Baylor's Brendon Harris catches the ball over his shoulder during a game against Notre Dame last season at Finley Stadium. Harris is now a freshman defensive back at Vanderbilt.NASHVILLE - Like most coaches of major college football programs, especially those in the Southeastern Conference, Vanderbilt's Derek Mason prefers his true freshmen be seen rather than heard this time of year.
That didn't keep the fifth-year Commodores boss from delivering a few words of praise in the direction of rookie Brendon Harris, the former Baylor School standout.
"Brendon's doing well," Mason said after Tuesday's physical practice, the Commodores' first in full pads. "He's an explosive, smart, physical player. He's going to make a smooth and immediate transition from Baylor to Vanderbilt. He possesses all the physical tools you want."
At least for Tuesday's practice, Mason appeared to want the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Harris - who actually looks bigger than that without his pads on - to play safety. And Harris, who will wear No. 13, certainly had his moments swarming to the football on running plays and keeping pace with receivers on passing plays.
"He's going to see action on special teams, and he looks like he might be able to help us on defense five to 10 snaps a game," Mason continued. "He's got to get better with the details, but at this point that's true of all our freshmen."
Charles Wright isn't a freshman. He's a 6-3, 240-pound senior linebacker from Irvine, California, who arrived in the Music City in 2014 as a part of Mason's first recruiting class. A season ago, his first as a full-time starter, Wright tied for the SEC lead with nine sacks.
As Wright attempted to cool down from Tuesday's hot, humid workout, he discussed what appears to be different about this team, at least in the early going, from his previous seasons on the West End.
"Literally everything is different," he said. "Practice has a whole different intensity. Everything is pedal to the metal."
To a degree, that's the pace of life Wright left behind when he came east from Southern California.
"The first couple of years were a big adjustment," said Wright, whose major is human and organizational development. "Not everybody is rushing to do something here. It's a slower way of life."
While he had been told to expect that, what he wasn't prepared for was SEC play as opposed to what he thought he knew about the Pac-12 he'd watched during his childhood and teen years.
"I didn't want people to hate on the Pac-12 before I came here," he said. "I thought the two leagues were pretty much the same. They're not. The SEC is bigger, stronger, faster. Once you play in the SEC, you realize that there are really only three football conferences: the NFC, the AFC and the SEC."
Asked if there was a single game that hammered home that belief to him, Wright instantly recalled the Commodores' upset of Georgia in Athens during the 2016 season. That 17-16 victory - in which linebacker Zach Cunningham looked like the second coming of recent Hall of Fame inductee Ray Lewis - sparked Vandy to four wins in its last six regular-season games, which secured a bowl bid.
"I just remember thinking, 'These are grown men out here and they're fighting to be pros, to get to the NFL and feed their families,'" Wright said. "It's grown-man football."
Mason believes his team is more ready to succeed in such a league than ever before at least in part because he has a grown man at quarterback in 6-4, 225-pound senior Kyle Shurmur, whose father, Pat, is the New York Giants' head coach.
"That's a luxury I finally get," Mason said with a grin concerning being able to count on a senior quarterback in the SEC. "I finally have someone with a lot of experience. We've joked about it with one another. Kyle's really ready to handle this. He's in his sweet spot now."
Shurmur is 19 touchdown passes behind Jay Cutler's program-record 59, and another season like last one - 26 TD tosses, 2,823 yards and 220 completions - would make him the Commodores' all-time leader in TD throws and have him right on Cutler's heels in the other two categories.
As good as Shurmur is, it's the projected future for young talents such as Harris that has Mason believing Vanderbilt's best days are to come.
Pointing to the 17 players, including Harris, the Commodores were able to secure during the early signing period last December, Mason pointed to that new period and said, "That has changed the game."
To watch Harris's early good work in the secondary, his actions speaking far louder than any words could have, it would certainly appear to be that way.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.