uh, the less said about the quarterback play that year, the better.
But 2016 was different. While there were some shenanigans in the season opener against South Carolina (again, the less said, the better), Shurmur asserted enough production that backup Wade Freebeck attempted only 13 passes all season to Shurmur’s 375.