The days of back-to-back nine-win seasons are firmly in the rear-view mirror for Vanderbilt.

James Franklin has been gone for two seasons, and he’s not coming back.

While the 7-17 record the Commodores have accumulated under two years of Derek Mason’s leadership may seem like “business as usual” to the rest of the SEC, Vanderbilt fans are stuck in between a rock and a hard place trying to reconcile the excitement of the heightened performance during the Franklin years with the fears of falling back into the “same ole’ Vandy” mantra that they lived with for decades prior to his arrival.

It may be hard to see from afar, but there is reason for those fans to exhibit cautious optimism for the 2016 Vanderbilt football team.

The Commodores return eight starters from a defense that ranked 28th in the FBS in total defense, and a crop of talented defenders recruited to Nashville with the promise of playing for Mason get a year older. Vanderbilt moves another year into the 3-4 conversion, and is three years into recruiting players to fit the scheme.

The chances are good that the Commodores will again have a defense worthy of being considered among the league’s best.

Whether Vanderbilt becomes bowl eligible in 2016 is a matter of improvement on the offensive side of the ball, where the Commodores ranked 124th out of 128 FBS teams with 15.2 points per game in 2015.

In fact, Mason’s entire tenure at Vanderbilt may be defined by whether or not he’s able to find solutions on that side of the ball this fall.

Here’s a look at the state of the union for Vanderbilt as the Commodores conduct their 2016 spring workouts:

ON-FIELD PERFORMANCE

SEC standing: Bottom third of the conference

Grade: C-

Vanderbilt finished with a 4-8 record in 2015, including conference wins against Kentucky and Missouri.

While the overall win total was just a one-game improvement from Derek Mason’s 3-9 debut back in 2014, it was a marked improvement from his 0-8 performance in conference play that season.

The two conference wins were actually enough to push the Commodores into 4th place in the SEC East, besting Kentucky, Missouri and South Carolina in the standings.

Vanderbilt’s on-field performance on the defensive side of the ball improved dramatically in 2015 and has a strong outlook for 2016. Much of that can be attributed to Mason, who was once considered one of the top defensive coordinators in college football during his time at Stanford, taking control of the defensive game planning and play calling.

However, through two years of the Mason tenure it is hard to say that things are moving in the right direction with on-field offensive production. The Commodores have finished at bottom of the SEC in total offense (13th in 2015; 14th in 2014) with no signs of significant improvement on the horizon.

Finding stability at quarterback could go a long way in helping on-field productivity in 2016.

RECRUITING

SEC standing: Worst in the conference

2016 rank: 54

Grade: C

Much like fellow Power 5 academic stalwarts Stanford and Northwestern, recruiting football players to Vanderbilt is a unique task.

While the school’s elite academic standards are relaxed a bit for admission of athletes, the pool of players from which Vanderbilt is actively recruiting is significantly smaller than many of its SEC counterparts.

The Commodores are forced to get creative. That includes looking for players considered as projects by other SEC schools, as well as mining for the proverbial diamond in the rough.

Former QB Jay Cutler and WR Jordan Matthews, both two-star recruits, are great examples of this plan being executed properly.

So while the Commodores ranked last in the SEC with their 2016 class, our grade reflects Mason’s performance against the realistic recruiting expectations for the program.

While Franklin was known for gathering momentum as a recruiter at Vanderbilt, climbing as high as 26th in the nation in the 247Sports composite class rankings in 2013, Mason has taken a much more low-key approach on the recruiting trail.

He’s not obsessed with recruiting stars or garnering high-profile commitments on television or radio like Franklin was, choosing to instead focus on finding guys that best fit his system.

That may seem like a simple formula that may have trouble creating long-term success in a league filled with programs that routinely land the nation’s top prospects, but it’s one that former coach Bobby Johnson used successfully in breaking the school’s 26-year bowl drought prior to Franklin’s arrival.

As for the 2016 signing class, three of Mason’s top signees enrolled early and are participating in spring practice.

In Joejuan Williams and Zaire Jones, Mason has acquired a couple of highly-regarded defensive backs that could contribute on the field as soon as this fall. He also snagged former Northwestern QB commit Deuce Wallace, who many envision being the Commodores’ quarterback of the future.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

SEC standing: To be determined

Grade: To be determined

With just two years worth of games on the books, many of which were played with upperclassmen that were not brought to campus by the Mason regime, it would be unfair to try to measure his ability to develop players at this point.

What we do know is that the Commodores have gotten the most out of players like LB Zach Cunningham, OLB Stephen Weatherly and CB Torren McGaster under Mason’s watch, all of which were young Franklin recruits when Mason took the job.

Wide receiver are quarterback are two positions in which Mason’s coaching staffs have come under fire in terms of their ability to develop playmakers in their first two years. The inability to do so led to the firing of both former OC/QB coach Karl Dorrell and former WR coach Marc Lubick after just one season on the job.

Former QB Johnny McCrary was handed to Mason’s staff as a four-star redshirt freshman coming into the 2014 season. Two years and 20 interceptions later, he’s on his way out of town as a transfer. That’s not a ringing endorsement of the developmental work of either Dorrell or current OC Andy Ludwig.

How much new starting QB Kyle Shurmur develops from his true freshman season to a starting role this fall should be a good opportunity to judge what new QB coach Gerry Gdowski can do at the position after serving the last two years as the TE coach.

FACILITIES

SEC standing: Near the bottom of the league

Grade: C

We’re grading on a curve here, because the Commodores have come a long way with improvements to their facilities in the last decade.

Unfortunately, the Commodores were decades behind other programs in the league when it came to making improvements, so while things are dramatically better for the Commodores in comparison to the way things were a short time ago, Vanderbilt’s facilities are still likely near the bottom of the SEC.

That’s not to say that players will want for anything when they come to play at Vanderbilt.

There’s a state of the art indoor facilities that was built a couple of years ago, the player locker rooms and meeting rooms were recently upgraded, the outdoor practice field and stadium surface are both high-quality synthetic turf that has been installed in recent years.

When you combine those improvements with what is known as one of the best training tables in college football alongside a world-class health care facility at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Mason has plenty to sell potential recruits on the facilities side of things.

COACHING

SEC standing: Near the bottom of the pack

Grade: C-

If there’s one thing Franklin did at Vanderbilt, it was raise the bar of expectations for the head coach.

There was a time in which seven wins during his first two seasons on the job would have earned Mason much higher marks for the work that he has done.

But the fact that fans were questioning his ability to get the job done as soon the final whistle blew during his very first game on campus is proof that the expectations have changed in Nashville.

In retrospect, it is easy to see that Mason drew a bad hand in 2014, inheriting a very young roster that was not realistically going to live up to the 18 wins that an experienced group of Commodores earned in the two seasons prior.

It’s also easy to see that Mason was ill-prepared for his first job as a head coach to be such a daunting rebuild in the SEC.

Now that Mason has recovered from the unexpected gut-punch he endured that first season, it appears as though he’s finding his footing in the league and his voice as a leader.

2016 serves as an important test for Mason’s staff.

Expectations are that his defensive staff will be solid, in spite of losing OLB coach Kenwick Thompson, DL coach Frank Maile. Mason has surrounded himself with bright, young defensive coaches, such as DB coach Marc Mattioli and new additions DL coach C.J. Ah You and ILB coach Chris Marve.

Offensively, the Commodores will look for improvement from second-year OC Andy Ludwig, who welcomes a new RB coach (Jeff Genyk) and OL coach (Cameron Norcross).