Since Derek Mason has been the coach at Vanderbilt in the last six years, the Commodores have faced some NFL talent at quarterback. That group includes Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott, Ole Miss’ Chad Kelly, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, Georgia’s Jake Fromm, Notre Dame’s Ian Book and Missouri’s Drew Lock.

But Mason, in an interview on the “Wake Up Zone” on 104.5 in Nashville, put LSU’s Joe Burrow in a class by himself.

“The best one I’ve seen since I’ve been in the SEC,” Mason said. “I know people talk about some of the Alabama teams. I think Alabama a couple years ago was pretty dynamic. You watch this LSU team and just based on what they can do, they can run the ball good enough. It’s not the typical LSU run game, but it doesn’t matter. Because of what’s happening with Joey Burrow and what he does with the football, and the matchups that they create, the stress that they put on you, and really his ability to be accurate with the football. That’s one thing that really set Drew Brees apart is his accuracy and his ability to find tight windows and get the ball to his guys. I think Joe Burrow may be the best quarterback I’ve seen since I’ve been here.

Mason then understood the high praise and magnitude that the comment held.

“That’s saying a lot, but I think Joey Burrow is definitely the best quarterback that we’ve played against,” he continued.

Burrow certainly had a big day on Saturday to cause that opinion to take shape in a 66-38 LSU victory. He had a school-record six touchdown passes, and was 25-for-34 passing for 398 yards. He completed passes to seven receivers. Mason said his defense’s poor showing contributed to that.

“Just the early start,” he said. “The way we started this game, I thought my guys were a little off just in terms of our depths, what we were doing, like on the back end a little bit. It led to some explosive plays. We couldn’t find angles, we didn’t do a very good job. Our tackling, early in this ball game and I think it just had everything to do with us not getting into a rhythm and being able to be consistent.”