Joe Rexrode

The Tennessean

There’s never been more reason to believe in Derek Mason.

There’s never been more reason to question Butch Jones.

Mason’s Vanderbilt Commodores scored the program’s biggest win in many years Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium, 45-34 over Jones’ 24th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers in a rivalry shootout for the record books. How many years? If you’re looking for the last Vanderbilt triumph over a winning UT team, you’re going back to 1982.

If you want the last win over a nationally relevant UT team, you might have to stretch all the way back to the Great Depression and General Robert Neyland’s 1937 Vols. Of course, “nationally relevant” is quite a stretch anymore for this UT team, which started the regular season in the top 10 as the clear SEC East favorite and ended it in a haze of Kyle Shurmur bombs.

SEC East? Choked away at South Carolina. Sugar Bowl? Blown at Vanderbilt. So bring on more depression for a fan base that thought this was the big year and now will await a middling bowl bid for an 8-4 team.

Bring on the criticism, too, of Jones, who cannot explain away his team’s dreadful defensive finish simply by talking injuries. He didn’t talk much after Saturday’s loss — four minutes, per the partial press corps that actually made it to the interview room in time — but there was no reasonable explanation for this performance anyway.

It’s true that the injuries have been extreme, but a Vanderbilt team that had maybe a handful of big plays in October just scored the program’s most points in an SEC game since 1971.

Shurmur (21 for 34, 416 yards, two touchdowns) was absolutely magnificent in clinching a bowl bid for the Commodores (6-6) after they fell well short in Mason’s first two seasons.

A postseason spot was already assured by kickoff based on a bloated bowl slate, not enough 6-6 teams to fill the spots and Vandy’s excellent academic performance — but the back door of the chemistry lab was not the way Mason’s team wanted to get there.

They got there by blasting through the Vols' leaky front door, rolling up 608 total yards and coming back from an early 21-7 deficit.

"That's bragging rights," Vanderbilt defensive tackle Adam Butler said. "For 365 days, we own Tennessee, until they do something about it."

The Vanderbilt rushing attack got going late and the defense finally got the stops it needed, but it was Shurmur bombing away to Trent Sherfield (nine catches, 184 yards) and Caleb Scott (four for 117) that made this happen.

Remember two weeks ago, when the Commodores looked finished after a 26-17 loss at Missouri? That performance, like losses to South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky and Auburn, featured too many squandered opportunities and too little offense.

Then the sophomore Shurmur threw for 273 yards in a rollicking 38-17 romp over Ole Miss. Then he had a career high of 333 by midway through the third quarter Saturday night, on a UT secondary that looked just as surprised as everyone else. The world hasn’t seen self-discovery in the air like this since Matt Damon’s hit movie “The Martian.”

"I challenged these guys to find their inner super hero," Mason said. "And Kyle Shurmur was as cool as the other side of the pillow."

Ralph Webb backed that up with another 100-yard night in becoming Vandy’s all-time leading rusher. And though Vanderbilt star linebacker Zach Cunningham missed some tackles like most of his teammates, he forced UT senior quarterback Joshua Dobbs to fumble it away to end the third quarter, the senior’s first mistake.

That set up a 49-yard drive for Vandy’s first lead, 38-34 with 12:15 left. And that would stand, in an atmosphere that felt like a huge high school game — mostly orange on the east side behind the UT bench, mostly black and gold on the west side behind the Vandy bench.

Certainly, there were more Vols fans in the crowd of 38,108, but they were drowned out as the Commodores stacked big play on top of big play. And Dobbs — who was mostly spectacular with 31-for-34 passing for 340 yards and two touchdowns — could not bring his team back late as the roar continued to build.

“Obviously it sucks, but we’re gonna have to be ready to play in our bowl game … the opportunities were there, we just didn’t take advantage of them,” said Dobbs, who stood in there and took every question that came his way with class, as he always does. “It’s upsetting.”

Or to quote UT sack master Derek Barnett, it’s “unacceptable” and an embarrassment. Tennessee is a program that should be contending for SEC championships and playoff spots on a regular basis. Jones will have to over-deliver in his fifth season to convince people he can make that happen in Knoxville.

Mason just has to keep doing what he’s doing.

Follow Joe Rexrode on Twitter @joerexrode.

VANDERBILT 45, TENNESSEE 34