When Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason surveys the roster situations of the SEC East, he sees opportunity for Vanderbilt to compete in 2016.

“Right now, I don’t believe we’re behind anybody when you look at the pack on our side of the conference,” Mason told ESPN’s Chris Low. “Tennessee is probably at the top of that deal because of what they bring back. Florida still has to find a quarterback. You can say the same thing about Missouri, South Carolina and Georgia. You have a lot of guys at quarterback taking over for the first time. So, I think I’m right with everybody else and in a position with my football team to try and make sure that we are better offensively and on special teams, so that we can give ourselves a chance to play good football.”

As he points out, Tennessee returns 17 starters and is many experts’ pick to win the SEC East. Florida is not expected to repeat as division champion due to its quarterback situation. Beyond that, Missouri, South Carolina and Georgia all have to deal with new head coaches.

In his third season at Vanderbilt, Mason believes he finally has the experience and depth to compete with the rest of the division.

“Across the board, we’ve got experience and depth, and that’s something we haven’t had since I’ve been here,” Mason said. “We’ve had to play more freshmen than just about anybody and haven’t made any excuses about it. That’s just who we were. Now, going into the third year, I’ve got redshirt juniors with true juniors who have played a lot of football in this conference, and there’s no substitute for that.”

Mason isn’t making any bold claims, but implying that depth and experience were the issues in 2014 and ’15 could be setting himself up for trouble if the Commodores don’t succeed in ’16.

Under Mason, Vanderbilt has posted records of 3-9 and 4-8. Low argues that that the 4-8 mark is worse than it looks, with three of those losses by a combined 13 points. Scoring points has been an issue for Mason’s teams, but the coach believes his quarterback situation is improving with Kyle Shurmur having grown up in his freshman season.

“He’s cool, and he showed me a lot of growth from the first time he stepped onto the field until the end of the season,” Mason said. “I thought he got better every game he played. The clock in his head became SEC-ready real fast, and some guys don’t adjust to that.”

The big target for the season is a bowl berth. With improvements to depth and the offense, that could be in reach for the Commodores this season.