Kyle Shurmur, Commodores are ready to ‘show up’

(TNS) — Vanderbilt senior quarterback Kyle Shurmur admits he has had quite the privileged life in the football world.

The son of first-year New York Giants and former Cleveland Browns head coach Pat Shurmur was raised in NFL training camps and stadiums, eagerly helping out in various ways. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Shurmur remembers serving as a ball boy with the Philadelphia Eagles when his dad was their quarterbacks coach.

“I was in second grade, and the Eagles had their training camp up at Lehigh University,” Shurmur said at SEC Media Days. “Obviously I was a little guy at that time, so I had to stand really far back away from the players so I didn’t get run over. It was a fun experience.

“I’ve been around several NFL organizations, and I’ve always thought it was so cool to see professionals work.”

Shurmur is entering his fourth season guiding the Commodores, having ascended to the top spot as a freshman in 2015, when he made five starts. He started all 13 games as a sophomore and was brilliant in November, completing 79 of 129 passes (61.2 percent) for 1,162 yards and five touchdowns in games against Auburn, Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee.

The Commodores defeated Ole Miss, 38-17, and Tennessee, 45-34, to clinch a 6-6 season in 2016 and a journey to the Independence Bowl, which represented Vanderbilt’s fourth postseason trip in six years.

Shurmur’s junior season last year included 2,823 passing yards with 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. His touchdown total set a single-season record for the Commodores, topping the 22 Whit Taylor threw in 1982.

“I truly believe Kyle Shurmur is one of the most improved quarterbacks and one of the most dynamic passers in this conference who people are not talking about,” fifth-year Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason said. “That’s OK. I don’t need people to talk about Kyle Shurmur. I know and I understand his pedigree, and I have seen his development from when he was a freshman to where he is now.

“I’ve seen him with weapons, without weapons, with an offensive line and without an offensive line. His growth and maturity is beyond his years. He believes in this team. This team believes in him. In this conference, it all starts with the quarterback position. If the quarterback can play well, you have a chance for success.”

Mason announced Thursday afternoon that backup quarterback Deuce Wallace has been suspended for the 2018 season for a violation of university policy.

Shurmur has made 30 career starts for the Commodores, but he tends to get overlooked in Southeastern Conference quarterback conversations that tend to start with Missouri’s Drew Lock, Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham, Mississippi State’s Nick Fitzgerald and the impending preseason competitions at Alabama and Georgia.

Of course, Shurmur plays for the smallest school in the conference and one that was just picked last in the Eastern Division, a spot they haven’t occupied since Mason’s debut season in 2014.

“I try not to compare myself too much, because I’m trying to be the best Kyle Shurmur I can be,” he said. “We’re all in different situations and different systems, so it’s hard to compare sometimes. We’ve got a bunch of guys who are internally motivated, and we try to block out the noise.

“We’re going to show up. We’re going to play, and we’ll see what happens.”

Shurmur does not lack for respect within the Volunteer State, having led the Commodores to consecutive double-digit wins over Tennessee for the first time since SEC football first kicked off in 1933. His career-high 416 passing yards led Vandy to its 11-point win over the Volunteers two years ago, and he threw for 283 yards and four touchdowns during last season’s 42-24 runaway inside a hushed Neyland Stadium.

What is it about facing Tennessee?

“I don’t think it was so much Tennessee as it was our team,” Shurmur said. “We wanted to finish the year strong. We had come off of two games — Kentucky and Missouri — where we really underachieved, and it was huge for our team to finish the way it did.

“We didn’t make a bowl, but I think that win really did carry into our offseason, and it motivated us to have more success this year. We want a more exciting offense, and we want more wins.”

Vanderbilt returns eight starters on offense, including tight end Jared Pinkney and five linemen, but the defense has only four starters back and must replace the likes of linebacker Oren Burks and former East Hamilton High School cornerback Tre Herndon. The Commodores were stout defensively last year in opening wins over Middle Tennessee State, 28-6, Alabama A&M, 42-0, and Kansas State, 14-7, but the Commodores then lost five straight, getting thrashed at home by both Alabama, 59-0, and Georgia, 45-14, the two programs that wound up playing for the national championship.

Among Shurmur’s many goals for 2018 is to avoid the snowball effect of 2017.

“Alabama and Georgia were both very physical teams, and they beat us pretty good,” Shurmur said. “What we had to do a better job of last year was not letting one loss turn into two and two into three. That’s what we did, and we didn’t recover as well as we should have.

“Give Alabama and Georgia credit. They were the better teams, but on our end we did a poor job of preventing one loss from turning into two and two to three.”